Peter Lang Books
Rhetorical efforts to stoke public paranoia and fear are a hallmark of fascist-eliminationist politics. If an “enemy”—in this case, civil rights activists drawing attention to racism in America—is depicted as beyond the pale and as an existential threat, what is the public left to do but stomp them out? In the case of Black Lives Matter (BLM) and critical race theory (CRT), that means both intellectual and physical suppression. Physically, eliminationist politics is stoked by Donald Trump’s own (failed) efforts to encourage the military to use violence to silence BLM protesters and by rightwing media pundits’ support for violence against BLM activists. As I discuss below, fascist violence also includes death threats against school board members, teachers, and professors who promote critical dialogue on racial inequality and racism.
Intellectually, rising fascism is manifested in efforts to define American identity as synonymous with white-dominated political, social, and economic hierarchies that perpetuate themselves via the elimination of critical discourses on race. Ascending fascistic politics also relate directly to anti-intellectualism and the cult of personality. On the anti-intellectual front, we see efforts to stifle intelligent and evidence-based discourse in schools that recognize the problem of racism in the United States. And with cult politics, fascism rises when Trumpism, as a top-down social movement, serves as the vehicle through which the suppression of critical race-based discourse occurs.
The effort to defang BLM and critical race-based discourse is most pronounced in red states, which have led the authoritarian charge to eliminate such discussions from elementary, secondary, and college-course curriculums. In Iowa, House Bill 802 is an Orwellian, Big Brother-style effort to censor educators seeking to identify and discuss the ways that American social, political, and economic institutions operate to discriminate against people of color. The law officially prohibits public school teachers and college professors from raising discussions or assigning works that analyze or address in any way how “the United States of America and the state of Iowa are fundamentally or systemically racist or sexist” in their design and orientation. It also prohibits equity and diversity training for faculty and staff that seeks to highlight the persistence of racist institutions in U.S. political, economic, and cultural life.
In Tennessee, the state passed Senate Bill 623, which prevents any “public charter school” or “LEA” (Local Education Agency) public school “teachers” or “employees” from promoting “concepts as part of a course of instruction or in a curriculum or instructional program” that offer the position that “this state or the United States is fundamentally or irredeemably racist or sexist”; that “an individual, by virtue of the individual’s race or sex, is inherently privileged, racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or subconsciously”; or that “[promotes] division between, or resentment of, a race, sex, religion, creed, nonviolent political affiliation, social class, or class of people.” Simply summarized, Tennessee outlawed discussions of white and male privilege, structural or institutional racism, and any other potentially divisive content related to race, sex, and religion—however “divisive” is interpreted by state and local officials and administrators doing the censoring.
In Idaho, officials have established that the legislature, not teachers, is responsible for deciding what can and cannot be taught in the classroom. Through Idaho’s House Bill 377 and “the intent of the legislature,” the state announced that the “tenets” of critical race theory are such that they “exacerbate and inflame divisions on the basis of sex, race, ethnicity, religion, color, national origin, or other criteria in ways contrary to the unity of the nation and the well-being of the state of Idaho and its citizens.” The law dictates that “no public institution of higher education, school district, or public school” and “no course of instruction or unit of study” will compel students “to personally affirm, adopt, or adhere to any of the tenets” of CRT. With CRT representing a broad and loose set of principles that vary significantly across the scholars and teachers utilizing them, the Idaho law opened many possibilities for abuse by way of an expansive application of a statute that was thin on details in defining CRT but pronounced in its condemnation.
Tennessee, Idaho, and Iowa are not alone in their efforts to scrub educational institutions of critical discourses and thought in relation to race. By early 2022, nearly three dozen states had considered or passed laws to silence critical race-based dialogue and educational content in elementary, secondary, and higher education. Sixteen of those states had signed such bills into law. These laws are not being used simply to ban texts that explicitly mention CRT. For example, in Florida, 40 percent of all proposed math textbooks were stricken from consideration for adoption because they related in some way to anti-racist or other inclusionary messaging. In other states, these laws have been accompanied by efforts to stifle and censor content or discussions of sexuality and LGBTQ+ issues.
