>> ukraine's president has warned against panic over a possible russian invasion. volodymyr zelensky says -- he sees no major change on the ground compared to last year. a year of talks, argentina has reached a deal with the imf to restructure $44 billion of debt. it is a contentious issue with thousands of protesters calling on the government to suspend payments, saying the country cannot afford it. west africa's main regional

block has suspended -- has suspended picking up as a's -- bettina vasso 0-- burkina faso's membership. nearly 40% of people in ethiopia is to graham region are desperate for food. it was found three quarters of them are taking extreme is yours to cope, including eating fewer meals per day -- extreme measures to cope, including eating fewer meals per day. scientists are concerned about the new variant being dubbed stealth omicron, now detected in over 40 countries. those were the headlines. the news continues after inside story. ♪

>> it is a divisive issue turning classrooms into battlegrounds. conservatives in the united states are wrapping up their fight against books they believe are being used to mold young minds on race, but is it an attempt to fan a political firestorm in an election year? this is "inside story." welcome to the program. the murder of george floyd by a white police officer brought a reckoning for racial injustice in the united states. battle lines were drawn in the streets and corridors of

political power. but now the fierce debate has moved into school libraries and classrooms. some say literature is harmful and divisive. reporter: a battle is raging at school boards across the united states. >> we've got hundreds of people out there that would like to see those books before we burn them. reporter: books deemed to be selling division in the classroom are being reviewed by authorities. a summer being removed from shelves. -- some are being removed from shelves. >> i don't know if anyone paying attention to the freedom to read can recall a time when a book was removed or targeted with so much victory all -- vitriol in many parts of the country at once. and with state legislatures, governors, this is categorically different. this is next level. >> we are going to embrace our

parents, not ignore them. reporter: the issue is key to republicans retaking the governorship of virginia, even after donald trump's popularity had slumped there last november. this was one of the ads used by the victorious campaign. >> when my son showed me his reading assignment, it was some of the most explicit material you could imagine. reporter: she is referring to "beloved" by tori morrison, on account of slavery that does contain exposes scenes. her son would have been 17 or 18 at the time of the assignment. it is part of a wider war against critical race theory, an academic discipline using class, race, and gender to analyze race in america. it is not taught at schools, but at universities. some argued that discussing race at all, either in a school classroom or anywhere else, is a form of racism. >> nobody wants this.

this is an elite-driven phenomenon. reporter: fever makes candy' -- ibram x. kendhi's book "stamped" traces the current move of censorship to the black lives matter protests of 2020. >> you have more white americans seeking to understand the history and the presence of racism, the history of all the different groups that have formulated this country. then you have this bitter attack to prevent people from learning their history, from understanding their history, from seeking to understand how it was that george floyd was murdered in such a beautiful way. but -- such a brutal way. reporter: but the range of books being targeted go across --

gender, sexuality, reproductive rights, or a simple acknowledgment that free african-american women were crucial to nasa in the 1960's. many of the lists circulating have not started locally by concerned parents, but have been funded by groups funded by national republican party donors. >> it is clear one side of the spectrum believes it is a winning political issue. reporter: an issue republicans believe will mobilize the suburban white electorate ahead of the upcoming midterm elections. >> let's bring in our guests. in columbus, ohio, is treva lindsey, a professor at the ohio state university. she is also author of "america god damn." and maurice, a professor at

georgetown university. and in atlanta georgia, we have kaaryn walker, republican strategist and founder of black conservatives for truth. a warm welcome to all of you. i am going to start with treva lindsey in columbus, ohio. why are we seeing this movement against books on race, now against critical race theory, a theory that has been around for decades that was developed in the 1970's and 1980's? why has it become such a hot button political issue now, and especially over the past year? treva: thank you for asking. the first thing we have to reckon with is that in may of 2020, amidst a global pandemic, we also saw one of the biggest and sustained uprisings in response to police brutality, in response to racism, in response to histories of injustice in this country, and frankly throughout the globe. i think it is important to put that in context, because more

people are reading about antiracism, looking into theories and studies and authors and scholars and organizers in recent memory than ever before. to process what was happening, to process the killing of george floyd, of breonna taylor, to look at mass incarceration, to look at policing, you are seeing demand and a groundswell of national debates about our contemporary moment. i think what we are seeing in the pushback on critical race theory is the politicalization further of those conversations and this retrenchment from the ideas that equality, equity, and justice matter as principled values for many of us. you are able to mobilize and galvanize a particular kind of rage against people of color,

against this shifting conversation, against the debate. it has always played an essential role in creating divisive is that we see in electoral politics at the state and natural level, so whether that it is school desegregation, curriculum, how we approach masking in this moment, these issues become politicized, and we start to see a really stark contrast between the movement that we saw up starting in 2020 and where we are now. it is a very combative, divisive, and frankly caustic thing about discussing race in the united states in honest, candid, and forthright ways. >> mr. jackson, do you agree that the awareness, the appetite for awareness around racial history in america that we saw following the killing of george floyd has led to this kind of pushback against that, and that

