Texas Takes A Major Step To Fight Back Against Critical Race Theory – ‘Liberal Professors…Have Gone Too Far’

The Texas State Senate passed SB 16, a bill that would ban Critical Race Theory from being “compelled” on students in universities, according to Just The News. The text of the bill states that “[a] faculty member of an institution of higher education may not compel or attempt to compel a student enrolled at the institution to adopt a belief that any race, sex, or ethnicity or social, political, or religious belief is inherently superior to any other race, sex, ethnicity, or belief.” Many of these legislative efforts to ban critical race theory stems from Chris Rufo’s reporting that this ideology promotes “race essentialism, collective guilt and racial superiority theory” in America’s education system.

Indeed, Mr. Rufo even co-authored a series of articles that not only advocated legislative and enforcement action against the aforementioned ideologies but even tried to outline what model legislation on the subject would look like. Such a legislation would abolish DEI bureaucracies in higher education, abolish mandatory diversity training, and end the use of “diversity statements” as a method of political pressure.

The bill requires universities to be committed to “intellectual inquiry and academic freedom so that all students are equipped for participation in the workforce and the betterment of society; and intellectual diversity so that all students are respected and educated regardless of race, sex, or ethnicity or social, political, or religious background or belief.” The filer of the legislation, state Senator Bryan Hughes (R) explained that it would “establish in statute an express purpose statement for higher education that our institutions should be committed to creating environments where students are equipped for participation in the workforce and society while also respecting intellectual diversity, but not indoctrinating students.”

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Senator Hughes added that “It will also prevent any faculty member from compelling or attempting to compel students to adopt a belief that any race, sex, ethnicity, or social, political, or religious belief is inherently superior to any other race, sex, ethnicity, or belief.” Another Texan Republican politician, Representative Carl Tepper, filed similar proposals to ban taxpayer funded education and governmental institutions from using taxpayer money to “practice woke discrimination, self-segregation and division” and banned CRT and “diversity, equity and inclusion” initiatives from these spaces.

As noted by Just The News, amid the major nationwide backlash to CRT and DEI being forced into the student body (and faculty), “[m]any higher education institutions have claimed to halt their respective DEI policies, however a review by The Center Square of some of their policies and language on their websites indicates DEI advocacy is ongoing.”

The lieutenant governor of Texas, Dan Patrick (R), had much praise for the passage of Hughes’s bill. He commented that “Last session, we banned CRT in kindergarten through 12th grade because no child should be taught that they are inferior to others due to their race, sex, or ethnicity. In 2023 this should be common sense but the radical left’s drive to divide our society is relentless. This session, there was no question that we would ban the teaching of CRT in Texas universities. Liberal professors, determined to indoctrinate our students with their woke brand of revisionist history, have gone too far.”