Some More News - Revisiting Some News: Why Is Critical Race Theory?

Episode Date: May 1, 2024

Hi. This is a re-release of the audio of our August 2021 episode, "Why Is Critical Race Theory?" It's got a new introduction from Cody, who explains how CRT fits into the current timeline of weird, racist conservative outrages. The script was written by Will Gordh with David Christopher Bell. We'll be back next week with an all-new episode of Some More News. Here's the original episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZhW1k_m7OY Sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JpoFiDnY6PG_rcDrNKNmL13m-3Acjmxm3gqCliUe49w/edit?usp=sharing Check out our MERCH STORE: https://shop.somemorenews.com   SUBSCRIBE to SOME MORE NEWS: https://tinyurl.com/ybfx89rh   Subscribe to the Even More News and SMN audio podcasts here: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/some-more-news/id1364825229   Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6ebqegozpFt9hY2WJ7TDiA   Follow us on social media: Twitter: https://twitter.com/SomeMoreNews Instagram:

Hi! Here's some news, the Requel! Listeners and watchers and feelers of the showdy might be familiar with a lot of concepts we'll be talking about today, partly because it's an episode that's already been released, commonly referred to as a rerun, though it's also probably going to sound familiar because so much about the topic and the language and purpose behind the topic, much like the song, remains the same. The topic, of course, is political correctness, sorry, wokeness, wait, sorry, affirmative action, sorry, DEI, CRT. Did I get it right? Ah, yes, finally, CRT. Yes, today we are revisiting our CRT episode, written by our director, Will Gord,

who has joined me via typing, no voice, Will, no speaking for you, to point out a few things regarding the current DEI panic and how it relates to, well, what this old episode is about. DEI, much like CRT and the rest of these right-wing bogeymen are meant to preserve white supremacy and serve two primary functions. The first might be obvious, which is ostensibly to be a substitute for the N-word, which they really want to say, apparently.

You can see this when paid subscribers to formerly Twitter will call a black mayor who won his election in a landslide a DEI mayor. The other function is to disseminate an insidious set of pseudo-intellectual ideas designed to justify racial inequality in America by implicitly assigning the cause of this inequality to innate racial inferiority. You can see this when paid subscribers to formerly Twitter will respond to the formerly Twitter's current owner with formerly tweets saying,

DEI equals didn't earn it. Or you know, that DEI mayor thing. Terms like this allow people to say these things without saying them. The CRT panic served similar functions as a rebuke against the idea that systemic racism actually exists and continues to impact the lives of black people to this day. But you'll probably notice that nobody seems to mention CRT anymore. Did they win the battle against it? Is it all gone? Or did something else happen? As Will writes, For one, fighting over whether or not America has a racist past that still impacts the lives

and opportunities of black people today was a losing battle. There is just way too much documented evidence of horrendous racist shit in our history to keep fighting that claim. In the aftermath of the George Floyd protests, millions of Americans were learning about the Tulsa massacre, the Wilmington coup, the racist history of the filibuster, redlining, and so on and on and on for the first time. And so creating the CRT boogeyman was their move. But again, it's hard to full-throatedly argue

well-documented history. And so DEI is probably a much better target, and it's really what Christopher Ruffo, the architect of the CRT Panic, was really talking about in the first place. And that's because, as we've discussed on this show, the actual implementation of DEI policies in corporate America is largely bullshit. It's mostly just corporate PR. That is not to say that the goals are wrong, but just that these policies

don't actually achieve these goals. More importantly, this allows conservatives to ignore history and pretend that we live in a meritocracy again. Talking about hiring practices allows you to talk about qualifications, and if black people need special treatment because they can't earn the jobs on their own, then what does that say about black people? There must be something inherently inferior about them, right? The pilot is black? Well, surely the plane malfunction is his fault, as opposed to bowing, cutting corners to save money.

Through this lens, you don't need to look at systemic reasons that black people may have disproportionately less wealth, worse schools, worse healthcare, less opportunity, et cetera. It lets you ignore the causes of inequality and, ironically, only focus on the outcomes, and it implicitly attributes those unequal outcomes to innate racial inferiority, all in order to maintain what W.E.B. Du Bois, yes, that's how he pronounced his name, called the psychological wages of whiteness, the non-material wage

that nonetheless gives a white person the psychological benefit of believing that they are the superior race. None of this is new. Like I said, this is a re-quel, a bad remake, racism, frozen empire. Another rebrand is of course inevitable. So here is our CRT, DEI, fill in the blank of whatever they say next episode. Special thanks of course to Christopher Rufo who the morning this episode first aired went out of his way to find me on Twitter and block me. Really cute stuff. He wasn't mad at all.

Okay, back to the episode. Or I guess start the episode. back to the episode, or I guess start the episode. I'm sorry, we don't have time for pleasantries or cutesiness or sight gags or wordplay or the welcome you to Cody's showedy baloney we sometimes do. I'm not going to find a time sandwich and talk to the ghost of dinosaur me or eat a stick of butter or any of- Mr. Cody! Get the fuck out of here, you leech! I don't have time for you!

Because we have a serious crisis on our hands, people. Apparently, there is an insidious force that is currently infecting nearly every aspect of American life. It's assaulting our brains, our bodies, our souls, our whatever you hold dear. It's invading our homes, our corporations, even our military, and even more sadistically,

it's polluting the minds of our children by completely consuming our schools. It's like a virus, but like one they care about. Who are they, you ask? What the fuck am I talking about? You followed up on with me. Well, in case you didn't see the title of the episode, it's Critical Race Theory Ah yes, critical race theory. Ah yes, critical race theory.

