A Liberal Dose, March 31, 2022 "Divisive Concepts Bill: Who Is Actually Being Divisive?"

A Liberal Dose

March 31, 2022

Troy D. Smith

“Divisive Concepts” Bill: Who Is Being Divisive?

 

Conservatives around the country have been twisting themselves in knots over “critical race theory” for a year-and-a-half now, even though very few of them actually know what it is. As I described in a column last year, CRT is a concept taught in law schools and grad schools, and sometimes in upper division college courses, that examines the way race and the law have been intertwined in U.S. history. Practically no one outside those classes had ever even heard of the term until the fall of 2020, when then-president Trump happened to see someone complaining about it on Fox News, and decided the next day to issue an order to ban it in all government training and encouraging his supporters to try to ban it outright. Just a week or two ago, he was telling people to lay down their very lives to stop it.

From that moment on, his supporters have been obsessing about both that theoretical approach and the New York Times “1619 project,” which focuses on the foundational role of slavery in early U.S. history (and, by implication, the role racism has played since). Most people upset about the very existence of these historical perspectives have conflated a whole bunch of things under one umbrella -all of them things which make some people uncomfortable to talk about, or which make some white people feel like someone is trying to make them feel guilty or single them out for blame… concepts like white privilege, implicit or unconscious bias, and structural racism.

As a result, several red states have passed laws banning such concepts from being remotely approached in schools. Many of those state laws, from the outset, applied to both K12 and college. When Tennessee passed such a law last year, though, it did not apply to higher education, only K12. I figured it was only a matter of time until they went for the universities, and I was right. A bill doing so passed the state house of representatives at the beginning of this month, and passed the state senate on March 21^st.

Like other such bills around the country, it does not specifically say “critical race theory” -no doubt because that is such a highly specialized approach that is actually only used in a small percentage of college classes -and has much broader language. It bans so-called “divisive concepts” like those I mentioned a couple of paragraphs ago. It also includes anything that could make anyone “feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or another form of psychological distress.” Talk about snowflakes. Of course, any frank and honest discussion of history can do all of those things, and probably should. It also bans anything that “promotes or advocates division between, or resentment of, a race, sex” or other group. How do you define promoting division or resentment? Many people would claim that simply talking honestly about racism could potentially do those things -so it should not be done.

According to this bill, soon to be law, any student who gets a bad grade on a paper or exam because they did not agree with what the professor is teaching (on an emotional, not a factual, level), can sue the professor. The professor could then be written up on the first offense and fired on the second, regardless of tenure. The senators favoring the bill did admit that, unlike K12 teachers, professors are guaranteed academic freedom so they can’t be told what to say or teach… but they can face the aforementioned consequences if they do, which make the point moot.

The intent of this bill is to frighten professors into avoiding any frank and honest discussions about race and gender… or, as one senator said, to make sure they give a more “balanced” view of slavery and the Trail of Tears. It will backfire, as it cannot hold up in court. And, believe me, that’s where it’s going.

--Troy D. Smith, a White County native, is a novelist and a history professor at Tennessee Tech. His words do not necessarily represent TTU. Although, in this case, they do represent the view of the entire history department.

 

 A list of other historical essays that have appeared on this blog can be found HERE

Author's website: www.troyduanesmith.com

The author's historical lectures on youtube can be found HERE   

 

A Liberal Dose, March 24, 2022 "World Gone Mad: What Can We Do About It?"

 

A Liberal Dose

March 17, 2022

Troy D. Smith

World Gone Mad: What Can We Do About It?

 

Several people have responded to my column from last week, when I said it seems like the whole world is going crazy. This has included some of my conservative, as well as liberal, friends. I have fewer of those than I used to, at least fewer I can talk to about politics or life in general. But, thankfully, there still are some -and many of them agree with me on a lot of things (sometimes to their surprise).

One of those dear conservative friends, agreeing with much of what I said last week, posed an important question that I felt was worth addressing: what can we do about it?

