There was intense debate in the Alabama Legislature this week over the “divisive concepts” bill.
The proposed law would ban the teaching of “divisive topics” related to race, sex or religion, including the idea that people from any one group should be asked to feel guilty because of their race or gender.
The sponsor of the legislation, State Rep. Ed Oliver (R-Dadeville), defended his bill in an interview with Alabama Public Television.
“It doesn’t prevent the teaching of any history, which is how it always gets framed that we can’t teach history because of this bill,” Oliver said. “We are all proponents of history, good, bad, and the ugly. It’s who we are and it’s what makes us who we are.
“There’s nothing we can do about that.”
Oliver said schools should focus on teaching things that unite Alabamians rather than divide them.
“We are at a point, though, in the world where we would like to coalesce around things that make us strong and move forward,” he said. ‘It’s hard enough to learn to read and write and do math, which I still don’t know how to do very well, obviously, without having these diversions that are going around you.
“And racism is a serious issue. We don’t want to teach them how to be racist. I think that’s wrong.”
State Rep. Prince Chestnut (D-Selma) disagrees with Oliver and criticized the bill during a hearing in the Alabama House.
“My folks were enslaved, that’s a fact,” Chestnut said. “Slavery by its very nature was evil, it was sinister, it was divisive. So, that would be a divisive concept, but there’s not a single person who votes in favor of this today who’s going to say ‘take down the Confederate flag.’ There’s not going to be a single person who votes in favor of this today who’s going to say that ‘you know what, there were some things that some of my ancestors did that were wrong, and you know what, it wasn’t me, but I know that it was wrong and I do feel that it is part of my responsibility to do what’s right, right here right now going forward.’”
“It’s divisive. that not a single white person on this committee is going to vote no against this bill.”
A similar “divisive concepts” bill passed in the House last year, but time ran out in the session before the Senate could vote on it.
The legislation has 21 Republican cosponsors and was approved 9-3 in committee Wednesday.
Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” weekdays 9-11 a.m. on WVNN. You can follow him on Twitter @Yaffee
