On Thursday night, CNN host Don Lemon dismissed the growing opposition to critical race theory (CRT) as a matter of white “privilege,” saying that “people don’t like to have their pleasure interrupted, their peace interrupted.” Lemon and his fellow smarmy CNN host, Chris Cuomo, suggested that CRT isn’t a noxious and divisive Marxist ideology but the academic study of the impact of slavery.
“I had somebody today say, ‘I’m just worried. I don’t want people lecturing my kid like hey you’re white, you’re bad,'” Cuomo recalled. “Why do you think that’s what it will be? I said that’s the only problem, is your perception.”
“Why wouldn’t you want your kid to understand the roots of slavery and the legacy of slavery, how it has played out for enslaved people throughout the years?” Cuomo said, suggesting that critical race theory merely involves teaching the history of slavery.
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“You don’t think that telling people that [their ancestors] were beaten and sold and lynched makes them feel bad?” Don Lemon replied, speaking about the pain that this history brings for the descendants of slaves.
“That’s the whole thing about what privilege is. People don’t like to have their pleasure interrupted, their peace interrupted,” Lemon went on. “Having people come to the realization, especially ancestors of slaves, that they were enslaved, and that they were beaten and they were sold, they weren’t able to accrue wealth, that they weren’t able to go to school, weren’t able to vote, do you think that makes them feel good?”
“The folks on the other side, stop making it about you, and be curious instead of judgmental,” Lemon concluded.
Yet Marxist critical race theory is far from the innocent, merely academic study Lemon and Cuomo make it out to be. Marxist thinkers invented critical race theory in order to upend society by claiming that hidden racism pervades American institutions. CRT teaches people to seize on any racial disparity as ipso facto proof of racial discrimination, despite the clear prohibitions on racial discrimination in federal law. Advocates claim that the American status quo is racist — if not “white supremacist” — so extreme measures to reverse historic injustices are the only “anti-racist” option.
Since American society must be secretly racist, CRT advocates attribute various aspects of society to the nefarious impact of “whiteness.” The Smithsonian briefly published a “teaching tool” infographic on “whiteness.” That infographic claimed that the nuclear family, science, capitalism, the Judeo-Christian tradition, individualism, “objective, rational linear thinking,” and even values such as “be polite” are aspects of oppressive whiteness. The Smithsonian rightly removed the graphic after facing criticism, but this incident illustrates just how mainstream CRT has become.
CRT is wreaking havoc on society, leading teachers and politicians to demonize white people for the color of their skin and creating new racial preferences and discrimination. It has sparked a civil war in education, with parents revolting, teachers resigning, and school districts introducing racism in the name of “anti-racism.”
Contrary to Lemon’s insinuation, whites are far from alone in warning about CRT. A Chinese American group in New York wrote a manifesto condemning critical race theory as “a hateful, divisive, manipulative fraud. One way or another, CRT wants to get rid of too many Asians in good schools. Asians are over-represented. CRT is today’s Chinese Exclusion Act. CRT is the real hate crime against Asians” (emphasis original).
Many black people also oppose critical race theory. A black father and his young daughter condemned CRT in a viral TikTok video. A black mother in Florida stood up to condemn CRT in a school board meeting.
“CRT is not ‘racial sensitivity’ or simply teaching unfavorable American history or teaching Jim Crow history. CRT is deeper and more dangerous than that,” she explained. “CRT, in its outworking today, is a teaching that there is a hierarchy in society where white, male, heterosexual, able-bodied people are deemed the oppressor and anyone else outside of that status is oppressed. That’s why we see corporations like Coca-Cola asking their employees to be ‘less white,’ which is ridiculous.”
“Telling my child or any child that they are in a permanent oppressed status in America because they are black is racist and saying that white people are automatically above me, my children, or any child, is racist, as well,” King added. “This is not something that we can stand for in our country.”
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No, Don Lemon, opposing critical race theory is not a matter of “privilege” and people not wanting to have “their pleasures interrupted.” It’s not just a matter of teaching the history of slavery and abolition — which Americans support. This ideology is real, it is divisive, and it’s terrifying.
CNN’s @donlemon on parents upset about Critical Race Theory creeping into curriculums: “That’s the whole thing about what privilege is. It’s that you — people don’t like to have their pleasure interrupted. Their peace interrupted … stop making it about you" pic.twitter.com/G1ioRhCuyo
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) June 18, 2021
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