As the Jim Crow Era began to reach its end, Black voters overwhelmingly began to vote for Democratic candidates. With the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson ushered in a new age of American politics. The Democratic Party that  once the party of Jim Crow and segregation became the party of equal rights. But this shift left the Republican Party–President Abraham Lincoln’s party–in a difficult position.

In response to the changing electorate candidates like Richard Nixon developed a new game plan to win elections. The new plan that Republican strategists developed led to the creation of the Southern Strategy, which focused on increasing political support among white voters in the South by appealing to racism and racial prejudice. The “Southern Strategy” utilized coded language and dog whistles in order to talk disparagingly about Black people in a post-Jim Crow Era. 

It was Republican strategist Lee Atwater who gave the strategy its definitive identity during a 1981 interview. During the interview that was later published in Southern Politics in the 1990s by Alexander P. Lamis, Atwater explained how Republicans changed the language they used. Instead of saying the N-word, they would talk about states’ rights, forced busing, and tax cuts. It had the same meaning, but it was more palatable.

Since its development, countless Republican politicians have utilized the “Southern Strategy” including President Ronald Reagan. During his 1980 campaign, he made an appearance in Philadelphia, Mississippi, the same site where three civil rights activists mysteriously disappeared in 1964.

The long-term effects of the Southern Strategy resulted in racially charged policies and talking points designed to reduce the impact of Black voters. But now, we could be faced with a new incarnation of the Southern Strategy. 

From Prince William County to Texas, there has been an uproar over preserving a way of life that is comfortable to a particular section of the population. Overworked and underappreciated teachers have been put in the middle of a political battlefield created by Republican opportunists desperate to hold onto power by fear mongering. 

The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “Intelligence plus character, that is the goal of true education.” 

Now, it appears that the new goal of education is to create enough division to win elections. 

Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin never proposed any educational policies. Instead, he decided to focus on meaningless talking points. During his campaign, Youngkin talked about critical race theory almost constantly. 

Critical race theory is a graduate level academic theory. It is not taught in public schools in Virginia or anywhere else. So why are Youngkin and his fellow Republicans so intent on turning it into a boogeyman? It is coded language for “they’re teaching the history of Black people.”

Youngkin ran on banning critical race theory, and that promise is founded in the simple fact that the majority of his supporters do not even know what critical race theory is. It’s simply a dog whistle in the same way that states’ rights were for Nixon.

In the most recent edition of Press Run, Eric Boehlert said, “Not only haven’t Republicans mapped out a new pro-education blueprint to win over suburban and swing voters nationwide, Republicans and conservatives have become even more proudly anti-education during the pandemic.” 

Now, they have taken the Southern Strategy into the sacred halls of where children’s lives are impacted everyday. Political discourse about education is no longer centered on academic achievement or even the students who our schools are meant to serve. Instead it is based solely on stoking hatred and fear. This New Southern Strategy has evolved from the days of Nixon and Barry Goldwater. Too many people caught on to the old ways. The New Southern Strategy is using the issue of education to speak to the racist fears of white Southerners. When they say critical race theory, they really mean Black history. 

In order to combat the New Southern Strategy, we must have more discussions about the distinction between critical race theory and culturally responsive instruction.The disinformation surrounding critical race theory must be eliminated. But as long as those falsehoods are allowed to fester and grow on television and social media, the burden falls on local leaders and the press to combat disinformation.

It will take more implicit bias training in schools and administrations willing to allow teachers to have the restrictions taken off what can and should be taught. 

Unless Democrats and independents alike speak up to combat this Republican narrative, the New Southern Strategy will go from being a mere ideology into the law of the land, and the result will be unprecedented oppression and willful neglect in our public schools. Where students should be taught the reality of our nation’s history, they will only learn propaganda.

We cannot nurture students and encourage learning if we are more concerned with cultivating hate and bigotry.