How does MSNBC justify such dishonesty? The cable network is continuing to smear conservatives as racist because of their opposition to critical race theory and the historically inaccurate and debunked 1619 Project. On Monday night’s The ReidOut, host Joy Reid featured 1619 Project founder, Nikole Hannah-Jones to discuss the dangers of teaching “whitewashed history” which she labeled as the “latest conservative obsession.”
Reid ranted about numerous laws and states that were working to ban the teaching of critical race theory and the 1619 Project. Hannah-Jones,who Reid praised as an award-winning journalist, quickly offered her opinion: “...We know that it is narrative that allows us to enact really dangerous policies. It is narrative that allows citizens to kind of accept these erosion of civil rights. So it’s not incidental that the same states that are introducing these anti-critical race theory, anti-1619 Project laws are also introducing voter suppression laws.”
Of course there was no mention of the false narratives found in the 1619 Project including the false idea that the American Revolution was fought to maintain slavery. Instead Reid and Hannah-Jones argued that the conservative policies were “clearly designed to stoke white resentment,” and “feed into the narrative that white Americans are under attack.” A better way of putting this would be to say that these anti-1619 Project laws don’t feed into the liberal media’s narrative that America is a racist country which is why MSNBC has continuously attacked them.
Ignoring all the criticisms against her own work, Hannah-Jones attacked the right-wing media for hooking critical race theory to the narrative of the 1619 Project. She accused them of allegedly spreading propaganda and “dividing the social movement towards justice by making white Americans...believe that, actually, no you’re under attack, they’re trying to take your history.”
This segment provides yet another example of the radical left’s campaign against conservatives and their obsession with making history align with their narrative even when the facts are not on their side.
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Below is a transcript of the segment, click "expand" to read:
MSNBC's The ReidOut
06/14/2021
7:20 p.m. EasternJOY REID: The danger of teaching whitewashed history isn’t just tucked away in some dusty old textbook from the Jim Crow era. No, that danger is the latest conservative obsession, with more than 20 states taking steps to ban the teaching of critical race theory, including Idaho, where a task force is looking into claims of indoctrination in schools. They have now submitted a public records request to the Boise School District that could cost tens of thousands of dollars, because, remember, racism can be expensive, asking for all materials, curriculum and assignments used in classrooms and teacher trainings, as well as any materials using Nikole Hannah-Jones’s 1619 Project.
And joining now is Nikole Hannah-Jones, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and the creator of The 1619 Project. And you know, at first, it seemed like it was a fringe sort of attack on your project, on this project. It has now become a cause. Just a sampling. In Nevada, a Nevada group, they want them -- they want teachers there to wear body cameras, so they can monitor what they’re teaching to make sure that they’re not teaching things like The 1619 Project. Ron DeSantis in Florida has accused -- has sort of – he’s making hay at this for himself, said he wants to make sure that we’re not teaching kids to hate their country. In Arizona, they’re talking about fining teachers $5,000 if they discuss hot button topics, such as racial equity. This is -- this seems like madness, Nikole. Some of them are calling it, they want patriotic education instead. In your view, what is this about?
NIKOLE HANNAH-JONES: Thank you for taking time to discuss this, Joy, because I think we’re in actually a very dangerous period right now. When we look at what these laws are doing, a lot of people kind of scoffed at them. When you read the language of them, they appear very silly. But when you think about what this is actually trying to do, we know that it is narrative that allows us to enact really dangerous policies. It is narrative that allows citizens to kind of accept these erosions of civil rights. So it’s not incidental that the same states that are introducing these anti-critical race theory, anti-1619 Project laws are also introducing voter suppression laws. These things are going hand in hand.
So the textbook that you just were reading from, right, this is part of the lost cause narrative. The lost cause narrative is what justifies Jim Crow. It is a narrative that really erases the cause of the Civil War, and it really tries to valorize the South and to say that black people were not ready for self-rule, that black people could not self-govern. And so that then justifies the enactment of laws that deprived black people of the right to vote that deprived black people of their citizenship right.
So I’m actually really concerned about what these laws mean, outside of the fact that I think they are antithetical to the First Amendment. I think they are clearly designed to stoke white resentment, to really feed into this narrative that white Americans are under attack, that they are the primary victims of racism. And that is going to lead to some very, very troublesome policies. So we really should be concerned. Even though the law seems silly, I don’t think the emotions and the kind of really hysteria that they’re intended to evoke is silly at all.
REID: No, I agree with you, because, right, you’re – you’re seeing these things enacted at the same time that some of the same voices are attacking Black Lives Matter, which a lot of young white people have joined, a movement a lot of young white people have joined, which maybe their parents and grandparents don’t like. And when you’re also seeing this national security threat of white nationalism that is actually threatening the lives of people in state capitols, what do you make of the fact that they have now merged and fused this idea of critical race theory, which has nothing to do with K-12 education, with The 1619 Project? They have basically turned the two things into the same thing. It is a way of vilifying your work and dragging your work into this dangerous narrative.
HANNAH-JONES: Absolutely. I mean, this is -- this is the new birtherism, right? So this is really trying to take a turn. No, most teachers have not heard nor study critical race theory. And to strategically use that to stoke resentment and to also really center it and hook it to the narrative of The 1619 Project. But, why is that? When we looked last year, right, these were the largest civil rights protests in the history of this country. Vidor, Texas, which is 99, 98 percent white town that had fought the federal government as late as the 1980s over housing segregation, was holding Black Lives Matter marches. And we saw in the polling the highest support for Black Lives Matter in the history of that movement. This is a reaction to that.
So it’s not just young liberals. They were really speaking to all of the moderates. All of the conservative white Americans who also were looking at this and saying, oh, my God, I -- my country isn’t what I thought it was. So, 1619 unsettles that narrative. And, in unsettling that narrative, people are afraid that it unsettles power. And that is what we’re seeing, is really a need to hold on to and maintain that power and divide that social movement towards justice by making white Americans, at least a segment of them who will kind of be susceptible to this message, believe that, actually, no, you’re under attack. They’re trying to take your history. They have gone too far. And that’s what --- why wedding these together is working so successfully. And, frankly, the media has played a big role in that, right, because they were allowing Republicans to really lead with this idea that, oh, look at this bad diversity training. That’s critical race theory gone amok. Those two things are not related whatsoever.
REID: That’s right.
HANNAH-JONES: But by telling the stories in that way, we have really fallen victim to this propaganda campaign.
REID: Well, and I have to tell you that, first of all, one thing the right is very good at his branding. And they --- they because the critical race theory has the word race in it, it’s a lot easier to --- right, then to go and talk about the complex narratives in The 1619 Project. They decided the easier brand name was critical race theory. They have now dragged a totally separate body of work into your work. I can tell you that we’re trying to get Kimberle Crenshaw on. She created critical race theory. We’re going to make sure people understand the difference. But you’re right. It’s dangerous. I’m waiting for Scopes trials. I’m serious. I mean, when the first First Amendment case goes through. We’re back in the Scopes trials world here. It’s pretty scary. Nikole Hannah-Jones, keep doing your work. Thank you very much for being here. Really appreciate your time.
