On June 4, Utah made national headlines after Gov. Spencer Cox declared a Weekend of Prayer, encouraging his constituents to pray for rain to alleviate the state’s current drought. Cox’s ignorant claim that prayer would be a viable solution to the extreme drought has made our state the nation’s laughingstock.

But that same weekend, light rain showers did sprinkle the Salt Lake Valley, only reinforcing Cox’s inadequate and comical attempt at combatting the state’s severe water shortage. While Cox and his supporters saw the rain as the “divine intervention” they eagerly anticipated, I saw it as a mere coincidence. If Cox really wants to conserve water during this crisis, he must do more than request prayers.

Last summer, the Utah drought intensified, making for the driest summer ever recorded. Forecasts remained bleak during the winter. Considering that Utah receives 95% of its water from the annual snowpack, this lack of precipitation caused concern. And this year, Southern Utah’s snowpack is only 20% of what it should be. The water in major Utah reservoirs, which hold the majority of annual precipitation, also fell 15% from what they were at last year.

Now, the drought has impacted a jaw-dropping 2.7 million citizens statewide. Farmers, who use more than 80%  of the state’s stored water, have felt the drought the most. Many farms have needed to sell livestock to cope. Northern Utah farms were told that they will only receive somewhere between 40%-50% of their average water allotment after crops were already planted. And since soil moisture is also at an all-time low, this season’s lack of water will be devastating to farmers, resulting in a major revenue losses for those in the agriculture industry.

Beyond these discouraging numbers, Utah is one of the fastest growing states in the nation, and many predict the population boom will continue increasing. We must solve the water crisis now by setting precautions and taking strict conservation actions. Otherwise, the state will not be able to maintain this population growth.

While state leaders have little control over the drought itself, they certainly have control over how we conserve our water moving forward — and currently, they haven’t done enough.

On March 17, Cox issued an executive order, stating that Utah was in a state of emergency because of the statewide drought conditions. The declaration will give agriculture workers and all other Utah citizens access to emergency resources to combat the drought. In the last months, Cox has repeatedly emphasized that citizens should take shorter showers and fix sink leaks while disregarding the fact that indoor residential use only makes up a mere 4% of Utah’s water usage.

Cox and his administration also encouraged citizens to “Slow the Flow,” a phrase coming from the campaign comprised of different community state partners and their passion to conserve water. The campaign’s website has helpful resources such as conservation tips, rebate programs and lawn watering guides.

But the website also provides a link to the state’s “Hall of Fame or Shame,” a tactic adopted from other drought-stricken areas. The site allows citizens to highlight their neighbors’ watering strategies – for better or for worse. The site has received criticism as it can inadvertently divide rather than unite communities in times of hardship, and arguably achieves little.

Thankfully, at a press conference on June 8, Cox declared that all state facilities reduce their outdoor watering to twice a week, and in Southern Utah, three times a week. While these actions stepped in the right direction, the Cox administration also made it clear that water conservation remains specific to counties and local governments. But the state has reached the point where acting on small local levels will no longer suffice. Instead, we need drastic, overarching actions statewide.

A good place for the state to start would be to imitate Nevada in banning rarely used grass areas from being watered, which could be anything from office parks to street medians. Water conservationists predict that this simple restriction will result in a 15% decrease in water consumption annually. Another positive solution would be for the state to invest in more water infrastructure to help better conserve water.

But perhaps the most promising solution would be removing water property taxes statewide. Currently, water taxes are subsidized, resulting in cheaper prices for individuals. If we removed property taxes on water, it would no longer be subsidized, resulting in higher water prices. Utahns would then be forced to understand water’s tangible value and be incentivized to conserve the water they do have.

I do believe in the power of prayer. People coming together in faith to fight for a common cause can have miraculous results, and I do not dismiss this. That said, I also believe in science. We can withstand this drought only if we rely on facts rather than faith. Together, we can conserve the little water we do have in an intentional way.

t.soter@dailyutahchronicle.com

@SoterTheadora

The post Soter: Utah Needs More Than Prayer to Save Us from the Drought appeared first on The Daily Utah Chronicle.

Christopher Charleston/The Cougar

Since classes and events are going to be in person next semester with a university that is unable to have a lot of precautions such as a mask mandate and required vaccinations, students should still take their own precautions to keep our community safe. 

