(USA Feature) South Dakota’s GOP governor, Kristi Noem, vowed Friday that controversial racial curriculum such as the “1619 Project” will not find a foothold in her state.
In a , Noem criticized that material specifically, writing that it “claims that America was founded on racism and slavery, not on an ideal of equality. It seeks to incorrectly re-frame the nation as a story of ‘us versus them’ rather than ‘We the People.'”
The project, which was introduced in a special issue of The New York Times Magazine, claims that the Atlantic slave trade was the principal factor in the founding of the British colonies that would eventually become the United States instead of ideals of freedom and natural rights.
The curriculum has been routinely criticized and fact-checked by historians and scholars as well as political scientists. Some have even labeled the project an effort to rewrite U.S. history through a left-wing lens, The Epoch Times reported.
The South Dakota Republican said that according to several historians, the “1619 Project’s version of American history is full of errors and misstatements that should be avoided, not embraced.”
“The 1619 Project relies upon the concept of Critical Race Theory to further divide students based on the color of their skin,” Noem added. “This is inappropriate and un-American. It has no place in South Dakota, and it certainly has no place in South Dakota classrooms.”
Her tweets come as Republicans in Congress press the Biden administration to strike the project and critical race theory from public education materials.
Earlier this month, 37 Republicans led by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., wrote a letter to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona pressing him to remove the material from federal grant programs, arguing that it is historically inaccurate and unnecessarily divisive.
“Our nation’s youth do not need activist indoctrination that fixates solely on past flaws and splits our nation into divided camps,” they wrote.
“Taxpayer-supported programs should emphasize the shared civic virtues that bring us together, not push radical agendas that tear us apart,” McConnell and his GOP colleagues added.
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