is what we are seeing being politicized now and playing out in classrooms and high schools? maurice: i would agree, but all of this is not certain. i think it goes back a long time. what happens is that whenever it looks as though african-americans have made gains or are trying to make gains or want to stand up more for injustice, when at many times they had many white people agree with them, that there is great fear that somehow the country is going to be taken over. it is nothing new. it goes back to the birther theory against mr. obama, back to the notion that somehow african-americans have not worked for what they've gotten. it goes back even longer. history always has to tell the truth. after the civil war, you have

the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments. freed the slaves, gave blacks the right to vote, due process. some whites could not accept that, but understand as slavery ended, you have to explain why. and as slavery ended, you had to pass an amendment. the first edition of the constitution did not address issues facing blacks. we passed amendments. it is nothing new. america has to deal with the problems of the past, and if race became a problem -- race was certainly a problem in the civil war -- today we see the issue of the passing of the voting rights amendment, which has historically been passed every 10 years, the fight back against that because some people fear african-americans having the right to vote and express their ideas. i would not have thought five years ago that there would be justice in the trial of george

floyd. i would not have thought that 10 years ago there would have been justice around the question of armen are very. -- ahmaud arbery. and here, white jurors admit that racism played a role in the killing of these young men. there is something deeper. it is not just a question of critical race theory. it is the question of dealing with and having to accept that racism has been at the core of much of our existence. >> ms. walker, mr. jackson was talking about how truth is essential to history, and you are the problem of black conservatives for truth. how are you seeing this whole debate around banning books on race, the banning of discussion of books on race, playing throughout the u.s.? ms. walker: i think it comes to the forefront because of all the social uprising we have had over the last two years since the

pandemic, with george floyd, with our ahmaud arbery -- with ahmaud arbery. when it comes to crt and the banning of those types of books, it is important to understand that crt is not actually taught, at this point, in the classroom, in elementary, middle, or high school. the theory of crt is somewhat complex and confusing. so when you are in a society when you have all of this anger because of george floyd and whatnot, and then you are introduced to crt, which has been around since the 1960's, but most people have not heard of it. most black people had never heard of it. you are already with a combat of nature, and then you bring forth crt as a theory that says our institutions in america are racist and that people tend to gravitate more to see, as you are saying, that people in america are racist simply because our institutions are.

that brings a lot of confusion and anger. it makes you feel more defensive . i think that is what you are seeing here. because you have these laws to ban crt, but what difference is it going to make two something that is not taught anyway -- make to ban something that is not taught anyway? >> put our schools arguing that people in america are racist because institutions are racist? treva: i think what we are seeing in education and curriculum, what is interesting is i think about the education i received growing up for a long time, i was not learning about slavery, about the 13th, 14th, or 15th amendment. i was not learning in depth about the jim crow system. i was not learning about those things. seeing the incorporation of that in curricula, whether it is in high schools, or in higher ed where students take courses they

elect to take, that they are not mandated to take, you are learning about the ways race shows up in institutions, in systems, and in interpersonal interactions. it is important that, when we acknowledge -- it is important that we acknowledge, when teaching about racism, that they discuss institutions as well as large-scale interpersonal dynamics. when we see the killing of someone like him on arbery -- like ammann arbery -- ahmaud arbery, we see -- i think it is important to look at theories like critical race theory, intersectionality, racism and race in the united states to look at ways to understand these moments and get us to a new point in history, because america has not lived up in any way to its ideals with regards to black people in this country. >> mr. jackson, i want to ask

you, are american high schools doing a good enough job of teaching racial history? there was a report from the southern poverty law center, which documents racial attacks in the u.s., and there was a report from 2017 which shows that only 8% of students in american high schools can link slavery as one of the main causes of the american civil war. his american racial history, is slavery being taught well enough, given that there is a movement now by many conservatives who are saying that there is too much of it being taught in high schools? mr. jackson: perhaps i am not the best example. i have teach in washington, d.c., raised two children in washington, d.c., who went to school there. in the curriculum in my city,

students learn it in both private and public schools. one problem, however, if you look at -- i read about a place of a principal in texas who was teaching history, and he used the term critical race theory and was fired. i heard a story of another white man somewhere in tennessee who was teaching history, and they said, we can't get caught in that. many students come to the university level and have not gotten a good grasp of the totality of american history, of world history, either in the sense of the role of women, in the role of minorities, and others. can that be right? there are groups of teachers who are trying to write the textbooks. every summer, there are teachers who get together under the