The latest boogeyman being ridden by the GOP to hell, I guess. The latest cancel culture outrage triggering of conservative snowflakes. The latest thing we have to talk about in order to coddle these oversensitive whiners. We don't want to, but they make us. Republicans are always able to manufacture controversies

out of whole cloth and force the entire country to talk about them. Weeks of Dr. Seuss, every year the war on Christmas, the threat of Sharia law in America, fucking Benghazi, Barack Obama's citizenship, the caravans, oh, the caravans. Oh, the caravans. Of course, there was the gay agenda. Now there's the supposed transgender agenda,

which granted way catchier. We had to talk about whether or not three million illegals voted in the 2016 election, an election that they won, unlike the one they just lost, stolen by communist Joe Biden. They recently made people debate whether or not Joseph Robinette Stalin Jr. is planning to ban hamburgers.

Do you remember when the United States House of Representatives cafeteria changed their French fries and French toast to freedom fries and freedom toast for years because Fox News and conservatives got mad that France didn't invade Iraq as good as us. Do you remember these things? And now we are forced to talk about whether or not

critical race theory is destroying America and should be canceled, cast out of the marketplace of ideas, very un-American of our GOP representatives for shame, but whatever, let's do it. Let's hear them out, let's do it. Let's hear them out, as apparently we must. What is so bad about critical race theory? You're hearing a lot about critical race theory.

So what is it? This is- Teaching kids to hate their country. Teaches that America is totally screwed. Critical race theory teaches children as young as kindergarten to be ashamed of their skin color. Which is nothing more than modern day racism.

Replacing the racism of the past with the racism of the critical race theory. A historical claims about our nation's origin. Says the United States is rotten to its core. Indoctrinating children. You're either an oppressor or a victim. And dumb as a bag of hair. Whoa, okay, okay. That all sounds really bad and true.

Kids coming home, saying they're being taught to hate themselves and their nation, and question the wisdom of our many dear leaders, being told it's okay to be racist to them, sobbing, pleading to not be white anymore. The teachers shove them, pointing, cackling, white, white! Plus, a lot of the teachers are white.

They just, they've been spitting on them and stuff. Anyway, let's hear from the parents. Here with more are three parents from Loudoun County, Virginia. We have Jessica and Fred and Patty. We've got this mother of two criticizing a Colorado school board over the impact critical race theory is having on students. For another example of everyday Americans

fighting back for their liberties, Keisha King is a Florida mom who took a bold stance against critical race theory, claiming that the teaching of race is in fact racist. Joining me now is Loudoun County parent Ian Pryor and Kim Klasek, president of Red Renaissance. Our next guest were both there, father of three in US Army vet Joe Mobley and a teacher at Douglas School

in Loudoun County, Jeremy Wright. Both join me from the Commonwealth of Virginia. Guys, good morning to you. You going to deliberately teach kids? This white kid right here? Got it better than you because he white? You gonna purposely tell a white kid, oh, the black people are all down and suppressed? How do I have two medical degrees if I'm sitting here oppressed?

Sandra, the Florida State School Board has now voted to ban critical race theory from being taught in public schools in the Sunshine State. It comes as more parents across the country are pushing back against so-called woke curricula being taught in classrooms. Bridget Ziegler is a mother of three girls and a Sarasota County School Board member. She joins us now. I'm joined now by Carrie Lucas, a Virginia mom of five, and her 13-year-old daughter Meredith, currently a Virginia public school eighth grader. Here to react is Alexandria Little League parent and an informal advisor to the 2016 Trump campaign,

Barry Bennett. Wow, what an amazing outpouring of holdup. Can we run that last clip again? Here to react is Alexandria Little League parent and an informal advisor to the 2016 Trump campaign, Barry Bennett. Did he say that guy was an informal advisor to the 2016 Trump campaign?

That's a weird coincidence. How Barry Bennett, the concerned coach that Fox is interviewing there, also happens to be a political operative and lobbyist for the Republican Party, huh? I mean, surely that's just one, and the rest of these parents and teachers are, what's that, Mr. Finger?

You love where I've been putting you? Oh, and every single one of them is a political activist or operative or lobbyist. And in fact, of those people I just showed being interviewed along with the Trump advisor, there were multiple right-wing talk radio hosts, several GOP consultants and professional commentators, the founders of multiple conservative super PACs, a conservative author and the former senior

domestic policy analyst for the House Republican Policy Committee amongst many other things, and multiple conservative activists and think tank members, including one with connections to Turning Point USA. Literally zero of those people were fresh off the street, non-politically tied individuals expressing their concern about critical race theory and their children. Yes, it turns out that a lot of this grassroots,

concerned parent movement sure feels like it was put there artificially, like some sort of artificial grass or fake turf, if you will. So while it's important to not hand wave every single parent or teacher as some kind of operative for the GOP, it does seem as if the most vocal of these concerned Americans,

the reasons this is a thing anyone's even talking about, aren't simply everyday people suddenly concerned with their kids' education. Like this Florida mom named Keisha King, who was in that montage I showed. Well, she made a bunch of headlines for being a black woman standing up against the evils of critical race theory.

