BREAKING NEWS – Oklahoma City, Oklahoma – The eight-member Oklahoma City Public Schools Board of Education on Monday unanimously denounced a new law signed by Gov. Kevin Stitt that implicitly bans the teachings of critical race theory from being included in the state’s public school curriculum.
Board member Ruth Veales, who is Black and Native American, argued the legislation was attempting to quiet discussions regarding race “in order to protect White fragility.”
“As a district that’s over 80% students of color, this is definitely an insult,” Veales, who is the longest serving board member going on 12 years, said at the meeting also livestreamed online. “It is a situation that is so egregious to me.”
Stitt, a Republican, signed House Bill 1775 into law. In part, the bill states that “no teacher shall require or make part of a course that one race or sex is inherently superior to another race or sex.” Though the bill does not name “critical race theory,” it does list several concepts that cannot be made part of a course by school employees, such as the belief “an individual, by virtue of his or her race or sex, bears responsibility for actions committed in the past by other members of the same race or sex.”
“This is outrageous”, explained Veales. “The governor is trying prevent the curriculum being taught, that white people should justifiably feel guilty, depressed, and embarrassed about being white! And it doesn’t matter how long ago their ancestors did something wrong, because we must conclude that if the white people who are alive now, were alive back then, they would’ve done the same racist things. So based on those mathematical odds, all white people are guilty of what they probably would’ve done, which means actual facts are irrelevant!”