A nationwide attempt to censor discussions of race in the classroom is underway. In recent weeks, Republican lawmakers across the country have proposed bills banning teaching “divisive concepts” in K-12 public schools and in public colleges and universities. The new bills target efforts to provide education about gender and race discrimination, including critical race theory, an academic concept and practice that recognizes systemic racism is deeply ingrained in American society and examines how our systems promote inequality. Now, state lawmakers are attempting to use these bills to bar educators from teaching critical race theory and related concepts like white privilege and racial equity in schools. These bills don’t just set back progress in addressing systemic issues, they also rob young people of an inclusive education and blatantly suppress speech about race. Some bills also target government contractors and agencies — inspired by an executive order issued by former President Trump — despite the fact that the EO was struck down in federal court and withdrawn by the Biden administration.

Just last week, Tennessee Republican lawmakers passed a bill to oppose critical race theory in schools, prohibiting educators from teaching specific concepts like white privilege. The governor of Idaho also recently signed a bill to ban critical race theory instruction in all public schools, including universities, claiming critical race theory “exacerbates and inflames divisions” in ways that are “contrary to the unity of the nation.” Some state lawmakers, such as in Louisiana, have similarly proposed bills banning these teachings under a similar guise, claiming these concepts are “divisive.” These bills mimic former President Trump’s order banning diversity training for federal entities and grantees that were deemed “divisive concepts” or “harmful ideologies.” The bills also draw on the 1776 commission report released by the Trump White House that experts have widely discredited and that President Biden rescinded upon taking office.

What these lawmakers claim are “harmful ideologies” are actually concepts used to educate individuals on systemic barriers and discrimination people of color and other marginalized groups still face in this country across our institutions. Imagine being a middle school history teacher and not being allowed to use concepts or terms like “systemic racism” to teach about slavery. Or being a college student in a political theory course and not being able to raise questions about white privilege. This is exactly what state lawmakers across the country are trying to make happen.

The recent Black Lives Matter movement has shown that people across the country fully acknowledge the realities of systemic racism are still alive and well, and the need to dismantle oppressive systems and pursue change is more important than ever. But rather than engage with these conversations taking place across the country, lawmakers seek to silence individuals, educators, and young people and impose an alternate version of American history — one that erases the legacy of discrimination and lived experiences of Black and Brown people, women and girls, and LGBTQ+ individuals. Our country needs to acknowledge its history of systemic racism and reckon with present day impacts of racial discrimination — this includes being able to teach and talk about these concepts in our schools.

Using these laws to prevent talk about racism is anathema to free speech— a right many conservative lawmakers claim to hold dear. The First Amendment protects the right to share ideas, including the right of listeners to receive information and knowledge. With respect to contractors and grantees, the Ninth Circuit held that the government cannot prohibit private entities from conducting anti-racism trainings just because they accept some public funding. State legislators would do well to heed this ruling. Likewise, in the university setting, principles of academic freedom protect a professor’s right to make teaching choices without government interference. And even with respect to K-12 education, where states generally have latitude to determine school curricula, these bills overstep the government’s legitimate authority. Instead of encouraging learning, the bills effectively gag educators and students from talking about issues of the most profound national importance, such as the impact of systemic racism in our society. This is a blatant attempt to suppress speech about race these lawmakers disfavor.

Banning conversations about race — and gender and sexuality — in schools also risks maintaining or creating education environments that are unwelcoming to students of color. Researchers and educators recognize that a school-wide approach involving education and training is necessary to combat harassment and bullying on the basis of race and gender. Laws banning conversations about race jeopardize this important work. Additionally, for students of color, the ability to learn about the experiences and viewpoints of people of color and America’s legacy of racism is critical to feeling connected and equally valued. Outlawing education about racism can alienate students of color from obtaining an education. It also harms the entire student body and risks sewing the very divisions claimed to be avoided. As the Supreme Court recognized in Brown v. Board of Education, “[e]ducation is the very foundation of good citizenship. … [I]t is a principal instrument in awakening the child to cultural values.” A prohibition on talking about issues of race and racism is a disservice to all students and to society.

This is why it’s critical to protect educators and students’ rights to talk about race and gender in schools. All young people, especially students of color, deserve an inclusive education and the right to express themselves around issues such as race. These anti-critical race theory bills rob young people of an inclusive education and suppress speech about race, and now, it’s up to state governors across the country to veto these harmful bills.