But when you just sorta scroll down, most of these articles end up noting that she's the co-founder of one chapter of a group called Moms for Liberty, an organization that has branches fucking everywhere in the country. And if you Google the words moms for liberty and critical race theory,

you'll soon discover that pretty much every article about a concerned parent will eventually note that they are a member of this group. A group that, before they were so worried about critical race theory, were out protesting mask mandates in schools back in April. A group that was founded by two ex-school board members, one of whom has been accused

of physically disrupting classrooms, and the other was voted out after opposing pro-LGBT guidelines and then getting shit mailed to her, like literal actual shit. They're just bitter, ousted, and toxic people trying to re-involve themselves in schools. And yay, they succeeded.

But we're getting ahead of ourselves. The question is, what is critical race theory? And is it being taught to our children? Very briefly, the basic tenets of critical race theory, or CRT, emerged out of a framework for legal analysis in the late 1970s and early 1980s, created by legal scholars, Derek Bell, Kimberly Crenshaw, and Richard Delgado, among others.

Less briefly, critical race theory argues that racism is not just a matter of personal prejudice or explicit legal discrimination, but can be found in everyday social practices and is embedded in our legal system. It places specific emphasis on history and context with the relation to discussion of race in legal discourse and seeks to understand how white supremacy was created

and how it is maintained, and to examine its relationship to professed ideals such as the rule of law and equal protection. It argues their race is not only a social construct but a legal construct, and that while the biological reality of race is false, there is a very real material dimension to being raced in the United States of American society,

and that this dynamic has been both produced and sustained by law. It finds fault with the ideal of colorblindness, which ignores effects of centuries of documented racism, and instead embraces the notion of race consciousness. It uses concepts such as white privilege and intersectionality to better understand the dynamics of the social, material, and legal inequalities

throughout our society. It aims to expose the racial dimensions to the meritocracy mythology. It is a political practice, a progressive activist movement, and an intellectual identity for scholars of color that takes the form of left intervention into race discourse and race intervention

into left discourse that addresses the law's treatment of race from a self-consciously critical perspective. It believes that reform is required within the legal system itself, law schools and courtrooms. Critical race theory is not only concerned with understanding the ways in which our history of racist laws and social practices have created racial inequality

and how white supremacy is maintained within our society and through our legal system, but critical race theory is an intentional and explicit effort to change this dynamic. So is this being taught to our elementary, middle school and high school students? The short answer is, nah. And if you are skeptical of this claim and are a parent,

ask your child to watch this clip and then get back to me. Critical race theory has certainly connections to any kind of critical intellectual discourse, but it's also connected to critical legal studies, which was not committed to sort of inheriting all of the kind of Gramscian and Marxian sort of ideas that you're talking about. And again, even the type of Marxism you're talking about

is a very narrow, thin sort of crude Marxism, or even what we call vulgar Marxism, which alleges a relationship between economic base and cultural superstructure that is one-to-one, when in fact what most Marxists have argued, and what certainly most Marxists post the mid-part of the 20th century have argued, is that it's a much more complicated dynamic than even Gramsci himself argues at in The Prison Notebooks about this idea of hegemony and how it happens along a compromised equilibrium, whereby some people, or whereby on the one hand we absolutely are

hostage to the economic conditions around us, but on the other hand, structures and states and institutions also appeal to our own desires and our own interests and our own needs. It's a much more dynamic and complicated relationship than you're talking about. And as far as sort of structures, again, you're making a connection between structures in terms of institutional structures that I was talking about and the particular type of structures that, again, you're making a connection between structures in terms of institutional structures that I was talking about and the particular type of structures that, say, a saussure will be talking about

in terms of structuralism. That's not actually what I was talking about. And that's not what most people are talking about when they talk about systems and structures. Again, that's a very tight correlation you draw. But if we were to accept that correlation, then sure. But it's not only that we're not accepting it, it's actually not what we're talking about.

And postmodernism, again, plays upon a range of things. I'm sorry? I said you know a lot about this actually. That you know a very- So did your kid get all that? Did you get all that? Did James Lindsay get all that? This is not light reading, folks.

This shit is highly sophisticated and intellectually rigorous. It's the kind of thing you study with a dictionary at the ready. Saying that children are learning critical race theory in our schools is like saying kids are learning quantum physics because they started learning

about atoms and molecules. Critical race theory is something that is being taught in college, primarily in law school, and involves critical thinking and debate, where students are encouraged to examine the ideas involved and ask whether or not they hold up to scrutiny, something critics of critical race theory and proponents of debate should like.

So as I said, the short answer to, is this being taught in our public schools? No. The longer answer to this question, it's longer, but before we get to that longer answer, we should take a moment to examine where this moral panic came from in the first place. How is it that a decades old obscure academic term

suddenly does this in the Google search results? And it really all starts with a man named Christopher Ruffo, not to be confused with- Rufia! Rufi! Rufi! Rufi! Rufio! Rufio! Rufio! Rufio!

Rufio! Rufio! Obviously, this critical race theory boogeyman wasn't started by the fictional Peter Pan foil Rufio from Hook. That would be silly. Christopher Rufo is a right-wing reactionary activist, failed politician,

and self-proclaimed investigative reporter who rapidly found himself rise to prominence as a countervailing force to the nationwide protests that took place in response to the public lynching of George Floyd and so many others in the summer of 2020 by sensationalizing, misleading, and outright lying about what was happening in diversity training programs across the country.

