Jackie Hill Perry: CRT Backlash "Being Used To Limit" History Lessons About Harriet Tubman

Author, poet, and rapper Jackie Hill Perry accuses opponents of "critical race theory" in public schools of trying to "limit" teaching about historical figures such as Harriet Tubman in this February 2022 episode of The Gospel Coalition's "Let's Talk" podcast, co-hosted with Jasmine Holmes and Melissa Kruger. Unsurprisingly, Perry did not provide any evidence for this claim.

—TRANSCRIPT—

JACKIE HILL PERRY: I have a question for y'all as teachers. I think one thing we are seeing is that critical race theory is kind of being used as a, I don't want to use the word "excuse," because that could feel dismissive. But it's being used to limit the kind of history we teach in schools, whether it's Harriet Tubman, whether that's, just all the things, right?

How do you feel about that as teach[ers], because I've seen on Twitter, in
particular, where teachers are, and I think I saw it on your page, where teachers are becoming fearful. "What can I teach without being reprimanded? When I talk about the Civil War, when I talk about the West-Atlantic slave trade, will they accuse me of being a critical race theorist by doing so?" How do y'all feel about this?

JASMINE HOLMES: I would be lying if I said that that didn't have something to do with why I stepped away from teaching. That would be a lie, because I was just like, this climate is getting hostile. I'm already the only black teacher on campus, I already have parents who are complaining about my Instagram. I just, like, I gotta go. I gotta go, because it's just it's getting hard.

MELISSA KRUGER: That's why I taught math. I'm like, you know what, two plus two is four, and if they start changing and messing with that, we got real problems.

HOLMES: By math, you mean Rocket Science Lite.

KRUGER: Yeah, Rocket Science Lite!

Source video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDlnwVCyseA