The Texas State Historical Association's battle between wingnuts with allegations of pseudo-wokeness versus people wanting to fully promulgate Texas history has heated up, with Executive Director J.P. Bryan suing the board (which he thinks is too woke) to prevent it from firing him.
The Observer has more, including noting that Bryan is an oil billionaire, which might be of relevance. So too might him calling academics (the battle is about who's an "academic" and Bryan and other Christofascist types [assuming that Bryan travels in the same circles as Tim Dunn] are wrong, and TSHA bylaws make that clear) "leftists" and "Marxists," also not mentioned by the Trib. It goes on to note that Bryan et al are looking to essentially tell a Texas exceptionalist version of Confederate Lost Cause history. Update, July 23: Bryan IS an "Obama is a Muslim" conspiracy theorist.
On paper, to this layperson's eyes, the suit should be a slam-dunk win for the board. But, I forget where I am, Toto. This could get dragged out a couple of years, which would itself be problematic, even if the TSHA board eventually wins. For example, assuming the state is sued over its new school and school library book ratings law, and that too drags out a couple of years, the issues could feed off each other.
Weirdly, the author of the Observer piece simply identifies himself as a professor at a North Texas college, when a 15-second google identifies him at being at Collin College. Is John R. Lundberg worried about being fired, given Collin's past horrendous history on free speech, leading to successful lawsuits against it? (It's interesting to note that it was HISTORY profs, as Lundberg is, who were Collin's top past targets.)
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