Teaching public school students and training employees about concepts such as systemic racism and implicit bias would be banned under legislation Republicans passed in the state Assembly Tuesday.
In testimony before an Assembly committee last month, Wichgers said the bill would ban the teaching of concepts including “Social Emotional Learning,” “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion,” culturally responsive teaching, anti-racism, conscious and unconscious bias, culturally responsive practices, diversity training, equity, microaggressions, multiculturalism, patriarchy, restorative justice, social justice, systemic racism, white privilege, white supremacy and “woke,” among others.
Rep. LaKeshia Myers, D-Milwaukee, characterized the measure on Tuesday as a way to sow division similar to former President Richard Nixon’s “Southern strategy,” a campaign that used fear of crime and lawlessness to tap into white Southern voters’ anxiety over racial integration and equality without using overtly racist language.
“AB 411 and bills like it are a poor attempt at reverse psychology to sow seeds of division and hate by playing on the fears of a shrinking white majority,” Myers said.