This post was originally published in The Palm Beach Post.

Former President Donald Trump stoked his 2016 election campaign by labeling immigrants as “criminals, drug dealers, rapists, etc.” During four years in office, he vilified immigrant communities, co-opted local law enforcement to collaborate in hunting them down and wasted billions of taxpayer dollars building a wall on our southern border that serves, primarily, as a failed monument to prejudice. 

Another “accomplishment” of the past four years was the unnecessary — and extremely expensive — increase in the number of immigrants held in federal detention centers.

Since 2017, 40 new detention facilities have opened, most of them run by private, for-profit operators. Many others are run by local governments lured by the same sordid promise of money at the expense of immigrants’ rights. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, over 55,000 people per night were jammed in those centers, including in facilities across Florida. 

This system has long been plagued by dismal, life-threatening conditions and severely deficient health care. Nationwide in 2020, 21 people reportedly died in ICE detention (including at least one death in Florida) or shortly after being released. Eight of those deaths were due to COVID-19, according to the Vera Institute. That’s the highest annual death toll since 2005.

Despite these realities, in fiscal year 2021, the Trump administration requested taxpayers increase funding for ICE detention to more than $4 billion, with the intent of expanding daily detention capacity to 60,000. Expanding this inhumane system is the opposite direction we should have been moving. 

But the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted that a different way is possible, and the release of tens of thousands of detained persons across the country illustrates how unnecessary our bloated system is. In response to public outcry over the pandemic and litigation by immigrant advocates, ICE has been forced to reduce the number of people in detention to 14,000 and the new administration needs to ensure that the numbers are reduced even more.

In South Florida alone, last May a federal judge ordered three immigration detention centers to lower their total population to no more than 75% of capacity. On April 28, the ACLU sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas calling for the closure of 39 detention facilities across the country, including three in Florida: Baker County Detention Center, Glades County Detention Center, and the Krome North Service Processing Center. The Biden administration should immediately close these facilities with egregious records of abuse.

Beyond these 39 facilities, all detention centers must immediately end inhumane conditions, including the elimination of solitary confinement and forced feeding, and seriously investigate civil rights and civil liberties complaints. 

Florida was routinely among the 10 states with the highest levels of detention, and we must do more to protect immigrants detained in our communities.

In one particular Florida facility, the Glades County Detention Center, conditions have become so life-threatening that a coalition of advocacy organizations filed a civil rights and civil liberties complaint in February with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The ACLU’s letter echoes calls from organizations and advocates in Florida who are calling for ICE to terminate their contract with Glades County, among other recommendations, in light of the testimonies in the complaint and the long history of horrific conditions in this facility. 

This is the same Florida facility where ICE reported a death due to COVID-19 last summer, days after a federal judge dismissed a request by the ACLU to urgently release nine medically vulnerable persons detained there. There have been a combination of at least seven complaints and lawsuits filed regarding Glades alone. Troubling reports of conditions in this facility and others in Florida continue on a regular basis.

ICE also needs to end the practice of guaranteeing payment to detention contractors for filling a certain number of beds every night, a policy that ensures they remain profitable and also guarantees that thousands of immigrants are unnecessarily detained, separated from their families and placed at risk due to crowded conditions and poor health services. Financial incentives should not be regarded over human life. 

This model is unsustainable in the end. This is why the Wakulla County Sheriff's office recently terminated its contract with ICE deep in debt, after profiting from the detention of immigrants for the past 30 years. The warehousing of immigrants is unnecessary and costly. Local governments in Florida and elsewhere have no business supporting this cruel and inhumane system. 

Most of the reforms we need can still be achieved in the first year of the Biden administration, without the involvement of Congress. While initial efforts to recalibrate immigration enforcement priorities are going in the right direction, they still fall far short of what is needed to reverse the past four years of immigration detention policies driven by racist rhetoric, demonization of immigrants, malicious separation of families, fiscal irresponsibility and a cruel disregard for the crucial contribution that immigrants continue to make to our society. 

What we know for certain is that, unless the Biden administration acts decisively to address the detention problem at the heart of our immigration system, the countless human rights and civil rights abuses we have already witnessed will continue.