Slavery Whitewash Proposal Gives
Republicans First Taste of CRT Ban

Capitol Inside
July 1, 2022

Texas GOP leaders and lawmakers are getting a preview of their handiwork with back-to-back critical race theory bans last year as a group of educators struggle with the challenge of translating a groundbreaking piece of legislation known as Senate Bill 3 into the public education curriculum.

One of their initial recommendations is a provision that would redefine slavery in Texas schools as "involuntary relocation" as part of the Republicans' overriding goal of keeping white children from having to shoulder the blame for the Civil War and other racial atrocities in America from centuries past.

The State Board of Education rejected the proposal - and at least one 80 Republicans who voted for SB 3 in a summer special session last year is vowing to fight the proposed language if it rears its head again.

"I will oppose this absurd proposal with everything I’ve got," GOP State Rep. Jeff Leach of Allen tweeted on Thursday night. "Embarrassing it’s even being considered."

That's exactly what Democrats and legions of Republicans who aren't elected officials said about the GOP-controlled Texas Legislature's frantic rush to cleanse the schools of CRT when very few if any of them had a clue what they were prohibiting with duplicate votes in regular and special session in 2021.

SB 3 cleared the lower chamber in September on a vote of 81-43 with State Rep. Harold Dutton as the only Democrat siding with the Republicans. Two current Republicans - State Reps. Lyle Larson of San Antonio and Ryan Guillen of Rio Grande City - voted against the measure. Larson isn't running for re-election this year. Guillen switched to the GOP after the third and final special session last year.

GOP State Rep. Steve Toth of The Woodlands served as the CRT prohibition's founding author in regular session when he argued that it was needed to relieve white kids of guilt for racism. Toth based his arguments on accusations that were impossible to substantiate because they were not true.

"We need to teach about the ills but you can't blame this generation," Toth said. "Kids are being scapegoated."

A New York native who migrated to Texas as an adult, Toth portrayed the public schools in his adopted state in a fantasy light. "You can't teach that one race is better than the other," Toth said during the floor fight on the first CRT ban. "You can’t teach that one gender is better than the other. You can't discriminate either and say that one race or one gender is responsible for the ills of the past."