Dismissing conservative concerns about wokeness is nothing new for NBC "comedian" Seth Meyers, but in his attempt to dismiss criticism of Critical Race Theory on Friday's edition of Late Night, Meyers crossed the line from ridicule to spreading verifiably false information.
Meyers alleged that CRT is conservatives' "latest astroturfed moral panic." According to Meyers, CRT is "A field of academic study, which examines the structural roots of American racism and the ways in which it's embedded in our laws and institutions."
What Meyers doesn't realize is that he just described a process where the CRT adherent starts with a provocative conclusion and then shoehorns evidence to fit that predetermined conclusion. It's this backwards reasoning that leads to everything from math to pedestrians on sidewalks being cited as examples of systemic racism.
Reflexively poised to defend the leftist agenda, Meyers played a clip of former RNC chair Michael Steele guest-hosting MSNBC's American Voices with Alicia Menendez on June 20 claiming CRT:
is the study of structural racism embedded in legal systems and policies often taught in graduate school. But, conservatives are using it as a pretext to ban the teaching of slavery and other anti-racist education in public schools across America. Critical Race Theory is usually taught at the college level or higher it's 40-years-plus-old, right? It's been in -- it's been talked around grad schools for some time. How did Republicans bring this fight to elementary schools?
Steele was unwilling to see that what was once a fringe academic theory is going mainstream, but worse was him falsely accusing Republicans of trying to ban the teaching of slavery. Many of the laws don't even mention history curriculum and Florida's actually mandates slavery be taught.
Yet, Meyers added:
In reality, school curricula are not nearly comprehensive enough when it comes to teaching children about the history of systemic racism in this country. The first time a lot of people heard about the Tulsa Massacre was in Watchmen. And as a rule, it's not great when you learn more from HBO than from your school.
Of course, people learn all sorts of history from TV and movies that they didn't learn in school. One could argue the Mountain Meadows Massacre could be taught alongside the Tulsa race massacre, but that is a Mormon bloodbath, and isn't useful for a perpetual-systemic-racism narrative.
Still, Meyers can't decide if he's doing a nonfiction show or playing the class clown. He just lies about the content of history textbooks, because he thinks it's funny. "Most history textbooks either leave that stuff out or it sanitizes it they just go from the Civil War to the Great Depression with a chapter in between that says, 'Your search returned no results,' and a shrug emoji."
It might be like a history book that avoids how the Democrats were the party of systemic racism for a century or more.
Meyers then repeated his earlier allegation that "Republicans freak out at any attempt to teach our children the actual history of systemic racism and its structural roots in our institutions, and they're using Critical Race Theory as a catch-all. Most of them don't even know what it is and can't define it instead, they just lie about it, like Ted Cruz."
That's rich. NBC and MSNBC just lie about what's actually in anti-CRT laws.
This segment was sponsored by Applebee's.
Here is a transcript of the June 25 show:
NBC
Late Night with Seth Meyers
12:41 PM ET
SETH MEYERS: And now their latest astroturfed moral panic is over something called Critical Race Theory. A field of academic study, which examines the structural roots of American racism and the ways in which it's embedded in our laws and institutions. Republicans, however, are just using it as a catch-all to gin up fake outrage over discussion of systemic racism in schools.
BEGIN CLIP
MICHAEL STEELE: Critical Race Theory is the study of structural racism embedded in legal systems and policies often taught in graduate school. But, conservatives are using it as a pretext to ban the teaching of slavery and other anti-racist education in public schools across America. Critical Race Theory is usually taught at the college level or higher it's 40-years-plus-old, right? It's been in -- it's been talked around grad schools for some time how did Republicans bring this fight to elementary schools?
BEN COLLINS: Well, first of all, if you ask somebody running an elementary school, for example, if they're teaching critical race theory, they will say absolutely not we don't know what you're talking about.END CLIP
MEYERS: Seth: Yeah, exactly if anything, our textbooks tend to sanitize our history. And why do you want to make educators lives more difficult by berating them about a thing they're not doing anyway teachers already have such a tough job. If I were a teacher, I'd be so exhausted most of the time, I'd just make my kids watch Amadeus on laser disk every day. "Oh, come on, Mr. Meyers, I'd rather get an ‘F’ than watch this movie again." "Oh, you'll get an ‘F’ all right an F. Murray Abraham, who ironically gives an "A" plus performance. Now shh. I'm gonna put my head down." In reality, school curricula are not nearly comprehensive enough when it comes to teaching children about the history of systemic racism in this country. The first time a lot of people heard about the Tulsa Massacre was in Watchmen.And as a rule, it's not great when you learn more from HBO than from your school. I mean, imagine having Samantha as your health teacher "My first rule of safe sex, make sure you have a padded headboard. And it's not just the Tulsa massacre there's also the Southern counterrevolution against Reconstruction after the Civil War, and the campaign of white supremacist terror during what was called "the southern redemption," which was aimed at undoing the gains of emancipation and racial equality after the war. The mob riot in Wilmington, North Carolina in 1898 that overthrew a legitimately elected biracial government. Among many other things. Most history textbooks either leave that stuff out or it sanitizes it they just go from the Civil War to the Great Depression with a chapter in between that says, "Your search returned no results," and a shrug emoji. Republicans freak out at any attempt to teach our children the actual history of systemic racism and its structural roots in our institution, and they're using Critical Race Theory as a catch-all. Most of them don't even know what it is and can't define it instead, they just lie about it, like Ted Cruz.
