In the latest example of gaslighting from MSNBC, guest host Zerlina Maxwell tried her best to obfuscate the truth about critical race theory in K-12 education in America. On Sunday night’s edition of American Voices, Zerlina Maxwell filled in for Alicia Menendez and outright lied about critical race theory only being taught in law or graduate schools.
Maxwell started the delusional segment by citing a Gallup poll showing over 60% of Americans know little or nothing at all about the newly created holiday “Juneteenth.” Even though the holiday was only made federally recognized on Thursday. Regardless, Maxwell predictably blamed the public’s lack of knowledge of Juneteenth on conservatives and a little-known campaign by the United Daughters of the Confederacy to prevent the teaching of Juneteenth in public schools.
As if that conspiracy theory wasn’t deranged enough, Maxwell made this blatantly false claim:
Critical race theory refers to the study of structural racism and it's not taught until college or graduate school, law school. It's a law school class, everybody. (...) So let's start by making it completely crystal clear at the top of this interview, that critical race theory is not taught before law school. It is a law school class essentially, or graduate level. So, it's up to parents, not teachers in elementary school to raise the next generation and make sure that they're anti-racist.
Despite what Zerlina Maxwell wants to tell herself and her 12 viewers, critical race theory is being taught to kids of all ages in public schools all across the country.
It's not just a study of incendiary leftist assertions of “structural racism” in the U.S., critical race theory is a hateful racist ideology that teaches young white kids to hate themselves because of the color of their skin.
In February, a Buffalo school district caused an uproar for their curriculum that teaches children that "all white people play a part in perpetuating systemic racism."
Maxwell probably should’ve quit digging herself a bigger hole and ended the show, instead she brought on race hustling professor, author, and well-known bigot Ibram X. Kendi to teach MSNBC viewers how to be an “anti-racist”.
Maybe Kendi should sit this one out since last September he called then-Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett a “white colonizer” for adopting two children from Haiti, and using them as “props” in family pictures.
Having a racist on to lecture others about not being racist is beyond parody. But then again, so is MSNBC.
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Read the transcript below by clicking "expand":
American Voices With Alicia Menendez
6/20/2021
7:27 PM
ZERLINA MAXWELL (GUEST HOST): Most Americans don't know what Juneteenth, our new national holiday, is really about. A recent poll found more than 60% of adults knew absolutely nothing, or very little about Juneteenth. One reason? Is it has been largely kept out of K through 12 history curriculum. A result of a campaign by the United Daughters of the Confederacy to rewrite the story of the Civil War. These southern socialites didn't want school children to learn that confederates fought to preserve slavery. Now, conservatives are trying to stop students from discussing the racism that's still alive and well today using the term "critical race theory" as a catch-all to stoke fears about anti-racist education.
[Cuts to video]
MIKE PENCE: Under the Biden administration, patriotic education has been replaced by political indoctrination, they abolished our 1776 commission and authorized teaching critical race theory in our schools. Instead of teaching all of our children to be proud of our country, critical race theory teaches children as young as kindergarten to be ashamed of their skin color.
[Cuts back to live]
MAXWELL: Critical race theory actually refers to the study of structural racism and it's not taught until college or graduate school, law school. It's a law school class, everybody. But you can show your kids how to be an anti racist at any age. Those are the facts. Here to give us some tips on how to do that, Dr. Ibram Kendi, the founding director of the Center for Anti Racist Research at Boston University, and the author of the great book "Anti-Racist Baby” and also “Stamped for Kids”, both of which I highly recommend.
So let's start by making it completely crystal clear at the top of this interview, that critical race theory is not taught before law school. It is a law school class essentially or graduate level. So, it's up to parents not teachers in elementary school to raise the next generation and make sure that they're anti-racist. You wrote a pictured book to help us do that. Walk us through how parents should engage their children on issues of race and racism. How do we start that conversation with them?
IBRAM KENDI: Well I think with our youngest of children they’re seeing different skin colors. My daughter who’s 5 years old sees that her skin color is brown and she sees that some of her classmates have lighter skin. And so we can talk about the human rainbow, we can talk about all the different skin colors that make up humanity and how they're all beautiful just as they’re unique but then we can also talk about how certain people have less not because they are less but because of racism, because of bad rules, because if we don't teach our children why racial inequity exists, what do you think they're going to think is the cause of it?
MAXWELL: It's so, so true and you know, there are some conservatives that say learning about this, learning about systemic racism, it makes white children feel bad about themselves. What is your take on that one?
KENDI: Well first, I think if we're teaching about America's racial history, then we're going to teach all students about people of different races, including white people who fought against slavery, who fought against Jim Crow, who fought against lynchings, who fought against segregation and I think even white children are going to see people like them really on both sides of this struggle and I would hope they would choose the side of justice and equity.
MAXWELL: I have actually never heard that point made before. The fact that when we’re teaching white children this part of history, like why wouldn't you give them the option of also seeing themselves in the abolitionist, the white abolitionists. That is such a critically important point. A lot of Conservatives also misquote Martin Luther King, or quote Martin Luther King, but misinterpret what he meant by we should judge people by the content of their character, from the famous I have a dream speech. But he wasn't asking us in that speech to ignore race. How do you, um, how do you teach this to your children about why we should talk about this as a society and avoid being that "color blind" society that so many conservatives I guess want us to be?
KENDI: I think with anything, if we're talking to our children about a problem and about being a part of the solution, we first have to talk about that the problem exists, that indeed race doesn't exist but racism does, and racism births race and so in order to get rid of race of -- that's what people want we first have to get rid of racism, and we explain this to children. We get rid of those bad rules that exclude certain people because of the color of their skin, we get rid of those ideas that dark is ugly or dark is dangerous that cause certain kids to feel bad. Those are the things we need to get rid of. We can teach our kids how to do it.
MAXWELL: We absolutely can. Dr. Kendi, Thank you so much for being here tonight. It's always a pleasure to talk to you. Dr. Kendi is the author of "Anti-Racist Baby" and "Stamped for Kids." Both I highly recommend. Please stay safe.