I wish I had an easy answer. I ended last week’s column by saying that appeasing, or even ignoring, people on the other side that are actively encouraging hatred and even violence is not the answer. Honestly, I believe that at certain points in history (Nazis, segregationists, pro-slavery people… and some very large movements today) there has been a moral imperative to speak out in opposition, and even to take action. Everyone who disagrees with you, though -or with me -does not fit into those categories. I think I do have an idea of where to start, where reasonable people are concerned.

Listen to one another.

Listen to people who are not like you.

If you are a man, ask women what it is like living in a man’s world -and actually listen. Don’t argue, don’t be defensive, don’t be in denial, don’t tell them why they are wrong: LISTEN. If you are white, ask a person of color what it is like to be in their shoes, and actually listen. You will learn that a lot of things you make assumptions about are not accurate. Let that fact sink in -again, without being defensive. Even if it makes you uncomfortable -especially if it makes you uncomfortable. People of color are made uncomfortable all the time… think about that, listen to their stories, and let it sink in.

Conversely, don’t immediately demonize people just because they claim to be conservative. Don’t make assumptions, or comments, about how stupid, backwoods, or ignorant you think they are. You are letting your own preconceptions blind you and prevent you from communicating. Honestly, the fact that so many working-class people in rural areas are correct in their assumption that a lot of liberals treat them like they are all morons instead of looking for common ground and treating them with basic decency drives them farther and farther away. At this point, I know that many of my readers are thinking “well, THEY shouldn’t act so morally superior, so quick to judge, or support policies that hurt people different from them.” And that is CORRECT. But it should cut both ways. Remember, I said that appeasement of radical far-right people (a fast-growing group) is not the answer -but neither is painting everyone with the same brush.

The next step: look for things in your own community that can be done to improve the lives of everyone, and look for those things with love. Then find ways to work together to help.

There are a lot of poor people going hungry in the Upper Cumberland. There are a lot of kids doing without things other than food, from toys to shoes. There is a lot of need for medical assistance for the poor around here -especially since so many local hospitals in other counties have shut down. There is a lot of need for assistance at your own local public schools and libraries. There is a need to protect our beautiful landscapes and wildlife.

No matter how crazy the world keeps getting, there are lots of opportunities to make a difference. If we can stop being so angry at each other there is a lot of good we can do together -without violating our integrity in the process.

--Troy D. Smith, a White County native, is a novelist and a history professor at Tennessee Tech. His words do not necessarily represent TTU.

 

 A list of other historical essays that have appeared on this blog can be found HERE

Author's website: www.troyduanesmith.com

The author's historical lectures on youtube can be found HERE   

 

A Liberal Dose, March 17, 2022 "It Feels Like the Whole World Has Gone Crazy"

 

A Liberal Dose

March 17, 2022

Troy D. Smith

“It Feels Like the World Has Gone Crazy”

 

The world seems to be getting crazier every day. It is amazing the number of things happening now that most of us thought were permanently in the past, or would have been dumbfounded fifteen years ago to think we would ever see at all. Russia flat-out invading countries in a virtual reenactment of the tactics and justifications of Nazi Germany. Having to actually think seriously again about possible nuclear war. Anti-Semitism on the rise -only this week I was invited to give a virtual presentation for a community just outside Los Angeles where both the high school and local synagogue have been vandalized and covered with swastikas. Racist violence on the rise -against various minority groups. LGBTQ rights gained in the last decade now endangered. Women’s reproductive rights being rolled back 50 years or more. For that matter, the past few years I’ve been hearing many conservatives talk about the sinfulness of birth control, not just abortion, something I never remember in my life hearing any Christians -other than some Catholics -argue. Freedom of speech coming under attack -with politicians actually dictating what words or concepts high school teachers and even university professors can even say. Perfectly innocuous -even highly educational and inspirational -books being banned and burned. People furiously protesting against being asked to wear masks or get vaccinated during a deadly pandemic. People storming the Capitol to prevent the constitutional mandate of verifying election results, in order to keep their guy in power… injuring over a hundred police officers in the process and literally smearing feces in the halls of Congress.

