Republican attacks on K-12 race education feel personal for Maryland gubernatorial candidate John King, not just as a former social studies teacher and education secretary for the first Black president, but also as the descendant of a man who was enslaved.
King lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, 25 miles from the property where his great grandfather was enslaved. The cabin where his family lived was visited by him.
He said in an interview that it was real. That happened. Many of the challenges we have in the country today are influenced by the history of slavery, segregation and redlining.
To King, state legislatures that are passing laws to ban K-12 teaching of "critical race theory" are anti-teacher and anti-truth. He said that laws in Tennessee and Texas are making teachers afraid to discuss topics such as slavery, the Japanese internment, or the civil rights movement.
He thinks we need to make a strong case for a truth in our history. We have to make the case for the country being strong enough to both grapple with how we've fallen short of our goals, and also celebrate how we've made progress towards greater equality over time. We can hold both ideas.
King can see both ideas in his family's experience. He said it has been a fascinating and complex journey to get to know the descendants of the family that enslaved his family. He now considers them friends after having "thoughtful, complicated" conversations about their shared history.
He has been made aware of the intense brutality of slavery by standing inside his great-grandfather's cabin, which is 30 yards from the main house. "These were two families living in the same space, one owning the other, and that history has profoundly impacted racial equity challenges in this country," he said.
King said he spent time in the cabin thinking about how his family went from being slaves to being in the cabinet of a Black president.
He said that he was trying to help people see that there were hard, ugly parts of our history.
There are concerns about critical race theory in Maryland, including in August, when Rep. Andy Harris warned about "code words" like "equity" in an education mission statement. "I think we should teach students to appreciate America," said Harris, a cosponsor of a GOP House resolution. "Critical race theory teaches them to hate America because it is racist."
The Placentia Yorba Linda School Board is discussing a proposal to ban teaching critical race theory.
Robert Gauthier of the Los Angeles Times.
It's a political tool.
King said that Harris' speech shows the degree to which it's really just a political tool, but he also said that not every diversity workshop is executed perfectly. He said that we should be careful about how we talk about the issues.
The Education Trust is a civil rights education non-profit that focuses on closing opportunity gaps in public education for students of color and from low-income families. He is one of nine candidates for the Democratic nomination in Maryland. King pledges to put educational equity at the forefront of policymaking.
He said that discussions about race theory have come up at campaign meetings, but often in the context of what happened in the Virginia governor's race. On his first day as governor, Glenn Youngkin promised to ban it. He was helped by his opponent's debate gaffe, when he said parents shouldn't be telling schools what to teach.
The response was not good or correct, according to King.
"We need parents to be involved in the educational experience of their children, and it is critically important for schools to be talking with families about teaching and learning and their children," he said.
The phrase "critical race theory" has been turned into a "toxic slogan" and there isn't much to be gained by keeping the conversation there. It's important to ask what we're trying to accomplish in schools.
If King became governor, would he support teaching critical race theory to K-12 students? No, he said.
He would support an honest discussion of slavery. He would like teachers to talk about the contributions of Marylanders like Thurgood Marshall. The role redlining played in economic challenges, the racial wealth gap, the civil rights movement, the voting rights act, and the state's Historically Black Colleges and Universities as engines of social and economic opportunity should be discussed by teachers.
He said that most people would agree that we should be teaching about slavery. If we ground our response in the goal of students having a full understanding of American history, that is winnable.