This coming semester, UH will be having a lot fewer precautions regarding COVID-19. This is understandable as state law prevents the University from implementing certain precautions. While many want to go back to normal, there should still be caution for a few reasons. 

One reason is not everyone is vaccinated yet. Only about 43 percent of Americans have been vaccinated, so you may come into contact with people who aren’t vaccinated come this fall.

Although many people are vaccinated, many people haven’t yet received or can’t get the vaccine due to a condition. It’s best to be cautious about being around people since the jury is still out on whether vaccinated people can be carriers of COVID-19. 

The variants of this virus can be fairly dangerous. Although vaccinated people have been found to be mostly safe from these variants, they are more likely to put unvaccinated people in the hospital, meaning they may end up with life-altering effects after the virus. 

There are some COVID-19 precautions students can do to remain cautious this fall semester. First, students can ask the people in their social circle if they’re vaccinated. If not, they can send them resources on where they can be vaccinated.

Another thing to remain cautious about is to wear a mask in indoor places like the Student Centers. If students wear their masks, this may encourage others to do so, which protects other unvaccinated people from the virus. Wearing a mask in public spaces can help protect unvaccinated people.  

With more people on campus next semester, that means more parties. Try to find out who’s attending a party and try and find out their vaccination status. However, it may be a good idea to not go to parties where students don’t know most of the people. Keeping track of who they spend time with is a good COVID-19 precaution.

Texas state law has made it a lot harder for institutions like UH to have regulations to prevent the spread of COVID-19 on campus and in the community. Especially when other colleges across the country require vaccinations, students should be doing whatever they can to prevent the spread of COVID-19 on campus. Students should be taking it upon themselves to take COVID-19 precautions and prevent the virus from breaking out in the community.

Anna Baker is an English senior who can be reached at opinion@thedailycougar.com

—
“Students should still take COVID-19 precautions” was originally posted on The Cougar

Emory University President Gregory L. Fenves signed the “Break Free from Plastic” pledge on June 15 after meeting with student leaders of the Plastic Free Emory Project (PFEP). The pledge asks the University to substantially reduce the presence of single-use plastics on the Atlanta and Oxford campuses in a 5-year span.

The Emory pledge is part of a nationwide effort created by the Post-Landfill Action Network (PLAN) in 2018 to reduce plastic waste on college campuses. So far, 17 other campuses have signed this pledge, including the University of California system. Emory is the first higher education institution in Georgia to pledge to extensively reduce its plastic consumption.

The Break Free from Plastic pledge requires the University to reduce the presence of single-use plastics on its Atlanta and Oxford campuses by 2026. (Creative Commons)

Students CJ O’Brien (21G), who was a Field Intern for Oceana, and Nithya Narayanaswamy (21Ox, 23C) founded PFEP in fall of 2020 to phase out “unnecessary” single-use plastics on Emory’s campuses. O’Brien said that the pledge’s success is proof of the power of student-led activism and makes her feel hopeful about the possibility of continuing to reduce single-use plastics.

“Throughout the creation of our campaign, we wanted to bridge the gap between individual actions and institutional change,” O’Brien said. “Most solutions that tackle plastic only focus on consumers or the students, but this campaign was different. We wanted to ensure that we are cultivating a culture where the institution and the individuals in the Emory community are both doing their part to reduce unnecessary single-use plastic.”

Following over 50 meetings with individuals at Emory since beginning the “Break Free from Plastic” mission, Narayanaswamy said it feels “surreal” that Fenves signed the pledge. 

“This pledge marks a step towards taking collective action for our future,” Narayanaswamy said. “Emory University is a stakeholder in the social and environmental wellbeing of its students, community and the larger Atlanta area, and this pledge marks a moment of unity to fight environmental injustice, social inequity and so much more.”

O’Brien originally asked Fenves to sign the pledge in December 2019 two days before the City of Atlanta’s implementation of Plastic Ordinance 19-O-1418. This ordinance banned all non-compostable single-use serviceware, including plastic bags, plastic straws and Styrofoam at city-owned buildings. The ordinance also prohibits the city and its contractors from purchasing non-compostable single-use serviceware and making it available to the public. 