It feels like we’re going backwards.

People are so intensely divided nowadays over political issues, with rage bubbling right there on the surface, threatening violence and even murder on their own friends and relatives (like the man recently convicted in court for his crimes on January 6, 2021). Not just social media, but traditional media like newspapers and radio, frequently feature “pundits” expressing hatred for or even calling for violence against those who disagree with them. This has, in fact, extended beyond politics and into the sphere of daily interaction. People are a lot ruder than they were a few years ago, especially older people -even my college students who work in restaurants have noticed it. I know that, in past years, I always knew a large number of people -friends, relatives, co-workers -with whom I could disagree about politics while both of us remained respectful and cordial. That number has dwindled alarmingly. And, I admit, I am frequently embarrassed by people who actually agree with me for the hateful and condescending ways they talk to those with different views.

As an individual, I have a hard time reconciling all this with the country I thought I was living in for most of my life. As a historian, though, I know that there have always been strains of this phenomenon present -they seem to be in remission from time to time, like an aggressive cancer, but they always seem to show back up. There was plenty of anger, division, vitriol, and violence in the Vietnam era. The 1950s, too, while they may look like “Leave It to Beaver” in my imagination, had a lot of violent, hateful people doing very cruel things to little children of color who were just trying to go to school. Heck, 160 years ago, Americans were killing each other by the hundreds of thousands in the Civil War.

I believe in working to move the country forward to something better, not dragging it back to some imaginary “good old days” that were really not that good for many. A lot of people have been trying to do the latter -if you think all this is “making America great again,” you’re crazy.

I have always tended to be a peacemaker, and tried to bring people together. Despite that, appeasement is not the answer. I say that with deep sadness, not with anger.

 

--Troy D. Smith, a White County native, is a novelist and a history professor at Tennessee Tech. His words do not necessarily represent TTU.

  A list of other historical essays that have appeared on this blog can be found HERE

Author's website: www.troyduanesmith.com

The author's historical lectures on youtube can be found HERE   

A Liberal Dose, March 3, 2022 "Russia's Aggression and Journey to Fascism"

A Liberal Dose

March 3, 2022

Troy D. Smith

“Russia’s Aggression and Journey to Fascism”

 

Most of the world watched in horror this past week as Russian forces invaded Ukraine, with combat troop mobilization that has not been seen in Europe since WWII. Even many of the Russian people have been outraged, protesting against the war in large numbers -despite the steady diet of false, anti-Ukraine propaganda they have been fed. We have seen many photos and heard many stories of Ukrainians of all ages bravely resisting and fighting for their freedom against the aggressive dictator Putin. While a source of horror and outrage, those of us who’ve been paying attention were not surprised -though many people too young to remember the Cold War were, and have been expressing their anxieties about the conflict growing even bigger.

And yet. There is a sizable minority of people in the U.S. who seem cavalier and unconcerned, and in fact are not only defending Putin but, in some cases, cheering him on. If any criticism against the war comes from these corners, it is to cast blame on President Biden for Putin’s aggression. I have seen a couple of people on the far left do this, perhaps defending Russia out of habit, but the vast majority of such voices are coming from the far right. Republican politicians seem more divided on this issue than any other I have seen in a while, even as Tucker Carlson and his ilk act like they are Putin’s personal cheerleader squad. This is the culmination of a strange slide that began several years ago, when a certain orange president -and, consequently, his most fervent supporters -seemed publicly smitten by the Russian strongman and effusive in their praise for him. Not every Republican I know is supporting Putin now -but quite a few are either vaguely defending him, not talking about it at all, or blaming Biden’s “weakness” and saying Trump would never have stood for such behavior from the dictator. That last assertion is especially ridiculous, as we all watched Trump spend four years playing Renfield to Putin’s Dracula.

This behavior has been puzzling to many Americans. After all, it was the American right who was always the most opposed to Russia during the Cold War, and who has crowed about it the most since the Soviet Union collapsed. Why this strange turnaround?

