We have had to hear so much hysteria from right-wing media and politicians in recent years about how the “woke mob” is indoctrinating kids. Yes, how dare kids learn that slavery was abhorrent or that gay people exist!?
It is clear that these people are not actually interested in the truth, or indoctrination in the classroom. They just don’t want certain stories to be elevated unless it fits with their narrative of what America was, is, and should aspire to be. That has been made evident by a recent move to offer materials from the right-wing nutjob organization, PragerU.
It appears that PragerU has become an official vendor with the state of Florida and their videos—which are nothing more than pure propaganda—have been approved for use in public school classrooms, though they are not being mandated (from what it seems, at least so far!). If you have been keeping up, Florida has been at the forefront of the battle between those of us who understand that cishet white men’s perspectives are not the only truth and those who seek to rewrite history and ignore societal problems caused by white supremacy. But what is PragerU? What do they teach? What are these videos anyway?
I remember growing up with the Schoolhouse Rock videos. I always thought of them as pretty basic, concise, and educational. This new line of educational videos is the anti-Schoolhouse Rock. PragerU (which, despite what the stylized name clearly intends for you to believe, is not a real university) has over 300 videos on YouTube that use storytelling to push a very conservative agenda. These people have been so incredibly upset that their white children may feel bad and guilty if they learned the true horrors of slavery, Jim Crow, and how this country has purposely created the inequalities we still see today. But they do not seem interested in how other families may feel if they do not subscribe to right-wing delusions.
Here are some examples of what PragerU is pushing into schools, courtesy of Media Matters:
The climate denialist!
In a series from their “Around the World” collection, a character from Poland learns about climate change in her school. However, her parents talk to her about climate denialism and the girl thinks yeah, that makes more sense! With her newfound beliefs, her peers start to turn against her and not talk to her. Poor girl! But that’s not enough … the story goes on to compare her *bravery* to that of the Warsaw Uprising, a heroic act of antifascism against the Nazis. The character is said to be courageous in fighting oppression. Brava!
This is of course, absurd. But it is how many conservatives feel. The Republican Party has spent decades labeling the left as having a perpetual victim mentality. But with this new education war, they are the ones who feel like the truly oppressed class. The hypocrisy is glaring but they are oblivious or simply do not care. Climate change is a fact—one that isn’t just a future fear, but a current reality. The vast majority of actual experts on this issue all agree. One can choose to ignore the science anyway, sure, but comparing this to an act of bravery, like fighting the Nazis, is utterly disturbing.
Anti-anti-racism
Another example from PragerU consists of Mateo, a Mexican immigrant who doesn’t support Black Lives Matter (already problematic). He and his family feel that their lives are becoming more chaotic because of the George Floyd protests. They take it further, describing Floyd as someone who “resisted arrest” (a lie of course). They say that racial targeting is “false” but nonetheless, anti-cop sentiment has just continued to cause more anger and violence. Mateo goes on to befriend a “resource officer” at his school and simply doesn’t understand how cops have gotten such a bad image in the media! Now I could go on for weeks about what is so wrong, disingenuous, divisive, and racist about this storyline, but I will just highlight a few here.
Making Mateo a boy from a Mexican immigrant family seeks to stoke division between Latinos and Black people. Yes, PragerU could have been trying to purely show diversity by having main characters of different races and ethnicities, but I think they were more strategic and sinister in their decision. Mateo is from Los Angeles, where there has been a long history of racial tensions. Making the video’s lead anti-BLM and pro-cop tries to show that other minorities got it right, implying Mateo’s Black peers are media-brainwashed and misguided at best.
Also, PragerU tries to condemn the murdered George Floyd—a go-to talking point for the right. If you can dehumanize people then it is easier to justify their killing. This has been going on since the beginning of racism and is largely how and why racism has been so successful throughout time. Floyd was not resisting arrest at the time of his death. We all saw the video of that callous cop with his knee on his neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds. It was impossible for Floyd to resist, EVEN IF he had wanted to (which was also not the case.) But facts aren’t important to propagandists like PragerU and the “anti-woke” agenda. The goal is to make Black people the enemy and sustain white supremacist structures no matter what.
Rewriting history
At play here is the larger issue of what students should and should not be taught in public schools. Certain parents and activists feel like their kids will be unduly burdened by learning about certain horrors, like redlining or how the GI Bill didn’t benefit black people. On the other hand, they could care less about how Black students may feel about seeing videos that make the continued protests against racial violence by the state seem nefarious and violent.
If these people wanted to be consistent, they would show PragerU videos AND maybe videos from top anti-racist activists, and let students use their own intelligence and logic to determine what makes the most sense to them. Or they could stand up to “indoctrination” and fight these videos, rather than just trying to get books about racism or LGBTQ+ characters banned from school libraries.
As Media Matters notes, “In a Meta ad, PragerU Kids highlighted that teachers can use its materials “without repercussions,” signaling that the organization likely fears parents outside of conservative echo chambers could find the videos offensive and inappropriate for the classroom.”
Hacks like Florida Governor Ron DeSantis are terrified to let students learn about ideas that do not further their right-wing agenda. Perhaps students will discover that what has just been wrongly labeled “woke” by terrified conservatives is actually just anything that accurately uses history to analyze current conditions. And with younger people gaining more voting power, Republicans will continue to have a harder time winning elections. Ignorance is the goal of these people! And PragerU in the classroom would help move them closer to their endgame.
(featured image: screencap)