The pledge called on the University to “invest in education, resources and infrastructure to reduce single-use plastics on the individual and institutional levels” and bolster efforts to eliminate plastic bags, plastic straws and Styrofoam in accordance with Atlanta’s ordinance. 

Single-use plastics include plastic cutlery, plastic straws and non-reusable plastic water bottles as each product has an intended lifespan of one use. The Plastic Free Emory Project deems single-use plastics unnecessary if there are “readily available alternatives” to the plastic product.  

President of the Emory Climate Analysis and Solutions Team Jack Miklaucic (23C) said that he was “delighted” that Emory made the pledge.

“It is encouraging to see student leaders creating positive change regarding Emory’s environmental impact,” Miklaucic said.

Prior to Fenves’ signature, the pledge was passed in February by the Student Government Association (SGA), the Oxford SGA, the Graduate Student Government Association, the BBA Council and the University Senate.

The pledge details that by 2026, the University will create a Plastic Free Task Force to help enact the pledge, establish a year-by-year strategy to reduce single-use plastics and “implement purchasing guidelines” to eliminate future acquisition of unnecessary single-use plastics. The initiative has begun the recruiting process for this task force, and students from all majors and backgrounds are encouraged to apply.

The post University to phase out unnecessary plastic use by 2026 appeared first on The Emory Wheel.

The NBA playoffs this year have been full of storylines. 

Can the Brooklyn Nets superteam dominate the league and win their franchise’s first NBA Championship?

Who from the Eastern Conference can even challenge the Nets? 

Can Chris Paul and the Phoenix Suns finally make the NBA Finals? 

But, the biggest and most intriguing storyline on the West Coast is a simple one: Can the Los Angeles Clippers overcome their franchise’s curse? 

As a Lakers fan who had to see their squad bounced out of the first round, it hurts my heart to see the Clippers in this position. 

They’ve got a pretty deep squad with loads of talent at multiple positions.

Forward Kawhi Leonard is clearly one of the best two-way players in the league and back to his old self. His counterpart Paul George, nicknamed “Playoff P” or “Pandemic P” depending on the day, is a star, as much as NBA Twitter argues he’s not and even though my dislike for him rages. 

Surround those two with ballers like Reggie Jackson, Marcus Morris Sr., Nicolas Batum and Terance Mann and you’ve got a scrappy squad with the potential to rock and fight for victories. It also resulted in a team with the highest three-point and free-throw shooting percentage in the entire league.

The problem, though, is evident — this is the Clippers and they tend to perform severely under their own expectations. Whether it’s from having blown a 3-1 lead in the NBA Bubble as the favorites or never having reached the Conference Finals, Clipper fans know to never get too comfortable or confident in their team. 

And it’s no different this year.

An opening-round series against the lowly Dallas Mavericks went to seven games solely because of the ridiculous play from Mavs forward Luka Doncic. They even lost their first two games at home falling down 2-0 before storming back behind out-of-this-world play from Leonard. They eventually won the series in seven games.

It set up a matchup against the team with the best regular season record in the NBA — the Utah Jazz. Where — you guessed it — the Clippers once again lost the first two games before tying it up with back-to-back victories at home. 

It’s the simple reason this year’s Clippers might actually have a shot at exorcising their demons. In last year’s Playoff collapse, former Clipper head coach Doc Rivers was criticized by the media for not making adjustments to the rotation, letting Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic expose former Clipper forward Montrezl Harrell’s defensive inability when Rivers could have played center Ivica Zubac. When Rivers departed in September, some outlets reported that this decision played a role in his exit. 

On the contrary, current head coach Tyronn Lue hasn’t been shy about making adjustments. When Doncic torched Zubac on the pick and roll in the first series, Lue swapped him out of the starting lineup and inserted 6-foot-8 forward Batum. 

It changed the complexion of not only the series but the one against the Jazz when he did the same. After going down 2-0, Lue once again made the change and the Clippers responded by tying the series.

And the team is finally playing with a little bit of edge.

Last year, they were all talk and no bite. But this year, they’re growling like a pitbull, even if a German Shepherd is staring over them ready for the kill. 

Will the Clippers finally get over the hump and take down a real threat? 

Only time will tell. 

Anthony Gharib is a rising junior writing about all things Los Angeles sports. His column, “Anthony on LA,” runs every other Wednesday. He is also the sports editor for Summer Trojan.