The right, and the Republican Party, have changed a lot in the last fifteen years or so… but Russia has changed, too. Last April I spent a couple of columns explaining the difference between communism and fascism (you can read them at SpartaLive or tnwordsmith.blogspot.com). Allow me to recap the official, historic definition of fascism for you.

Fascism is ultra-nationalism, usually led by a single, charismatic, authoritarian leader who promises to return his country to its former glory, and who blames his country’s present perceived “weakness” on both other nations and “corrupting” groups from within. Fascism is the very far right; communism is the very far left. Either can be authoritarian, though fascism is by its very definition. Have you caught highlights of Putin’s speeches over the last week or two? They have been full of paranoid misinformation about Russian people being persecuted in Ukraine (Hitler used the same excuse, the defense of German-speaking people, to justify his own early invasions) and the West’s alleged eagerness to invade and destroy Russia. He has not only talked about the greatness of Soviet Russia, but has gone back a thousand years to the formation of the Russian Empire. He has said the West is trying to weaken Russia by its tolerance of gay people.

Russia has not been communist for thirty years… but, under Putin, they are becoming more and more fascistic. A lot of Americans on the far right supported Hitler in the 1930s because they liked how strong he was. When they realized their mistake, it was too late.

History, friends. Look it up. And don’t repeat it.

--Troy D. Smith, a White County native, is a novelist and a history professor at Tennessee Tech. His words do not necessarily represent TTU.

 A list of other historical essays that have appeared on this blog can be found HERE

Author's website: www.troyduanesmith.com

The author's historical lectures on youtube can be found HERE   

 

A Liberal Dose, Feb. 24, 2022 "Justice Deferred: Race and the Supreme Court"

 

A Liberal Dose

February 24, 2022

Troy D. Smith

“Justice Deferred: Race and the Supreme Court”

 

People who are terrified by critical race theory almost always prove unaware of what it actually is: a legal studies framework that examines how race has been affected (and, in part, created) by law. It is patently inaccurate to claim that race and the law have not gone hand-in-hand in American history, or that the effects of that relationship are not felt in the present.

This is demonstrated in a recent history book that I have mentioned in these pages before –Justice Deferred: Race and the Supreme Court by Orville Vernon Burton and Armand Derfner. In roughly 350 pages, it traces the intertwined story of race and law, from the colonial period to the 2020s. (Full disclosure- Vernon Burton was my grad school co-adviser and mentor.) The authors make a sobering point early in the work: for three hundred years, the law was used to justify racial oppression and maintain white supremacy, and then for four decades (the 1930s to the 1970s) it was used to fight against, and try to turn the tide of, that oppression. This was followed by another half-century (the 1970s until now) of largely walking back the gains made in that forty-year period. For the vast majority of American history, the law -as ultimately interpreted by the Supreme Court -has, in fact, served to buttress racism rather than to dispel it.

Slavery, after all, was legal for most of that time -and protected by law. The infamous Dred Scott decision of 1857 said that even free black people “had no rights the white man was bound to respect.” Even when slavery was ended after the Union victory in the Civil War, Southern states had repressive slave codes and, starting after Reconstruction, legally enforced segregation which the Supreme Court upheld in Plessy v Ferguson (1896). SCOTUS ruled in the 1820s and 1830s that Native Americans had never had the right to own their own land, and that they were “domestic dependent nations” whose relationship to the United States “resembles that of a ward to his guardian.” In 1889 SCOTUS upheld the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which banned Chinese people from immigrating to the U.S., saying the country had a right to prevent “vast hordes of its people from crowding in on us.” In 1922 the Court ruled in Ozawa v. United States that immigrants must be, not only white so far as skin tone, but specifically Caucasian. The following year, when Indian immigrant Baghat Singh Thind’s counsel pointed out that people from India are technically Caucasian, the Court ruled that they weren’t white enough to be U.S. citizens, Caucasian or not.

