Here's what local radical group Moms For Liberty passed out to every car in school's child pickup lines today until they were kicked off the property @TheTNHoller pic.twitter.com/1drYrKBYSh
— Lets Be Jerks (@Franklinaire) December 16, 2021
On Thursday, a group that was totally not the Williamson County Moms for Liberty distributed flyers to parents waiting in the pickup lines at Williamson County schools. The flyers said that when kids return to schools in January, they will be taught these “basic’s" [sic]:
Bad angry white people
Anti Americanism
Suicide ideation
Implicit white guilt
Cannibalism
Cannibalism?! Davidson County elementary school kids don’t even get food-prep basics, and Williamson County children are taught how to prepare and eat people?! Who is the teacher who does that? What culinary school did they go to? How do they mitigate the dangers of prion disease? I have so many questions. But man, this is what being rich can get you — your kids being taught by their public school how to play and win "The Most Dangerous Game."
The thing that struck me as most interesting about these flyers is how closely they mirror the ones John Kasper was handing out to Nashville parents in August 1957. Apparently, people who make flyers to accost parents with love arbitrary capitalization. There’s also the same sleight-of-hand about who’s behind the flyers. Anika Exum at The Tennessean reports that Moms for Liberty posted on Instagram, “While this was not organized by Moms for Liberty, we shared the entirety of our research with this new group of fired-up parents and grandparents.” So a new, unidentified group with all of Moms for Liberty’s resources who are known to Moms for Liberty but are not them? Sure, OK. But the same was true for John Kasper. The flyer that you can see below, which is at the Tennessee State Library and Archives (Motto: Good or bad, if it’s relevant to the state, we have it.), was sponsored by the Tennessee White Citizens Councils. That sure sounds like a big group that was more than just a mailing list that John Kasper had thrown together — perhaps an overarching governing body of all the White Citizens Councils in the state. But it was, in fact, just a front John Kasper used to try to drum up support from people who were a little squishy about the Klan.
Racist 1957 broadside announcing school segregation lecture
Kasper’s flyer has a whole section telling people that, if they attended his rally, they could “FIND OUT what can be done to stop the horrors of race mixing and the race riots, murders, hangings and race hatred that is certain to come if the School Board, Ben West, Frank Clement, and the Federal Courts go through with their evil plans to destroy all races in Nashville.” The bottom of the flyer reads: “HONOR ---- PRIDE --- FIGHT SAVE THE WHITES.”
How much different is all that, really, than what the Moms for Liberty are worried about? John Kasper was advocating for white pride. The Moms for Liberty are worried kids are being taught white guilt. John Kasper thought that Black and white kids learning together the truth about our country would lead to “race hatred.” Moms for Liberty are worried kids will be taught to hate white people because they are “bad” and “angry.”
Sixty-five years on and it’s just the same old shit it’s always been.
Here’s the thing, though. We can still learn from history — at least until the state legislature outlaws that too. So here’s what we know, based on how this has always worked: If you received a flyer, or if people tried to give you a flyer, it’s because they assume you share these views.
If you don’t, then you need to vehemently oppose them. It means that, if they approach your car on school property, do something. Yell, “No, thank you, you fucking evil villain.” Call the police. Report them to the school. Make it clear to them that they have made a grave mistake by assuming that they know the secret opinions of all white parents. Don’t worry about being rude. Be openly appalled. Be openly disgusted. Shoot, be openly fearful.
This isn’t the Phelps family and their followers, all brainwashed into thinking that opposition to their “God Hates Fags” signs is a victory. These are just dumbasses cosplaying as super patriots. Other white people refusing to play along ruins it for them.
And you know, you can get a jump on teaching your kids about “bad angry white people” by teaching them about these evil doofuses who want to mandate that our schools lie to kids rather than giving kids the information and tools they need to make this country better.