Professor Qadri Ismail, a rigorous and beloved University of Minnesota English professor, spirited debater, fierce advocate for the oppressed and loyal friend, died the last week of May. He was 59 years old.

Ismail died of natural causes, according to Sayyid Markar, Ismail’s nephew. Ismail was an influential presence both in and out of the University community as a professor and journalist.

“I think losing Qadri was a tremendous loss for the [English] department and the U of M community at large,” said Halima Samatar, a recent graduate from the University, who studied English with Ismail. “He was willing to sacrifice how people saw him … in order to advocate for what was right.”

A Reputable Professor

In spring 2020, Samatar decided, with some reservation, to take a course with Ismail. Ismail taught courses focused on literary theory and postcolonial studies within the English department.

He had a reputation in which some students loved him and others went to their advisers in tears, Samatar said. She took on the challenge though, a decision she said she did not regret.

“Starting from the first day, he kept students on their feet,” Samatar said. “I always left feeling challenged … [and] inspired.”
Samatar took another of Ismail’s classes this past spring. She said she wanted to end her college career with a professor she enjoyed, truly learned from and respected.

“He taught us to aggressively question everything,” Samatar said. “He really practiced what he preached. That’s something that made a lot of us respect him.”

While Ismail was a challenging professor, he was also a caring mentor, according to his past students.
During her first semester in the English doctoral program, University student Nyla Numan said she felt overwhelmed with her courses and behind her peers.

“Qadri reminded me that it would take time … before I felt more comfortable and familiar with the material,” Numan said in an email to the Minnesota Daily. “I found Qadri to be a brilliant teacher and caring mentor.”

Moinak Choudhury, another English graduate student at the University, said Ismail was also generous with his time.

“He made an active effort to [check in] — asking me both about my professional work here and my family back in India,” Choudhury said in an email to the Minnesota Daily. “He was keenly aware of the difficulties of beginning a new chapter in a foreign country.”

From Sri Lanka to Minnesota

Born on November 7, 1961 in Sri Lanka, Ismail studied English at the University of Peradeniya before pursuing a career in journalism.

He became a prominent journalist during the Sri Lankan Civil War, when he worked as a reporter for Time Magazine and the Sri Lankan Sunday Times newspaper. Ismail was known for his fearless criticism of the government and daring fieldwork, during which he was shot in the neck, Markar said.

After being shot, Ismail attended graduate school at Columbia University as a Fulbright scholar in 1989. In 1997, Ismail accepted a position as a professor at the University of Minnesota, Markar said.

It was at the University where Ismail became infamous as a rigorous intellectual and fierce debater with students, colleagues and close friends.

“Most of us strive to deflect confrontation, whereas I think he almost sought out confrontation,” said University professor and close friend Vinay Gidwani.

Ismail used argumentation as a way to teach his students how to carry through and stand by their arguments, which was a critical aspect of his teaching, according to University Professor Ajay Skaria, another close friend.

Outside of seeking out arguments and teaching his students and colleagues how to debate, Ismail enjoyed simple things in life.

“He was an amazing cook,” Gidwani said. “He did a lot of cooking for [other] people.”

Assistant Professor V.V. (Sugi) Ganeshananthan said Ismail was one of the first people to welcome her to the English department when she started at the University in 2015. Ismail would cook Sri Lankan food for her, which meant a lot to her as another person of Sri Lankan descent.

“It was a lot of food that I grew up with and wouldn’t have had a lot of places to get here,” Ganeshananthan said.

Ismail loved watching cricket and would stay up late to watch matches in India and Sri Lanka, Skaria said. He was also passionate about art and owned a collection of paintings by various Sri Lankan political artists.

“He was somebody who was capable of both intellectual rigor and enjoying the pleasures of everyday life,” Skaria said.

Ismail was more than a caring professor, vigorous debater and exceptional cook. He was also an unabashedly fierce advocate for the oppressed, according to those who knew him.

A Fearless Advocate

Ismail became the chair of the English department’s first Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Committee in 2019 and advocated for changing the curriculum, among other EDI matters.

“He was outraged that the department still had a Shakespeare requirement,” Skaria said.