Many advances toward racial equality were then made over the following decades, especially during the Civil Rights era. However, the authors point out that, after 1970, the question became “Are discriminatory results of a law enough for the Court to strike it down, or is proof also required that the people who wrote and passed the law intended it to discriminate?” Conservative justices in recent decades have almost always taken a very narrow view of that question, with the least latitude possible, even when they give extremely broad latitude to questions of religion or the second amendment. In other words, they have been strict constructionists only when it suits them, and not on a consistent basis -the inconsistency coming on questions of race.

The book ends by observing that American democracy is not a thing that is broken, but rather a thing that is unfinished. That simple statement, whose truth seems so obvious to some, is somehow threatening to others. So threatening that, despite the historical accuracy of everything I have cited from this book, it is a discussion that would currently be illegal for high school teachers to have in Tennessee, and, if some have their way, might even be illegal in college history classes.

On second thought, maybe things are becoming broken.

--Troy D. Smith, a White County native, is a novelist and a history professor at Tennessee Tech. His words do not necessarily represent TTU.

A list of other historical essays that have appeared on this blog can be found HERE

Author's website: www.troyduanesmith.com

The author's historical lectures on youtube can be found HERE   

A Liberal Dose, Feb. 17, 2022 "History Is Still the Key to Everything- Don't Lose It"

 

A Liberal Dose

February 17, 2022

Troy D. Smith

“History Is Still the Key to Everything -Don’t Lose It”

 

Next week will mark one year that I have been writing this column. The first one appeared on Feb. 25, 2021, and was entitled “History is the key to everything.” That is the template I have tried -and, I think, mostly succeeded -to follow: bringing a perspective from the left that is rooted in history. My political outlook is informed by two things: what I feel in my heart to be moral and right, and beneficial and fair to the largest number of people, and what I have learned from studying history. A clear, well-informed knowledge of history is an invaluable aid in understanding the world around you in the here and now. On the other hand, an unclear and misinformed understanding of history, or a lack or knowledge about it, is very dangerous. It can run an individual, and a society, off the rails.

A deep concern about many people’s lack of historical context is part of what led me to agree to write this left-of-center column. I saw a lot of Americans repeating the mistakes, and sometimes intentional cruelties, of the past, and not recognizing patterns that should be objectively clear. A few years of politicians and their enablers re-working the very meaning of what “facts” and “science” are, in a sort of Orwellian doublespeak, had taken their toll. Six weeks before that first column, thousands of people (some from our little neck of the woods), convinced without any proof whatsoever that the election had been “fake,” stormed the Capitol in an effort to prevent the constitutional process of certifying a legal and fair election, injuring 140 police officers and actively seeking to murder the vice-president and several others. Most of us watched on TV with jaws dropped, because we had never expected to see such a thing in America- yet now some are claiming it never happened or was blown out of proportion.

If anything, things have gotten worse. Laws have been passed that are designed to make it harder for minorities to vote, because they might vote for Democrats. Books are being burned, books about the Holocaust are being banned, violent physical attacks on minorities have escalated. While some of my conservative friends ask why I am always complaining instead of trying harder to bring both sides together, I am seeing conservative columnists claiming that all Democrats are Satan-worshiping Marxists who hate America and must be stopped. I have to wonder if some former friend might attack or kill me because I said something they didn’t like, or if some student’s parents might try to take away my job because I teach actual history. Politicians in our own state legislature want to tell educators what they can and can’t say about the things those educators have studied intensely for years -to muzzle people who are trying to teach our children the truth about history in order to avoid the dangerous consequences of ignorance. They are the same politicians who sing about small government and individual freedom, and decry “cancel culture.” 

My wife and I often read the Bible together (I’m working on my sixth time through). Recently we read Jeremiah, with whom I have felt a close affinity since I was a teenager. God would give him messages to take to the people, then warn him that no one would listen -in fact, they would beat him and try to kill him. Jeremiah was not a fan of this plan -but “His message becomes a fire burning in my heart” and he is unable to hold it in even if he wanted to. I identify more than ever.

