Biden Slams GOP Efforts To Silence Discussions Of Systemic Racism

President Joe Biden on Monday criticized Republican attempts to limit how educators discuss race and systemic discrimination in schools, arguing that teaching these topics

isn’t about being “woke” but about acknowledging history. Speaking at the National Action Network’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day breakfast in Washington, D.C., the president

highlighted some of his administration’s recent accomplishments including establishing Juneteenth as a federal holiday — which was met with opposition from some Republicans who

decried the effort as “identity politics.” “The idea that we’re supposed to remain silent on the abuses of the past, as if they didn’t occur? That’s not being woke, that’s

being honest,” Biden said. “That’s talking about history.”  Biden’s remarks come amid renewed efforts by some Republicans to ban “critical race theory” in schools. Critical

race theory is an academic discipline that studies how race has influenced societal, legal and political structures, but the term has been used by Republicans in recent years as a

blanket indictment of any discussion of systemic racism or discrimination. Across the country, Republican legislators have pushed bills seeking to restrict how these topics are

taught in public schools, including by banning books. Most recently, newly inaugurated Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) signed an executive order banning

“indoctrination and critical race theory” in public classrooms. Sanders, who previously served as former President Donald Trump’s press secretary, defended the ban Sunday on Fox

News, arguing teachers “shouldn’t teach our kids and our students ideas to hate this country.”