Ismail loved Shakespeare, but he wanted to reduce Eurocentrism within the department. Ismail advocated for removing these requirements because they single out authors like Shakespeare as the true author of the English language, Samatar said.

“He didn’t play the performative game [with] terms like diversity, inclusivity … those words meant a removal of any trace of any inherently Eurocentric, exclusive ideas,” Samatar said.

It was through all of this — Ismail’s caring and generous but blunt and argumentative nature, as well as his advocacy — that he impacted his students.

Samatar said the atmosphere in Ismail’s classroom embodied higher education, as he fostered conversation, learned from his students and welcomed differences.

“He’s an example of what higher education should look like,” Samatar said. “I’m so thankful that I took not just one, but two classes with him because that experience is immeasurable.”

Ismail was buried at the Garden of Eden Islamic Cemetery in Burnsville on June 2 and is survived by his mother, brother, sister, nephew and three nieces. A formal tribute to his life will take place at the University in fall 2021.

20th annual San Francisco Documentary Festival dusts off facts

SF DocFest/Courtesy

At the 2021 San Francisco Documentary Festival, or SF DocFest, fact remains stranger than fiction. Films such as“Who is Lun*na Menoh” explore the ethics of the “narcissistic and masturbatory” meta-documentary with considerable, frustrating deception. Fact isn’t just strange, however. It’s ordinary, as in “Lost and Found in Paris,” which catalogues the Paris Lost and Found Office’s banality and archive-like surprises; or in “Victoria,” which turns a poetic eye on the outline of California City, the desert mega-city that never filled. 

Getting to the point: A few duds are scattered in the lineup, but most of these films have something more interesting to say about their world than half of the year’s narratives. Read about a few of our favorites below.

“Joychild” 

One of the best entries in the lineup is a petite, six-minute lollipop. “Joychild,” from director Aurora Brachman, juxtaposes a child’s narration of the moment they came out to their mother with everyday scenes. It’s shot in gorgeous and delicate black and white and filled with wisdom few other seven-year-olds are burdened with. 

The narration is spare, set over timeless and quintessentially childish scenes. As the child comments, “If you still have that heavy weight of caring about (what people think) too much, then it’ll stop you from being who you are,” Brachman nails the simple individuality of identity and the winding path that leads there. Half the point of “Joychild” is giving this child space, but there’s so much they could expound on. A few more minutes couldn’t have hurt.

“Taming the Garden”

A tree is a community for its ecosystem and for humans. Memories are made under trees, and for the people on the Georgian coastline, those memories are being taken away. The documentary “Taming the Garden” lingers on nature’s tranquility — and the powerful man uprooting its majesty. Worth watching if only for its ability to turn canopies into jolting images, director Salomé Jashi’s feature engrosses itself with the bizarre and absurd prospect of a man digging up trees, then sailing them across the sea to his private garden. 

The environmental film genre has been having a moment. Where many of the films, such as “The Dry,” dote on the diffuse causes of climate change, “Taming the Garden” hones in on the actions of one person. A garden of transplanted trees is a graveyard of towns’ prides, voyeuristically killed and assembled by a single person. “Taming the Garden” meditates on the pull between one man — humans, more broadly — and nature with beautiful conceptions of space, arresting long shots and an artful plea on behalf of the less-advantaged, including the trees. 

“Guinea Pig Diaries”

It’s been a fruitful year for animal documentaries. February brought us “Stray,” “Gunda” in April and next month a bovine documentary (“Cow,” fittingly) will premiere at Cannes. Until Andrea Arnold’s “passion project” drops, “Guinea Pig Diaries” will tide this reviewer over. Not at all as experimental as its contemporaries — and lacking because of that — “Guinea Pig Diaries” has the vibe of someone who watched “Fleabag” and plunged down a guinea pig-obsessed rabbit hole. 

The film is mildly comic in its exploration of everything guinea pigs — “We have a bit of news: Cameron Diaz (the name of one of the guinea pigs) is pregnant,” one owner reports — but leans hard into its informational side. The film tends to lose balance as it dives into guinea pig rescuers and competitions (it’s a big deal when a guinea pig earns a wow from the judges). The moments of individuality shine, but they’re often subsumed by seas of guinea pigs and talking heads that border on ubiquity. Still, the film treats its human subjects as they do their guinea pigs: persons to portray with respect, ensuring the right impression. 

