Tucker Carlson spent part of his White Power Hour Thursday night demonizing a New York City plan to diversify its magnet schools with such outrage that I half expected him and his diversity-hating guest, Heather Mac Donald, to call for a white-rights march on City Hall.
Despite the “TUCKER INVESTIGATES” banner, Carlson did nothing of the sort. He couldn’t even be bothered to let viewers know much about the actual details. He began by accusing Mayor Bill de Blasio of “sowing racial division” in New York then pointing a finger at schools chancellor Richard Carranza as “leading the charge.”
Carranza “is spearheading the effort to abolish merit-based admissions to the city's magnet schools,” Carlson continued. “Why? Because Asians have been too successful there, and we can't have that.”
That is a lie right there. The issue is not successful Asians, it’s the shrinking number of blacks and Hispanics that the city is trying to address. Also, the proposal is to abolish the admission test, not “merit-based admissions” altogether, and replace it with “factors such as students’ ranking in the top 7 percent of their middle school and top 25 percent citywide.”
But ever on the lookout for new ways to race bait, while pretending to care about racial fairness (for whites only), Carlson seized on a lawsuit that accuses Carranza of discriminating against whites. Rather than do any reporting or interviewing anyone involved in the matter, Carlson trotted out Mac Donald, a favorite bigot. Her white-nationalist-friendly opinions were the extent of the so-called “investigation.”
When last seen on Carlson’s show, Mac Donald called diversity in schools a “scourge.” That, apparently, is the only credential needed to be an expert on such a complicated matter. Carlson introduced her merely by saying she is “the author of the book, ‘The Diversity Delusion.’”
Carlson’s first question was, “Why is this different from Jim Crow, exactly?”
Mac Donald was ready to pounce. She called diversity in college admissions “discrimination against whites” that is “far more vicious” in New York City because of “the idea of toxic white culture.”
While neither Mac Donald and Carlson could be bothered with the terms of the actual lawsuit, there was plenty of time to racially attack Carranza and de Blasio – while feigning a desire for racial harmony:MAC DONALD: You know, if Carranza and de Blasio get away with this, it shows that the ideology of hatred and racial division that is now absolutely pervasive in our higher education system is entrenching itself throughout the rest of society that will lead to, I fear, a state of very, very dangerous racial tension in our society.CARLSON: I don't understand how decent people can allow this to happen. I really don't. … How can they sit back and allow children -- little kids -- to be attacked on the basis of their skin color? How can they allow that?
Carlson never cited one instance of any child being “attacked on the basis of their skin color.”
But he didn’t mind when Mac Donald made the racial attacks:MAC DONALD: If white privilege explained everything, please tell me how seven out of eight of the recent National Spelling Bee champions were Indian Americans.If skin color was the scourge of people of color, they would not be able to succeed. In fact, why did they succeed, Tucker? Because they studied their butts off and that's what inner city kids have to start doing.[…]We have to fight back against the myth of bias.CARLSON: Well, it's just -- it's totally immoral, I would say.
Carlson’s superficial, fact-averse treatment was not just an injustice to a complicated subject, it allowed him to engage in racial demagoguery under a false mantle of concern. With Fox News’ permission.
Crossposted with permission from Newshounds.
