Isn't it precious when people try to normalize white supremacy?
Like on CNN, when Brian Stelter and Oliver Darcy were talking about how the right wing nutters on Fox News have absolutely nothing of substance on which they can attack President Biden, so at the moment, they're going after an educational advancement called critical race theory. Stelter called it an "obsession of MAGA media and an obsession of Fox."
Darcy tried to "both sides" CRT, saying, "...there are some room for debate here. It should be debated in good faith, and critical race theory could be one of those aspects, but the problem is that you don't see that in these -- in right wing media. It's really just about attacking." He concluded, "It's demonizing and it is not conducive to a good debate."
Darcy's problem with MAGA media seems to be tone. It's too mean and personal. The real problem with MAGA media's attack on critical race theory is that it is thoroughly disingenuous and ill-informed. They are saying CRT is something it is not. They are LYING about it. I'd bet money the people on Fox, OAN, and Newsmax don't even actually know what CRT is.
(From Wikipedia: "Critical race theory examines social, cultural and legal issues as they relate to race and racism." See? So simple.)
Stelter then asked Amanda Carpenter what she felt was at the core of this "moral panic" about CRT. Her answer was equally tepid.
She mentioned the increased opposition from conservatives to school curriculum in recent decades, when schools have adopted "more inclusion when it comes to Black history."
"I do not think critical race theory is being taught in schools, but there is certainly more discussion of race," she said. "And so I think when regular people see this on TV, Fox blaring that this is a dangerous theory being adopted that teaches your children to hate others, they sort of translate it that way."
Define "regular people," Amanda. Are we talking about the regular racists, super-charged and enabled by Trumpism to be out and proud with their white supremacy? Because those are the people who watch Fox News. Fox News watchers aren't "regular people" in my eyes. They are at best lovers of angry ignorance, and at worst, members of a death cult.
Carpenter dismissed the right's obsession with CRT as the outrage du jour, until their attention span gets diverted to the next thing.
"We'll see how long it will last. But you do see these cultural issues bubble up," she said. "I mean first it's Dr. Seuss, Mr. Potato head, critical race theory, it's transgender bathrooms. These things can have a flash in the pan quality."
Not sure I'd imply the absurd outrage over Dr. Seuss and Mr. Potato Head has the same oppressive impact on the freedoms of marginalized people as the blind refusal to teach about racism, and the twisted bans on trans folks from using their preferred bathrooms, but, hey, I'm just a writer in Baltimore.
Then Stelter shrugged, and totally nailed what this is really all about.
"I mean, what I hear is a bunch of white people saying, 'Don't talk about race! Don't talk about race!"
BINGO.
Sorry to deflate your faux outrage, wingers, but CRT doesn't teach white kids to hate themselves, and it doesn't aim to start race wars. That's YOUR job. CRT simply encourages students to look at history from the perspective of race, and the role racism played in the formation of our nation, laws, and institutions that still stand, by the way. In other words, truth. Without examination, white supremacy cannot be undone.
You cannot teach about slavery without teaching about racism. You cannot teach about the Constitution without teaching about racism. You cannot teach about voting in this country without including racism in the curriculum. You cannot teach about WW1 and WW2 without including segregation of white and Black soldiers. And we shouldn't teach about it only in the month of FEBRUARY.
(Sidenote: I'll bet my dad didn't even know he was teaching me CRT when he would tell me that racism is woven with every thread into this nation's founding, institutions, and laws. Good job, Dad.)