Dominic Marziali covers film. Contact him at dmarziali@dailycal.org.

The Daily Californian

On Olneyville Square, a new colorful window display announces that “Health, Safety & Support Live Here.” Project Weber/RENEW, a nonprofit harm reduction organization currently headquartered on Broad Street in Providence, opened a new location in Olneyville May 26 and is in the process of opening another in Pawtucket. The Olneyville center is intended to serve as a safe space for counseling and support and will distribute safe injection kits, fentanyl test strips, condoms, clothes and other health resources.

Project Weber originated as an organization focused on providing free health resources to male sex workers. Five years ago, it merged with RENEW, an organization that supports female sex workers. Today, PWR serves transgender and non-binary communities as well as populations at high risk for HIV infection and overdoses.

“Our goal is to just to be a safety net for communities that don’t have other supports, and we’ve been able to do that with folks who use drugs and folks engaged in sex work,” said Kayla Pimentel, director of community engagement and manager of the Olneyville site.

The organization identified Olneyville as one particularly vulnerable community where many people are at risk for overdose and HIV infection, making it a logical option for their next location. “We definitely have seen an increase in overdose deaths in this area, or just overdoses in general,” Pimentel said. “We just saw an opportunity to just branch out to a different part of the city that definitely needed our services.”

PWR aims to support people who use drugs through a public health approach known as harm reduction. Harm reduction focuses on minimizing risk and harm without forcing people to fundamentally alter their behavior or cease it altogether, said Dr. Brandon Marshall, associate professor of epidemiology at the School of Public Health. Harm reduction is commonly applied to drug use, especially in light of the ongoing opioid crisis.

“One major problem that continues to drive and exacerbate the overdose crisis is the presence of fentanyl in the illicit and the unregulated drug supply,” Marshall said. Fentanyl is a potent, synthetic opioid that is often found in other drugs without the user’s knowledge. “People that are using stimulants like cocaine, crack, crystal methamphetamine, may be at risk for opioid overdose because of fentanyl present in those substances that they don’t intend to be there,” he added. Tools of harm reduction include fentanyl test strips and naloxone, a drug which reverses overdoses.

Syringe service programs — another form of harm reduction — aim to encourage safe drug use. “These programs provide sterile needles and syringes and other equipment to people who are injecting drugs,” Marshall said. “The goal is to allow folks to inject more safely, to avoid risks of blood-borne infections like HIV or hepatitis C and also to protect their partners and networks.”

According to Marshall, organizations such as PWR are critical to destigmatizing health issues and forming a network of support within the community, especially for those who have historically had negative experiences with the healthcare system. “A lot of people experience a number of barriers trying to access basic services,” he said. “Many people who are using injection drugs don’t have adequate access to transportation, and many people are living on the street or are unsafely housed.”

Organizations such as PWR might encounter pushback from communities who don’t want to bring a harm reduction center into their neighborhoods — “Not in My Backyard-ism” or “NIMBYism,” Marshall said.

“One big misperception that I often come across is that these programs somehow encourage or enable drug use, which is patently false,” he said. “In fact, most harm reduction programs provide linkages to other resources including treatment.”

PWR did not experience this type of backlash, and was welcomed by the Olneyville community, according to Pimentel. The center received support from community members and organizations, including Lieutenant Governor Sabina Matos and the Olneyville Neighborhood Association, she added.

Before the new location opened, Olneyville didn’t “have an organization or group that work(ed) with folks (who were) directly dealing with opioids or addiction,” the Neighborhood Association’s Outreach Coordinator Enrique Sanchez said, reiterating their support for the new center and eagerness to collaborate with them. 

The next step for PWR is expanding outreach to those living in and around Olneyville. 

Additionally, outreach necessitates an understanding of cultural barriers to confronting addiction. For example, Pimentel said, “a lot of Spanish-speaking families and homes either didn’t want to talk about (drug use) as an issue or didn’t acknowledge it, but the data shows that it is happening in this area. And so, what we want to try to do is to develop ways to (reach out) to those communities in a way that resonates with them.”

