A bill banning the mandated teaching of critical race theory is almost here, thank God! Under the bill, which just passed the state senate and must be conformed with a bill already passed by the state house, teachers are prohibited from teaching students that one race is inherently superior to another race, or that an individual is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, by virtue of his or her race or sex.

Oh, darn, wait a minute – this is all happening in Texas, not Louisiana. In Louisiana, all we have is Rep. Ray Garofalo’s bill, HB 564, which is on life support after failing to get out of a House committee dominated by Republicans. That is not much to show for five weeks of legislative effort, despite the predominance of Republicans in Louisiana’s House chamber (sixty-eight Republicans to thirty-five Democrats and two independents).

Meanwhile, Texas, Tennessee, Georgia, Arkansas, Iowa, Idaho, South Dakota, and Arizona (and there are probably others) are all far along with the passage of their bills. In other words, they are proceeding apace with bills to ban the mandated teaching of critical race theory, exactly as you would expect Louisiana to be doing. Louisiana, on the other hand, is running out of time and options, as the regular session must adjourn no later than June 10th.

For those politicians and others who still don’t know what critical race theory is about, it is an outgrowth of Marxist philosophy which was first formulated by a few far left academics in the 1970’s. It became a movement infecting some of our more “progressive” colleges in the 1980’s, and has since spread to most of academia.

Basically, critical race theory starts with the quintessentially Marxist concept that the world can be divided into a small oppressor class and a much larger class of the oppressed masses. This basic tenet of Marxism most folks already know because it has been so widely touted since the late 19th Century. Suffice it to say that the 20th Century was largely spent refuting one version or another of Marxism, albeit at the cost of several hundred million lives lost and billions more condemned to live (and still living) under tyranny.

Critical race theory “builds” (if that is the right word) on classical Marxism by adding a racial component to this already vile brew. Now, the oppressor class consists mostly of white people, although Asians and even wealthy blacks can be added to the mix at the option of whomever is doing the theorizing at the moment. The oppressed class is mostly non-white, but often includes women, gays, transgender folks, etc. Marxism in its pure form is designed to stoke class hatred; critical race theory simply adds a fulsome dose of race hatred to this volatile mix.

As I have stated before, critical race theory runs directly contrary not only to fundamental Christian principles, including the teachings of Martin Luther King, Jr., but also to the fundamental tenets and beliefs of almost every American civil rights leader of the last seventy years. It suffers from all the defects of its philosophical forebear. Just as Marxism has done since its inception, critical race theory justifies lying, cheating, stealing, suppressing opposing views, and even killing, to achieve its objective – the complete destruction of this nation as we now know it!

So it should be a simple matter for the Louisiana House to pass a bill which prevents the teaching of critical race theory as proven fact, yes? Well, yes, it certainly should be, but the question is whether our Speaker, Clay Schexnayder, will rise to the occasion and do the will of the great majority of Louisiana’s citizens. All principled conservatives in the House should be willing to support the bill without hesitation.

There is no excuse for failing to pass such a bill, and Republicans, most independents, and even many Democrats, will want to know why the Louisiana House failed to take this action when so many other states with lesser Republican majorities were successful.

MR.SPEAKER, WHERE IS OUR BILL?

LOUIS GURVICH, Chairman

Republican Party of Louisiana