He described the diversity training program conducted in the city of Seattle as cult programming and claimed that critical race theory has become, in essence, the default ideology of the federal bureaucracy and is now being weaponized against the American people. To prove this point, he asserted that the Treasury Department had hired a diversity consultant who told Treasury employees essentially that America

was a fundamentally white supremacist country and I quote, virtually all white people uphold the system of racism and white superiority. Now it turns out these claims were not entirely accurate. I mean, it sounds like something I might say and probably will say before the end of this episode, but according to the 33 page document

that Rufo provided to support his claims, it's clear that at best, he was recklessly distorting the nature of the program. But more likely, he was outright lying about it. So of course, he quickly found himself on Tucker Carlson's show. You know, Tucker, this is something I've been investigating for the last six months,

and it's absolutely astonishing how critical race theory has pervaded every institution in the federal government. And what I've discovered is that critical race theory has become, in essence, the default ideology of the federal bureaucracy, and is now being weaponized against the American people. The morning after this appearance, Ruffo was called by Donald Trump's Chief of Staff,

Mark Meadows, who told Ruffo that the President saw your segment on Tucker last night, and he's instructed me to take action. According to the Washington Post, the reaction to Ruffo's appearance that evening on Fox News was swift. The next day, Trump demanded action. Two days later, his budget chief issued a memo

laying the groundwork for the federal government to cancel all diversity trainings. An executive order followed, and Ruffo was invited to the White House a few months later for a meeting. Now, the funny thing is that even though Ruffo was invited to the White House a few months later for a meeting. Now, the funny thing is that even though Ruffo set in motion the rage-filled delirium over critical race theory that would eventually

entirely envelop our political discourse and advise hundreds of leaders throughout the country on the issue, Ruffo had only recently learned of the term himself by reviewing the footnotes of popular anti-racism books by Robin DiAngelo and Ibram X. Kendi. Far from being an investigative reporter, the truth is that Rufo is a right-wing reactionary activist

with an explicit agenda, and Rufo himself has not shied away from stating this agenda explicitly, tweeting, "'We have successfully frozen their brand, "'critical race theory, into the public conversation "'and are steadily driving up negative perceptions. We will eventually turn it toxic as we put all of the various cultural insanities

under that brand category. The goal is to have the public read something crazy in the newspaper and immediately think critical race theory. We have decodified the term and will recodify it to annex the entire range of cultural constructions that are unpopular with Americans. So, Major League Baseball moves the all-star game

because of racist voting laws in Georgia? Critical race theory. Juneteenth becomes a federal holiday. Critical race theory. Vanessa Williams sings the black national anthem on Independence Day. Critical race theory. Your roommate walks in on you while masturbating, hot.

What was I talking about? Critical race theory has essentially become a stand in for any discussion of racial inequality or the history of racism in America. Which is why it is not at all surprising that Rufo's claims about critical race theory are either entirely misrepresentative or outright lies. In his explicit effort to drive up negative perceptions

of critical race theory, Rufo created a CRT briefing book. And if we spent the necessary time it would take to adequately debunk every aspect of this sacred tome of garbage, this episode would last an entire semester. And you might have to take on student loans to do so, which would disproportionately impact you if you happen to be black, critical race theory.

So I'm not going to do that, but it's worth taking a look at a particularly egregious claim that he makes about critical race theory to give you a sense of the kind of nonsense Ruffo is peddling. In a section of his CRT briefing book called, Race Essentialism, Ruffo claims that,

critical race theory reduces individuals to the quasi-metaphysical categories of blackness and whiteness, then loads those categories with value connotations. Positive traits are attributed to blackness and negative traits are attributed to whiteness. This claim is literally the exact opposite of what critical race theory contends.

Race Essentialism is a belief in a genetic or biological essence that defines all members of a racial category. In fact, as I previously noted, critical race theorists explicitly argue that the concept of race is not a biological reality, but in fact, a social construct. And even more than that, a legal construct.

That is to say that the very existence of race as a concept in America was actually created in part by our legal construct. That is to say that the very existence of race as a concept in America was actually created in part by our legal system. And frankly, it's hard to argue with that assertion considering the fact that in the infamous Dred Scott decision regarding runaway slaves, the chief justice of the US Supreme Court, an asshole, stated that African Americans had no rights

which the white man was bound to respect. There may not be any inherent biological differences between the races beyond the superficial characteristics of skin color in reality, but the system of laws and their enforcement in our nation created a very real legal difference between white people and black people that carries a very real and material legacy to this day.

The very fact that this country had laws against interracial marriage until 1967 is an example of this legal construction of race. And that legal construction helped create and reinforce the social construction of race in America, which is the only reason we are even fucking talking about any of this at all right now. Also, wOKENESS!

And this little detour into our history of the longstanding impact of our racist laws gives us some insight into what this grift is all about. And considering the fact that Rufo has made Ibram X. Kendi one of the primary villains in this manufactured hysteria about critical race theory, I think it's only fair and balanced DMCR to ask Kendi himself what he thinks this is all about.

