On his Monday show on CNN, Don Lemon suggested that Florida is trying to cancel math with its new anti-Critical Race Theory Law while Bakari Sellers suggested that these types of laws are “Putin-esque” and tantamount to book burning.
Lemon led Sellers by implying that the idea that CRT is in math is insulting:
I was just, like, glancing down at some of these numbers, because you mentioned Florida, Bakari. In Florida, the Department of Education’s rejected more than 50 math textbooks for next year, 71% in grades K5, some of them allege references to Critical Race Theory. Okay, Bakari, Critical Race Theory is not part of the curriculum, and the idea that it — it is in the math textbooks, I mean seriously?
Using math, it appears that Florida green lit 29% of textbooks, which means young Floridians will continue to be educated in math without any problems. Still, Sellers joked, “Wait until they find out some math is non-binary, right?”
After Lemon’s uncontrollable laughter died down, Sellers continued:
I'm not quite sure what exactly we're doing. I mean, to be, if you — if you want to bring it back to the 50,000-foot view, it's Putin-esque, it's authoritarianism. It's — it’s showing what we don't want the United States of America to be. I mean, this — this is the proverbial book burning minus the smoke and flames.
Trying to prove he isn’t just a hack, Sellers tried to portray elementary school curriculum about race essentialism, gender identity, and sexual orientation as analogous to conservative speakers, presumably at college campuses, “I'm not for cancel culture on either side. I think if you want to bring somebody who is a right-wing nut to the campus, you should be able to do that.”
Sellers concluded by implying he has no concept of curriculum standards: “Schools are a place where you have an opportunity to learn as much as possible about what the world is and what it should be or could be and what we're doing right now is just stifling them in what we believe America is, and unfortunately, I don't think America fits the mold for any of us on this planet.”
And nothing about Florida’s textbook selection will prohibit them for learning math.
This segment was sponsored by Safelite.
Here is a transcript for the April 18 show:
CNN Don Lemon Tonight
4/18/2022
11:39 PM ET
DON LEMON: I was just, like, glancing down at some of these numbers, because you mentioned Florida, Bakari. In Florida, the Department of Education’s rejected more than 50 math textbooks for next year, 71% in grades K5, some of them allege references to Critical Race Theory. Okay, Bakari, Critical Race Theory is not part of the curriculum, and the idea that it—it-- is in the math textbooks, I mean seriously?
BAKARI SELLERS: Wait until they find out some math is non-binary, right? That was a joke [uncontrollable laughter]. I’ll be here all week, don’t worry about it.
But, I mean, it’s—it-- makes you laugh about it if it wasn't so sad. I'm not quite sure what exactly we're doing. I mean, to be, if you—if you-- want to bring it back to the 50,000-foot view, it's Putin-esque, it's authoritarianism. It's—it’s-- showing what we don't want the United States of America to be. I mean, this—this-- is the proverbial book burning minus the smoke and flames. In schools should be a place. I'm not for cancel culture on either side. I think if you want to bring somebody who is a right-wing nut to the campus, you should be able to do that. I think if you want to educate people or whatever, you should be able to do that. Schools are a place where you have an opportunity to learn as much as possible about what the world is and what it should be or could be and what we're doing right now is just stifling them in what we believe America is, and unfortunately, I don't think America fits the mold for any of us on this planet.