PWR is striving to deepen their roots in the neighborhood by working with partners including ONE Neighborhood Builders, a nonprofit organization that develops affordable housing. ONE|NB helps to identify and write grants for PWR to address the causes of health disparities in the Olneyville and Smith Hill neighborhoods, ONE|NB Assistant Director of Community Health Karen Zuniga said. 

“It’s really exciting to see all of this support behind what we’re doing,” Pimentel said. “We want people to make healthy decisions for themselves, but we also love them and support them, regardless of what stage they’re at in their life, and I think that is super powerful.”

On June 4, Utah’s Board of Education approved new rules on the topic of critical race theory, or CRT, that outlined what educators can and cannot teach their students about race. Personally, I hoped that the need for CRT would become abundantly clear through the debate, and that the school board would decide to fully implement it into curricula.

However, even at the urging of critical race theorists, teachers and students alike, the board sided with opponents of CRT to effectively ban certain concepts of CRT in K-12 schools. Deciding to suppress such an important tool for discussion in our classrooms is a grave mistake. Considering how many states have implemented similar bans of CRT in their classrooms, this decision is incredibly troubling and problematic for all people who hope to confront racism in their education, society and history.

First and foremost, opponents of CRT primarily argue that the topic is racist towards white people. Conservatives believe CRT to be a threat to American democracy through the reframing of U.S. history as they know it, where “white guilt” remains prevalent. Just like the 1619 Project and other topics that speak of our nation’s history with race, conservatives are against it. They believe educators will use CRT to create the dynamic of “oppressor” and “oppressed” in the classroom, but that isn’t true.

Instead, CRT illustrates racism as the primary influence of the U.S.’s past and how racism continues to affect people today through institutions and in law. It’s not “divisive,” as many Republicans like to claim, to confront our past and examine our ancestors’ mistakes. It’s acknowledging the truth to create a more inclusive and diverse society.

However, that must not be the goal of Utah’s legislature or Utah’s School Board. Instead, they seek to eradicate critical race theory and any mention of our nation’s wrongdoing. Their decision to condemn CRT not only affects students in the classroom who need to be taught about America’s dark past, but also affects people of color today. If the school board had consulted a diverse group of panelists, for instance, these results might have been different. But they did not, and people of color — who are at the root of CRT — are being ignored.

Just last Tuesday, President Joe Biden gave a passionate speech imploring Americans to be honest with their nation’s involvement in the Tulsa Massacre. President Biden talked about the nation’s attempts to cover up this historical event, but conservatives quickly blasted the president over the speech, in which he denounced white supremacy and our white-washed history.

All Biden explained was that our nation has historically accepted white supremacy and enforced it on the lives of innocent people. Ignoring the Tulsa Massacre and similar historical events only plays into the framework of anti-critical race theorists: that our nation’s history is noble, without error and without tragedy. Denying America’s involvement in systemic racism, or any historical event that affects people today, erases true history.

It’s infuriating to see CRT’s importance dismissed and the history of Black people and people of color suppressed. The ban of CRT concepts moves Utah towards a dark place, where we accept and normalize racism and the suppression of the truth. Attempts to deny racism in our society’s history threatens America’s progress against racism. We have come far in racial equality, but still have so much left to do.

We need CRT now more than ever. The true history of our nation, which involves contributions by and the suffering of people of color, is misinterpreted and ignored to protect the white supremacy our history glorifies. As conservatives throw Martin Luther King, Jr. quotes in the faces of Black Lives Matter activists and those who protest against racism, they fail to recognize what Dr. King truly stood for: the fight against systemic racism. Continuing to teach CRT is the only way we will learn to move past the mountainous obstacle that is racism in our nation.

Banning certain concepts of critical race theory will pave the way for the riddance of critical race theory entirely. I hope Utah does not follow in the footsteps of Idaho or Tennessee, where CRT is completely banned from the curriculum.

Educators do not teach about the inferiority or superiority of any race. They do not teach students to take the blame for the actions of their ancestors. They do not teach students to divide themselves. Instead, educators teach acceptance of the truth of our nation’s racist history, as well as inclusion and diversity. Opponents of CRT threaten equality. And they cannot win if we ever hope to overcome racism in our country.

c.alexander@dailyutahchronicle.com

@CamdenAlexande1

The post Alexander: Utah’s School Board Made The Wrong Decision on Critical Race Theory appeared first on The Daily Utah Chronicle.

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