The threat or use of violence to silence dissidents and political adversaries is central to fascist politics. In the American case, fascism manifests itself through rightwing media pundits stoking viewer outrage over phantoms of lost liberty from the teaching of CRT, which is framed as anti-American. White nationalism, at its core, idealizes an “American” national identity that elevates white people to the dominant position socially, politically, and economically, while blocking efforts to expose racial inequalities, prejudice, and repression.
Numerous news stories highlight the efforts of rightwing media consumers, stoked by rightwing media in the outrage industry, to violently silence critical analysis of race in educational settings. A founder of critical race theory, Richard Delgado, has spoken about the many death threats he has been “inundated” with as CRT became a household term. And he is not alone. Critical theorist and former Drexel University professor George Ciccariello-Maher, known as Geo Maher, was also subject to numerous death threats against him and his family after he jokingly tweeted, “All I want for Christmas is white genocide,” in reference to the fascist slogan that portrays the ethnic and demographic diversification of the United States as a form of “genocide” against the white majority. Maher was removed from his teaching position by Drexel administrators and resigned his position after a hate campaign was organized against him by rightwing provocateurs; he also cited safety concerns as preventing him from returning to work. At Lehigh University, sociology professor Sirry Alang also suffered through a similar experience as the subject of harassment and numerous death threats against her and her family after she tweeted in support of BLM and also during the 2020 vice presidential debate, “The devil, satan, lucifer, the serpent that deceived Eve, the father of all liars, should be taking lying lessons from Mike Pence.”
The targets selected in the rightwing backlash against scholars engaged in critical race discourse share a common profile. As political scientist Isaac Kamola recounts:
“Most [of these] attacks are leveled against faculty of color, or those whose research and teaching focuses on issues of race. Most start with a handful of organizations explicitly created to monitor and intimidate college faculty (most prominently Campus Reform and the College Fix); from there, they travel to sympathetic rightwing websites and news outlets (also created by activist donors committed to undermining public institutions like universities), before arriving at Fox News. Most attacks that gain traction involve college administrations sanctioning faculty and condemning their speech.”
Alang, Maher, and Delgado are only some of the educators who faced violent threats from fascists set on shutting down discourses about racism and white supremacy. As CNN reports, in 2017 alone, “more than 100 incidents of targeted harassment against professors have been reported on college campuses, according to the American Association of University Professors.” Many more of these incidents happened in subsequent years.
Threats against teachers have also extended to elementary and secondary education, as local schools become the sites of culture war backlash attacks from the American right. In this intensifying culture war, rightwing fascist activists seek to intimidate school board members and teachers into avoiding critical discussions of race. School board members across the country, in blue, red, and purple states, have been subject to intimidation over mask mandates and over the alleged teaching of CRT content, including threats of violence. These attacks include racist and antisemitic messages, neofascist rhetoric, misogynistic attacks, and conspiratorial rhetoric, as rightwing activists seek to silence critical voices in the educational system. Numerous educators have resigned their positions because of death threats after emphasizing critical race themes in their courses. An investigation by Reuters found hundreds of examples of efforts to intimidate dozens of school board members across fifteen states following the rise of the CRT controversy, as pursued by Republican officials and rightwing media. These threats motivated the Department of Justice (DOJ) to direct the FBI to initiate a review of these incidents across the country. As Attorney General Merrick Garland noted in a DOJ memo:
“Threats against public servants are not only illegal, they run counter to our nation’s core values. Those who dedicate their time and energy to ensuring that our children receive a proper education in a safe environment deserve to be able to do their work without fear for their safety.”
Garland’s words reflect a growing sense of urgency stemming from the serious threat to educators’ lives. When reactionary pundits like Mark Levin seek to obscure the severity of these threats by lambasting the FBI for investigating them and by (implicitly) defending those making the threats, it speaks to the extremism and fascistic politics that increasingly characterize rightwing media.
Excerpted from the chapter “The Fascist Right, Rightwing Media, and the War on Critical Race Theory” by Anthony DiMaggio in Censorship, Digital Media, and the Global Crackdown on Freedom of Expression edited by Robin Andersen, Nolan Higdon, and Steve Macek. Copyright ©2024 Peter Lang Books. Used with permission. All rights reserved.