SNAFU

Texas school district won't remove Michelle Obama biography after parent complaint https://t.co/3f0yx28VdP pic.twitter.com/0g6dKwv3r1

— The Hill (@thehill) February 5, 2022

"The inquiry cited was submitted by one parent of the over 89,500 children the school district serves," Katy ISD Communications Manager Maria Corrales DiPetta wrote in an email. "Contrary to suggestive media reports, the book was never considered for removal, nor removed at any point, from District libraries."

Texas Gov. Abbott introduces new 'parental bill of rights' 

Except:

So far, Abbott’s promise is light on details. But it’s not the details that are remarkable, but the gesture itself. Experts — and current law — say that parents already have rights — and the announcement can be seen by some as a way to score points with pandemic-weary Texas parents.

“‘Parental rights’ has become a proxy for the anger people feel about government, specifically towards public schools,” said Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston. “This ‘bill of rights’ is mostly a repackaging of policies already in place, including current law and recently passed regulations, but the bright bow on the package is politically attractive.”

It's true, in education, that states and parents are clamoring for "white-friendly" education.  This is a return to status quo.  Parents raised learning the Civil War was a bit of unpleasantness regarding state v. federal sovereignty are shocked to learn their children are hearing about Ruby Bridges and Rosa Parks and "whites only" restaurants, restrooms, hotels...well, everything.

I was raised in Texas schools, and learned that the "War between the States" was about state's rights, and most definitely NOT about slavery.  Needless to say we didn't read the statements issued by the seceding states which made it quite clear the reason for secession was almost nothing but slavery.  I was an adult before I found out Texas fought for independence from Mexico, not because "FREEDOM!" and "LIBERTY" and that completely stupid speech John Wayne drawled out as Davy Crockett in his version of "The Alamo."  It was simply and solely because Mexico had never allowed slavery, and Santa Ana finally decided to enforce Mexican law in Mexico north of the Rio Grande.

Which is not to say Santa Ana wasn't a brutal bastard who might well have kept Texas for Mexico had he been smarter and less ruthless.  The fight, in the end, was really to avenge the deaths in Goliad (it was the more significant event to the fighters at San Jacinto, because it came after the Alamo and it was an even more brutal slaughter of people who had surrendered) and at the Alamo.  Texas won its independence because Santa Ana was too harsh, and not smart enough on the battle field the morning Houston's troops attacked.  What they won was the right to own slaves, a right they fought for just a few years later when Texas seceded from the Union it had worked so hard to join.  None of this did I learn in the state-mandated high school course on Texas history.

So, are we moving rapidly backwards in time to a pre-Neolithic information age?  I remember the SNL sketch with Chris Rock and Dave Chapelle after Trump won the election against Hillary.  Rock and Chapelle were non-plussed by events; the white characters in the sketch were agog, unbelieving, unable to believe.  Rock and Chapelle took the "I told you so" position.  They were not surprised at all.  Neither am I. Not any more.

I have never seen anything like the censorship fever that is breaking out across America. In law and culture, we are witnessing a display of contempt for the First Amendment, for principles of pluralism, and for simple tolerance of opposing views. https://t.co/earhv1GZyE

— David French (@DavidAFrench) February 6, 2022

Is there a fever? Not in Katy, Texas, despite NBC declaring it the symbolic center of metaphorical book-burning in Texas. NBC reported on the issue in Texas, but only reported on Katy schools, and they seem to have grossly exaggerated that. A school board in backwater Tennessee takes Maus off the history curriculum. The result is the book is sold out on Amazon. A right wing pastor burns “Harry Potter” for the attention it gets him. And suddenly tout le internet imagines book bonfires are the next big thing; except no one is inspired to follow suit. As Wendy’s asked in the memorable ad of almost 50 years ago: “Where’s the beef?”

“Simple tolerance for opposing views”? I have never in my life actually seen that, on a large or a small scale. Opposing views are only tolerated so long as they are in the powerless minority and can be safely dismissed.

It was the radical change that didn't happen, not the radical reaction to it.  Or rather, the change did happen, and this is the wholly predicatable blowback.  I had thought covid had unleashed this racism and paranoia, but I see now Obama did that, just by being the first black President.  Trump was supposed to “correct” all that, but he only lasted four years.  That's also the reason so many people still think Trump was robbed; because they think they were.  They think they were supposed to return to power, politically, culturally, economically; in every way possible.  Now they don't see that happening, and even bland white guys like Biden are "traitors" to them and their cause.  Which is less white supremacy (although that underlies it) than it is white hegemony.  They were very upset by 8 years of Obama; they thought they'd have 8 years of Trump (and Stephen Miller) to set the stage for correcting that historical injustice and imbalance. Remember the talk about DJT, Jr. and some sort of dynasty? They didn't get it.

Nor are they going to; but neither are they going gentle into that good night.  Just because their squeaks are being amplified into roars doesn’t mean the counter-revolution is an unstoppable force. Abbott has terrified some school librarians into thinking they will be charged for dealing in pornography, which is criminal in itself because that’s never going to happen.