In Pat Robertson’s completely made up version of critical race theory, people of color grab “the whiphandle” and “are supposed to cleanse” white guilt “by taking over.”
Right Wing Watch, which caught Robertson’s entry in the canon of deranged fear mongering about critical race theory, explains how conservatives have created a vicious cycle of bigoted hysteria on the subject:
Technically, critical race theory is an academic framework for examining the ways in which systemic racism shapes and influences national and social institutions. But to right-wing activists who refuse to understand this, it has instead become a catchall phrase used to attack anything they dislike. This has created a vicious cycle whereby right-wing commentators misrepresent what critical race theory is and instead attribute to it a cavalcade of hypothetical horrors that, in turn, generates panic and outrage among other right-wing activists over something they don’t understand.
Even by bonkers right-wing standards, Robertson’s untethered-to-reality rant stands out:
They therefore - the people of color - have to rise up and overtake their oppressors, and then, having gotten the whiphandle, if I can use that term – then to instruct their white neighbors how to behave.
Now that’s critical race theory, and it sets people, it sets one group against another. It is totally divisive and … this is the way the communists take over. They try to destroy the children.
It is a monstrous evil and you hear it, it sounds like "Oh, critical race theory, that’s ok.” No, it’s not. It doesn't want to have your children in the third grade indoctrinated into a hate group so that he’ll wind up hating people or hating himself. And so the white people are supposed to feel guilty and they’re supposed to have white guilt.
And the people of color are supposed to cleanse them of that guilt by taking over. It is a monstrous evil.
Pat Robertson says critical race theory is "a monstrous evil" that is urging people of color to "rise up and overtake their oppressors" so that once they've "gotten the whip handle," they'll then "instruct their white neighbors how to behave." https://t.co/Qum8HzeS96 pic.twitter.com/fgeOEVzrfj
— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) June 25, 2021
Elie Mystal clapped back:
Guys like this always think Black Americans would act like white Americans if we got half a chance.
But we don't. Black people don't want to treat white people like we've been treated. We're better than all that. https://t.co/Qjq8CDWYqg— Elie Mystal (@ElieNYC) June 25, 2021