I will not teach lies, and I will not refrain from teaching the truth. Once upon a time, that was considered an American virtue, even by people who disagreed with the message. Now, they seek only to silence any message they do not like.

How American is that.

 

--Troy D. Smith, a White County native, is a novelist and a history professor at Tennessee Tech. His words do not necessarily represent TTU.

 

A list of other historical essays that have appeared on this blog can be found HERE

Author's website: www.troyduanesmith.com

The author's historical lectures on youtube can be found HERE   

A Liberal Dose, Feb. 10, 2022 "Why Taking Maus out of Middle School Does Matter"

 

A Liberal Dose

February 10, 2022

Troy D. Smith

“Why Taking Maus Out of Middle School Matters”

 

Last week I talked about the controversial removal of Maus from the middle school curriculum in McMinn County, a decision made by the school board and not by the teachers (the book is approved for 8^th grade by the state of Tennessee, by the way). Ostensibly, the board’s concern was a handful of swear words (despite it being brought to their attention that some other books they teach, such as To Kill a Mockingbird, have far more) and a picture of a naked female mouse. I looked through my copy of the graphic novel twice and couldn’t find this image; I learned that it was actually a tiny image in the background of a panel portraying Jews being herded into the showers to be gassed. Several board members also complained that the story was too disturbing for 13-year-olds.

My uncle (by marriage), Edgar Lebenhart, was a Jewish Czech immigrant and a Holocaust refugee. He and two of his brothers escaped their homeland when the Nazis took over, and virtually the entirety of their immediate and extended family died in concentration camps. Although he died back in 1978, some of you may remember him -he owned the shirt factories Path and EL Apparel. As a child I met both his brothers and their wives, one of whom was an Auschwitz survivor. I was curious about the number tattooed on her wrist, and my uncle explained the Holocaust to me -I was 8 -and I sought out books to learn more about it. I remember, at age 11, reading a Captain America comic book about an elderly woman who was an Auschwitz survivor, and thinking how much she looked like the woman I had met. My point is, I was certainly able to handle this kind of information by the time I was 13. Where language is concerned, there is nothing in Maus that I did not hear every day within five minutes of getting on the school bus. It is imperative that kids learn about this stuff -and 13 is not too young -and in the context of just how terrible it really was, or else it will be forgotten (as it already is by many young people, as I pointed out last time).

But there’s more going on than that. Word of the Maus banning came scarcely more then a week after news that a state-sponsored Tennessee adoption agency, under Governor Lee’s “religious freedom” law, had denied a family a child because they were Jewish. It came at the same time as news of hostages being taken in a synagogue in Texas… just three years after the horrible synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh… which was only one year after white nationalists marched through Charlottesville, Virginia (where they killed one counter-protester), chanting “Jews Will Not Replace Us” and “Blood and Soil” (which was a Nazi catchphrase.) In-between there have been countless incidents of synagogue vandalism and assaults on Jewish people. Heck, just the other day a dozen protesting Nazis in Florida beat up a Jewish bystander whose grandfather had survived the Holocaust. After decades of being done mostly in subtle ways, suddenly anti-Semitic prejudice is becoming open and violent. Similarly, violence or antagonism toward other minorities have increased dramatically.

All this would seem to indicate that education about the Holocaust, slavery, Jim Crow, and other such topics is becoming more vital than ever for young people. Yet, at the same time, more and more conservative politicians -egged on by their base, who in turn are egged on by reactionaries in the conservative media -are passing laws making it harder to teach such topics because it might make white people feel uncomfortable or guilty. It doesn’t take a genius to see the potential results. Maybe that McMinn board was influenced by such thinking and maybe it wasn’t, but considering all the books they didn’t ban it certainly doesn’t make them -or Tennessee -look good.

--Troy D. Smith, a White County native, is a novelist and a history professor at Tennessee Tech. His words do not necessarily represent TTU.

A complete list of Liberal Dose columns can be found HERE

A list of other historical essays that have appeared on this blog can be found HERE

Author's website: www.troyduanesmith.com

The author's historical lectures on youtube can be found HERE