This article is an excerpt from Teach Truth: The Struggle for Antiracist Education , by Jesse Hagopian, Copyright © 2025. This text was originally published by Haymarket Books and has been reprinted here with permission.

“Our students demand to learn the truth even if a small group of powerful, mostly wealthy, white adults is threatened by that,” insisted Michael Rebne, a teacher at Wyandotte High School in Kansas City. “At this moment we are seeing a rise in both Islamophobia and antisemitism stoked by the same right-wing forces that seek to further marginalize LGBTQIA+ students and the voices of Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian and all people of color. We need to set the record straight and see that we are stronger united.”

Educators in the United States unwilling to turn their lesso

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