I think what's being described as critical race theory is any analysis, critical analysis of race or racism in this country that does not position this country as post-racial. Any attempt to hold people who are being racist accountable, any attempt to have a clear and complex and multivariate approach to American history whereby we actually document and talk about and teach about the history of racism in this country. Now, I think Kendi might be onto something here because it's pretty clear that the focus

of the anti-critical race theory phenomenon has been largely centered around the teaching of our history, specifically with regards to the history of racism in America. And speaking of history, it's worth reiterating that all of this anti-critical race theory mania is unambiguously a backlash to the Black Lives Matter movement

that coalesced into the largest sustained protest movement in American history over the summer of 2020. Animated by the fact that the entire nation watched in horror as a white police officer pressed his knee onto George Floyd's neck for nine minutes and 29 seconds, amidst a crowd of people begging the officer to spare Floyd's life. With his hands casually placed in his pockets,

it was clear that this police officer believed that George Floyd had no rights, which the white man was bound to respect. And one of the most significant aspects to this movement that was different from other black liberation movements bound to respect. And one of the most significant aspects to this movement that was different from other black liberation movements of the past was that this movement included a whole lot of white people,

including a lot of white people who grew up in the era of color blindness and were learning about the devastating impact of racism in our society for the first time in their lives. And so in addition to the increased awareness of systemic racism that took place as a result of this movement throughout our society, it's not that surprising that this moment has also included some misguided excesses

and cynical efforts of appropriation. Clumsy conversations about race in school board meetings, efforts by corporations or the military to adopt anti-racist language or make symbolic gestures in hopes of deflecting from the structural critiques of racism and capitalism that implicate them. And some cringey virtue signaling

by people that may have taken the writings of Robin DiAngelo a bit too far. Side note, it's pretty funny that one of the things that set this off is a book called White Fragility, which led a bunch of white people to flip out and try to ban any discussion of race. For all the book's flaws, maybe at the very least, the title was onto something.

And so part of the enormous backlash to the Black Lives Matter movement, as Ruffo explicitly stated, was to put all of the various cultural insanities under the brand category of critical race theory. It didn't matter that Robin DiAngelo was not a critical race theorist, or that her emphasis on the racist beliefs

held by individuals was actually at odds with critical race theory's focus on more systemic and legal critiques, or that her participation in diversity training programs for corporations restricted her from leveling an honest assessment of capitalism's role in systemic racism. The fact is that this reactionary backlash

was not interested in a conversation about actual critical race theory. The goal was to label any effort to examine the impact of racism in our society as critical race theory and make sure that when people heard that term, they had a negative association with it. To put it more simply, by cutting out the middle man, they wanted people to have a negative association

with any examination of racism in our society, and particularly throughout our history. Which is why one of this reactionary effort's main targets has been the 1619 Project, which I can't wait to talk to you about, but while we wait out this storm, here's an ad. The 1619 Project! Which I can't wait to talk to you about, but while we wait out this storm, here's an ad. Storm's clearing up.

What were we talking about? Ah yes, the 1619 Project, Thunderbolt. According to the creators of this endeavor, the 1619 Project is an ongoing initiative from the New York Times Magazine that began in August 2019, the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery. It aims to reframe the country's history of placing the consequences of slavery

and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of our national narrative. Considering the fact that the central role and lasting impact of slavery has typically been minimized in the way our history has been taught in this country. I mean, this is why we had so many statues and had to be torn down in the first place. Maybe this effort is a good thing.

But of course, conservatives reacted to this undertaking by acting like the creator of this project, Nicole Hannah Jones, just cut off Uncle Sam's dick and fed it to communists in front of children. Newt Gingrich called it brainwashing. Ted Cruz called it Marxist indoctrination. And Senator Tom Cotton even introduced a bill to ban it from being taught in public schools,

retorting that, as the founding fathers thought, slavery was the necessary evil upon which the Union was built. And very smart best friends of mine, like Ben Shabips, called it pseudo-history, because some historians argued that one of the essays exaggerated a claim about the role that the preservation of slavery played

and the motivations of colonists in the American Revolution. This sentence was later amended by adding two words, changing the statement from the claim that protecting the institution of slavery was one of the primary reasons the colonists decided to declare their independence to one of the primary reasons that some of the colonists decided

to declare their independence. Because, you know, a lot of them did. The states, they wrote it down. Conservatives used this arguably slightly exaggerated claim to try and discredit the entire endeavor as revisionist history. Yet for some reason, they seem to have no problem with this exchange.

You said our children are taught in school to hate our country. Where do you see that? I just look at school, I watch, I read. Look at the stuff. Now they want a change. 1492, Columbus discovered America. You know, we grew up, you grew up, we all did, that's what we learned. Now they want to make it the 1619 Project. Where did that come from? What does it represent?