office of the national endowment for the arts and study textbooks and tried to make textbooks and other things. textbooks are part of the problem. we must also have teacher training, but also parents have to be more involved in it. and then there is this question of denial. going back to this, there are whole schools of thought that denied that civil rights were fought over slavery. what was it fought over? it was fought over the rights of one person to own another. but it is not just a question of race, it is the question of -- up until recently, the history of what happened in vietnam. up until recently, the role black people played in world war i and world war ii, it invited to defend their own countries, has not come through. why do we speak on the question

of race? because white people are fearful that somebody wants to take something from them. all people want to do is seek the truth about what has happened in this country. >>'s walker, do you agree with that, that the people who are against the teaching of race and how it affects laws yet american society are against it because they are afraid that -- in american society are against it because they are afraid that people want to take something from them? ms. walker: i don't think they are afraid because someone wants to take something from them. i think they may not be used to be feeling as though they are oppressed. when you look at black people in america, we experience prejudice and racial discrimination because we have dealt with it all our lives, and other people, our families and whatnot. it is more so that it has been ingrained that this is what happens, that you have racism in this country. i do believe if a white person

feels they are being racially discriminated, because that is not something that they normally face or deal with, they just have a harder time to adjust. i do believe that at some point, to correct racism is not the racism measures itself. you cannot correct racism with racist practices. i think that is what is being seen and felt. >> sorry to interrupt, but i want to be clear, what are the racist processes you are referring to? ms. walker: well, for example, i will just share with you, many years ago, my son, when he was in elementary school, he struggled in school, so he had a speech and reading therapist. we knew the woman. our kids played together. i had to go to the school for a progress report on how he was

doing. she told me, you know, your son is still progressing because he enunciates words a particular way that is not grammatically correct, but because the african-american community speaks like that, we have been told by our school system not to mark it wrong. i looked at her and told her, you need to mark it wrong every time he pronounces a word incorrectly. some people will look at that and say you are just trying to help a particular demographic. that is institutional racism. i do believe institutional racism exists, but institutional racism also exists to help us when it actually sets us back. it hurts us. because when you allow students to go through life thinking that they are educated correctly and they are really not, when they are actually challenged with it and actually called upon it, they are not used to that.

so they look as though they are entitled. >> i think that is a whole other subject in itself. i want to bring the discussion back -- we don't have that much more time and there is so much more to talk about, and i really want to focus with the time we have on what is happening in america this year. we cannot ignore the midterm elections come of the fact that republicans have won in two states where they were not necessarily expected to, virginia and new jersey. the man who won in virginia recently, the governor, glenn youngkin, he campaigned a lot on the issue of not teaching about children -- not teaching children, rather, about race in schools. are the republicans, i will put this to you, ms. lindsay -- are the republicans using this issue to rally voters, especially this year? ms. lindsey: yes.

we are seeing demobilization of both white rage and white fragility. this is familiar territory. this is not new. the certain pushes by african-americans and other minority eyes to groups, there is always a strike back, always a reaction to that. when you have a moment when you are saying words like antiracist being used widely, you have news segments, shows, books, art installations and exhibits that are focusing and asking us to reckon with our histories, how do you mobilize the sense of fragility or this fear of losing something, or this fear of being seen as a perpetrator or an attacker or as racist, that you can of allies the fear of being called a racist and making that -- you can mobilize the fear of being called a racist, and you can mobilize that to the polls. you can also mobilize rage,

fury, this sense of loss coming when people are asking, maybe we should have culturally responsive education, maybe we should be teaching about these difficult moments. yesterday, on inner hash no holocaust remembrance day -- on international holocaust remembrance day, a book on the holocaust was banned in tennessee. what does it mean when you are attempting to create a political base by ignoring and saying that this does not really matter in this moment, that might make white parents and children uncomfortable? people are not asking parents about this. >> i want to bring your other guests in. mr. jackson, is it dangerous to be, yet again, devising the electorate, polarizing it along racial lines after what has been happening over the last few years in america, going into an election your? mr. jackson: i am an african-american man. i have raised a black son.

no one is more fearful than a black man walking down the street in white america. no one is more fearful walking the street in georgia, minnesota, or kentucky. people have to stop talking about white fear. things are coming up, and this is what is going to tell the story. the supreme court has agreed to listen to some aspects of the affirmative action rules. biden has also gone on record saying he is going to appoint an african-american woman. there are qualified black women out there. stacey abrams' sister in georgia. this is going to be the tale, because african-american women are so qualified. >> i am afraid we have run out of time in this discussion. the clock out away from us

because it was so interesting. that i want to thank our guests, treva lindsey, maurice jackson, and kaaryn walker. thank you too for watching. you can watch the program at any time by visiting aljazeera.com, or go to our facebook page, facebook.com/a.j.insidestory. you can also join the conversation on twitter @aj insidestory. bye for now. @#@@@

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