How Southlake’s fight over race, schools could show a path forward on a tough topic

The national spotlight on Southlake’s elections has moved on. Now, the Carroll ISD must as well.

The elections that placed two conservative opponents of the district’s proposed “cultural competence” plan on the school board and saw aligned City Council candidates win were definitive. Whatever you think of the results, a group of unhappy citizens banded together to demand change in their community. It’s what we constantly hope voters will do, and in Southlake, they did it in large numbers.

That’s the campaign. The hard part, as the saying goes, is governing.

Carroll ISD still has to address racism head-on. Throughout years of debate, too many painful stories of mistreatment have emerged from the Dragon community. And as the nationwide attention shows, battles over what we teach children about American history aren’t going away any time soon.

Graduates of the district need to be fully prepared for a diverse world that demands sensitivity and respect around issues of identity. In college and in the workforce, they’ll be expected to be open and inclusive to all — and they will not succeed otherwise. Failing to teach these values is a dereliction of duty.

Southlake itself isn’t as much of a bubble as it used to be. The community is changing, in part because of the draw of the excellent Carroll schools. Teaching students to be respectful to all their neighbors is good for everyone in Southlake.

CULTURAL PLAN’S FLAWS

There were obvious missteps all along the way with the Cultural Competence Action Plan, drafted by a large group after disgusting videos of students repeating the N-word emerged in 2018. A proposal to track microaggressions got the most attention, but the board’s handling of the plan, including alleged violations of Texas’ open-meetings law, was flawed.

The national argument over “critical race theory” eventually overshadowed the specifics of the local debate. After the police murder of George Floyd in Minnesota and the protests (and yes, riots) that followed, Americans everywhere asked urgent questions about race, including what we teach our children. Some of our narratives have been wrong or incomplete, glossing over decades of systematic oppression of Black Americans and its lasting effects.

But millions of Americans, including plenty of minorities, have drawn the line at the idea that everything must be viewed through the lens of race. They don’t want their children taught that America was born in sin and is irredeemable, because they’ve seen America rise to its ideals. For the sake of all children, they want the focus to be on individuals, their achievements and their character. Judging people entirely by their memberships in groups is no way to get past racism.

BACKLASH IN TEXAS

As so often happens, the backlash has gone too far. The Texas Legislature is poised to approve a bill that would reach deeply into the classroom and tell individual teachers exactly what they can’t say on race. It has some admirable, if obvious, provisions, such as a prohibition against teaching that one race is inherently better or worse than the other. But it goes too far.

Respectful compromise is necessary at all levels. But the solution isn’t really that complicated. Children should learn that slavery, the oppression that followed it and the ongoing effects of racism are a stain contrary to our ideals and that we all have a role to play in cleaning it up.

They should also be taught that the U.S. has been the beacon for freedom in the world, even when deeply flawed, and has made tremendous strides against racism in a matter of decades.

Youngsters can’t leave school thinking either that they are inherently superior or inferior because of their race — whatever that race is — or that the work of ensuring equality is done.

If, somehow, Southlake can strike the balance eluding so many of our institutions, all the national attention will be well deserved.