I don't even know. So that's what they're saying, but they don't even know. Look at the stuff. As this clip proves, conservatives honestly believe that the teaching of history should not include any political agenda or propaganda and should be taught accurately and truthfully. And so in direct response to the 1619 project,

the Trump administration launched a commission to create the 1776 Report, an effort undertaken by an 18 member panel that included famed historian Charlie Kirk. In fact, as the Guardian reported at the time, most of the authors listed at the commission lacked credentials as historians, and scholars noted the report was missing citations,

bibliographies, and scholarly references. By the way, have you read this thing? You gotta read this thing. It's not that long and it's truly pathetic. Get this, the 1776 report removed any mention of slavery from its section of our nation's founding and instead relegated the topic to its own subsection under a broader category called

challenges to American principles. A section which also happened to include fascism and communism as if slavery were some sort of foreign threat and not an American institution practiced by many of our founding fathers, and was a reason a lot of states changed countries. And in this short section on slavery, the report makes all sorts of excuses for it,

like everyone was doing it, which is a weird argument to make when you're trying to claim that America is a uniquely exceptional nation. Also, that's what children say. Other excuses included, but, but, but, but, but George Washington freed his slaves, even though in fact he made private efforts

to prevent his slaves from claiming their freedom. It also argues that the compromise of slavery was necessary for a durable union, despite the fact that a quick study of American history shows that these compromises were in fact, far from durable. Just a real quick history lesson for you. America had a pretty bad,

what do you call it? Like a civil war, I guess, would be the term. It was kind of a big deal at the time. About one in every 10 men in this country died from this war. And I don't wanna say anything too controversial here. Please don't cancel me. But the civil war was caused by the issue of slavery.

Specifically, people liking it. So I think it's fair to say that the Civil War was a somewhat important thing that happened in terms of our national narrative or whatever. Yet the 1776 project hardly mentions it. The only times it's brought up at all is as a lead in to how progressivism created a shadow government intent on taking away your rights and how identity politics is the same as the beliefs

of racist slave holder John C. Calhoun. Incidentally, progressivism and a category that conflates racism and identity politics called racism and identity politics are also listed as challenges to American principles alongside slavery, fascism, and communism. Progressivism, fascism, and slavery. Yep, yeah.

But despite these partisan opinions and obvious activist propaganda, the 1776 report also argues that states and school districts should reject any curriculum that promotes one-sided partisan opinions, activist propaganda, or factional ideologies that demean America's heritage, dishonor our heroes, or deny our principles.

Any time teachers or administrators promote political agendas in the classroom, they abuse their platform and dishonor every family who trusts them with their children's education and moral development. These conservatives are so concerned-ive about propaganda, so concerned that the report also argues that educators must convey a sense of enlightened patriotism that equips each generation with the knowledge of America's founding principles,

a deep reverence for their liberties and a profound love of their country. Totally normal freedom stuff. Hey, remember that viral story about the girl from North Korea who went to college in America and was like, wow, wokeness is worse than living in North Korea? One of the things she cites is that in North Korea,

they hate America, and in North Korea, they hate America. And in America, they also hate America. And I feel like there's maybe a disconnect there about how we're free to do that, and allegedly aren't fed nationalist propaganda about how we're a perfect nation and all others are bad and inferior. Just something to consider.

But why is lying about our history considered more patriotic than owning up to our mistakes? Don't ask me to love the fact that America enslaved black people for nearly 250 years. Don't ask me to love the fact that America committed genocide against the native inhabitants of this land. Don't ask me to be an enabler of America's addiction

to committing atrocities. Yes, I love what America could be, a borderless beacon of hope that rid the world of nationalism by evolving beyond the need for nations. But maybe America needs some tough love. Maybe America needs an intervention. And while the incoming Biden administration

removed the 1776 project from its website and disbanded the effort, this has not stopped local and state governments from following through on the 1776 report's stated goals with regards to education. In a matter of months, Republican lawmakers in nearly half of the states have proposed legislation to limit the teaching of concepts

such as racial equity and white privilege. Florida has banned the teaching of the theory that racism is not merely the product of prejudice, but that racism is embedded in American society and its legal systems in order to uphold the supremacy of white persons. Senator Josh Hawley has introduced the Love America Act to combat critical race theory

and teach kids to love America because he believes it is a lie to teach students that America is systematically racist. A teacher in Tennessee was fired, or canceled if you will, for teaching an essay about white privilege written by Ta-Nehisi Coates. A new law in Texas removes the requirement to teach the history of white supremacy,

including slavery, the Ku Klux Klan, and ways in which the white supremacist hate group was morally wrong. The law also makes other changes that would drop the teaching of some of the most prominent civil rights leaders in our history, which actually is something worth loving. Among the figures whose works would be dropped,

Susan B. Anthony, Cesar Chavez, and Martin Luther King Jr., whose I Have a Dream speech and Letter from a Birmingham Jail would no longer make the curriculum cut. And in a way, if you truly do oppose critical race theory, cutting out Martin Luther King Jr. makes a lot of sense. Because despite the claims of historian Donald John President that critical race theory is a Marxist doctrine

that rejects the vision of Martin Luther King Jr., a line that he definitely wrote and definitely understands, in reality, the vision of Martin Luther King Jr. A line that he definitely wrote and definitely understands. In reality, the work of Martin Luther King was actually one of the major influences for the development of critical race theory in the first place. And just a quick reminder, won't keep you long. MLK was a radical leftist

who opposed US imperialism, criticized capitalism, called for a federal jobs guarantee and made the case for reparations. It's no wonder the FBI saw him as a communist threat and even spied on him and blackmailed him and urged him to commit suicide. In fact, recently released FBI documents reveal that the FBI believed that King is a wholehearted Marxist who has studied it, Marxism, believes in it

and agrees with it. And while this may or may not be true, why should it matter? I still contend that the most frightening thing about Karl Marx was actually his hair, which I gotta say, it's out of control, man. But more importantly, this red baiting to make movements for racial equality seem really super scary is as American as saying something's as American as apple pie,

a dessert invented in England. Here's a photo taken at a protest against school integration in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1959 of a little white boy holding a sign that reads, race mixing is communism. And here's the modern day version of Senator Joseph McCarthy, Senator Rafael Edward Cruz on his podcast in 2021.

