Top Oklahoma School Official Says Teachers Can Talk About Race Massacre -- If They're Careful About T

Source: HuffPost

Top Oklahoma School Official Says Teachers Can Talk About Race Massacre — If They’re Careful About The Race Part

Far-right Republican Ryan Walters has a history of extreme comments about education in Oklahoma.

By Nathalie Baptiste
Jul 7, 2023, 03:57 PM EDT

Teaching kids about the Tulsa Race Massacre is completely fine, according to Oklahoma school Superintendent Ryan Walters. Teachers just need to make sure no one is “made to feel bad” about it.

At a forum in Norman, Oklahoma, on Thursday, a resident asked Walters how teaching about the massacre — in which scores of white vigilantes terrorized a Black neighborhood over the course of two days — didn’t run afoul of the state’s ban on critical race theory.

“I would never tell a kid that because of your race, because of the color of your skin, or your gender or anything like that, you are less of a person or are inherently racist. That doesn’t mean you don’t judge the actions of individuals,” Walters said. “Oh, you can. Absolutely, historically, you should. ‘This was right. This was wrong. They did this for this reason.’ But to say it was inherent in that because of their skin is where I say that is critical race theory. You’re saying that race defines a person.”

On Friday, Walters attempted to clarify his thoughts in a statement in which he accused the media of attempting “to create a fake controversy.”

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Read more: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/walters-tulsa-race-massacre_n_64a83b65e4b0b6417636ffea