Yes, this Senator has a podcast, talking with none other than Christopher Ruffo using the exact same Red Scare playbook. All of this originated in Marxism. What's interesting is it didn't just originate in Marxism. The end point that this curriculum is designed to teach the kids to go to is Marxism itself. It is designed to tear down capitalism and replace it with communism, replace it with Marxism, with government power, although on

racial lines. Is that a fair characterization? Yeah, I think it is. In fact, critical race theory, as these people present it, is just the newest iteration of the anti-Semitic trope of cultural Marxism, but with a little more mainstream appeal because anti-blackness has a bit more oomph in the context of America. And maybe this history should be taught in our schools.

Maybe the problem is not that we are teaching too much about the history of slavery and racism, but that we haven't been teaching this history enough. The Southern Poverty Law Center did a study on 12 popular US history books, surveyed more than 1,700 social studies teachers and 1,000 high school seniors to try and determine how much history schools are teaching

about race and slavery. Their depressing results found that only eight motherfucking percent of high school seniors can identify slavery as the central cause of the Civil War. Two thirds didn't know that it took a constitutional amendment to end slavery, and only 22% were able to identify how provisions in the constitution gave advantages to slave owners.

And I just can't stress this enough, 8% were able to identify that slavery was the primary cause of the Civil War, which I guess isn't surprising considering that Texas only just decided to teach that fact in 2018. Because it turns out that different states are allowed to teach about slavery as much or as little as they want.

And you know, usually it's the latter. While Massachusetts mentions slavery 104 times in its social studies framework, Louisiana only mentions it four times, as in four times total for K through 12th grade, which is still twice as much as they mention it in Idaho. This might be why 85% of teachers said that their textbooks were inadequate

in teaching black history, also known as history. This is backed up by the fact that out of all the books the Southern Poverty Law Center went over, not a single textbook addressed how white supremacy factored into the justification of slavery or how depressingly essential slavery was to the American economy. And this is just the one study.

If you look for it, you can find a wide and dizzying array of schools routinely fucking up the way they teach about slavery in America. This fourth grade class asks students to name three good things about slavery. Then there's the school in upstate New York that just this year, the year 2021, in homework for elementary school kids,

described slavery as African-Americans agreeing to work for colonists in exchange for a trip to America, literally just not teaching slavery as slavery. So that's totally normal. Hey, speaking of things that were totally normal, did you know that there were nearly eight million KKK members in the 1920s or that Georgetown University was funded by the selling of 272 slaves?

Hey, did you know that Bank of America, Citibank, Wells Fargo, and JP Morgan all accepted slaves as deposits? Have you ever considered or been taught in school about just how many American companies and institutions gained their power from the suffering of others? And wouldn't that perhaps be a good thing to know? Also, geez, I'm not sure if you know this because you may have gone to an American school, but black history isn't entirely just the slavery and civil rights eras. Like, obviously those are important to

teach, but as a few have pointed out, most schools pretty much stop there and call it a day. And in fact, the United States history content standards for grades five through 12 only require schools to teach the baseline subjects of slavery and civil rights. And then nothing else about black history or culture. You know, stuff like the Reconstruction Era,

which most schools don't teach, nor do they teach about the Great Migration, or how about the fact that over 60% of Americans know nothing about Juneteenth, which is probably why the Tulsa Race Massacre and countless other massacres has been strangely absent from history textbooks for decades, even in fucking Tulsa. An event where a white mob attacked

and killed hundreds of black residents, injured even more, and raised over 35 city blocks, was just completely absent from our history until a fucking HBO show about fictional superheroes brought it up. How goddamn weird and sad is that? And this is just black history I'm talking about and not like native American history,

but heck, I'm sure the way schools teach that is very thorough. Boy, fuck howdy. It sure seems like most Americans don't know shit about our history with racism and slavery. I don't know. Perhaps if we would have fewer peopl nonsense like this. Americ

racism. Don't get me wrong going on. But slavery itse a racist thing. It never So to sit there and take founded on racism is a co was slavery going on. But on in all the world. It never was a race thing.

So why are we making it a race thing now? Now, I'm hoping that I don't need to defend the idea that slavery in America was very much a race thing. Yes, the institution of slavery existed in the world before the transatlantic slave trade, and there were indentured servants from Europe for a time in America. But it's also true that slavery in the world before the transatlantic slave trade, and there were indentured servants from Europe for a time in America. But it's also true that slavery in the New World was a uniquely brutal institution,

and that after uprisings like Bacon's Rebellion that saw European and African servants join forces against the ruling elite, lawmakers began to make legal distinctions between white and black inhabitants. By permanently enslaving Virginians of African descent and giving poor white indentured servants and farmers some new rights and status.

And that this dynamic metastasized over time and is actually why we have the socially and illegally constructed categories of race in America in the first place. And that the laws and social dynamics continue to, you know what, actually, I'm not gonna do this right now. Frankly, this is something that this guy and everyone should have been taught in middle school.

And speaking of this guy, do you recognize this guy? That's right, he is one of the people from the concerned parents montage that we played earlier in the video. And you guessed it, just like all the others, he's actually a conservative activist with his own conservative radio show and YouTube channel. And so I think it's worth reiterating

that far from a grassroots movement of concerned parents who spontaneously became concerned about the little known academic concept of critical race theory, this backlash has been a coordinated effort from reactionary activists, politicians, media figures, and right-wing think tanks. Many, incidentally, are funded

by the Thomas W. Smith Foundation, whose trustee and director is James Pearson, who explicitly opposes teaching classes about women, black people, or the LGBTQ community. The Thomas W. Smith Foundation funds many groups currently going all in on the anti-CRT train. Fun groups we love, like the American Enterprise Institute, the Daily Caller, the Federalist, the Heritage Foundation,

the Federalist Society, Turning Point USA, Prager University, and others, including the Manhattan Institute, which is the top recipient from this foundation, and incidentally, a place where Christopher Ruffo now works. The Manhattan Institute simply wants to develop and disseminate new ideas that foster greater economic choice and individual responsibility.

And speaking of places where Christopher Ruffo has worked, the Discovery Institute, a right-wing think tank, also pushing the anti-CRT issue, although the Discovery Institute is perhaps best known for their efforts in the early 2000s to encourage schools to teach the controversy between Darwinian evolution and faith-based intelligent design,

also known as backdoor creationism. Interesting, they have no interest in teaching the controversy this time. Which is why it is not at all surprising that one of the authors of the 1776 report, Charlie Kirk, tweeted that, "'It's not enough to just oppose critical race theory. "'Republican governors, legislators,

"'school board members, and parents need to play offense. "'Push for the Bible to be taught in schools. Push for prayer in schools. Push for pro-America curriculums. Put Marxists on defense. I now understand why the 1776 report promoted the idea that when families pray together, they acknowledge together the providence

of the almighty God who gave them their sacred liberty. This is all really just Christian nationalism and in support of American myths. And I know this is a lot to take in, but we can't give up. Let's try to get to the bottom of it if we can. So remember how I told you that the short answer to whether or not critical race theory

is being taught to our children is, nah. But that the longer answer was longer. It's time for that longer answer because while it's true that critical race theory in the academic and legal and activist sense is not being taught to kids in elementary school, it is also true that many of the basic ideas and assumptions that critical race theorists make

have actually found their way into the mainstream understanding of the history of racism in America. And conservatives actually do have good reason to be afraid of these ideas because they have the potential to completely decimate their ideology. Because as Kimberlé Crenshaw,

one of the pioneering scholars of critical race theory has said, critical race theory just says, let's pay attention to what has happened in this country and how what has happened in this country is continuing to create differential outcomes so we can become that country that we say we are. And while this statement may first appear innocuous

and uncontroversial, because it's mostly pointing out how the concept of time works, if you take this statement to its logical conclusion, it tears holes in conservative ideology and the myths about America that they are desperately trying to maintain in order to preserve their ideology.

Because if we actually examine how our history impacts the inequalities of our present and how those inequalities are maintained through our current system of social practices and laws, we might discover that the idea that America is a land of equal opportunity is a myth. We might discover that the notion of meritocracy is a myth. We might discover that a person's success or failure

is not just a function of their individual choices in life, but also a result of a broader social, economic and legal system that produces and perpetuates inequalities across generations. And if we learn that, we might become skeptical of the ideas of individualism and in turn, capitalism, and may become more receptive to the idea

that our collective fates are intertwined. The awareness that the contours of our history play a substantial role in determining the nature of the opportunities of our present, has the potential to entirely upend the status quo of our current social, economic, and legal construction of white supremacy and capitalism within our society. Dispelling these American fairy tales threatens

the foundational principles of conservative ideology. The architect of this attack on critical race theory, Christopher Ruffo, recently tweeted that we should teach honestly about the history of racism and injustice, but place it in the context of America's highest ideals and our steady progress towards achieving them. Cultivate a sense of agency and common purpose in children of all racial backgrounds.

But the steady progress towards our highest ideals is another American myth. A myth that actually removes agency and obscures the role that reactionary movements have played throughout our history. Because if teaching the history of racism is limited by its adherence with this myth, then you are requiring that we teach a lie.

Because the history of racism in America is not that of steady progress towards equality, but that of progress and backlash. We made progress during Reconstruction and that was met by the backlash of white supremacist domestic terrorism and Jim Crow. We made progress during the civil rights era and that was met by neoliberal austerity

that weaponized the ideal of color blindness and by the era of mass incarceration. And today, these same reactionary forces are rolling back the enfranchisement of black people yet again and passing laws to restrict the way that the history of racism is taught in our country. And this is where the real danger comes for those of us who actually do believe in equality.

Because if you don't teach children the truth about how our history has produced and perpetuated racial inequality, eventually those kids will grow up and take a look at the world around them and notice that black people have a lot less wealth and are more likely to live in areas of concentrated poverty and are more likely

to have violence in their communities. And without the knowledge of how these inequalities were created and perpetuated, live in areas of concentrated poverty and are more likely to have violence in their communities. And without the knowledge of how these inequalities were created and perpetuated through our social practices and laws throughout our history, these kids will be left with no other explanation for the racial inequality they see around them other than to conclude that there must be something

deficient within the population of black people themselves. Maybe it's their culture, maybe it's their genetics, but there must be something wrong with them because I've been taught that all you have to do is work hard by your bootstraps and you will be just fine. So in conclusion, oh. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Sorry, it's uh, haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, is upside down.