MSNBC host Joy Reid says opponents of critical race theory are 'steeped in white nationalism' and blames GOP for 'radicalizing' parents against it
MSNBC host Joy Reid has asserted that opponents of critical race theory are 'steeped in white nationalism' and accused the GOP is radicalizing parents against the controversial curriculum.
'Republicans aren't running an election, they are waging an all out war for power that increasingly is based on and steeped in the Trump cult and even white nationalism and no matter how reckless or dangerous that is they're doing it believing it will move white voters,' Reid said on her show Wednesday.
According to Reid, the movement to ban critical race theory from classrooms across the country is a strategic maneuver from conservatives, who she refers to as the 'GQP' (the GOP and Q Anon), who are utilizing right wing media such as Fox News to radicalize parents.
'Look no further than the ongoing hysteria over race conscious education, what they are shamelessly and falsely misrepresenting as "critical race theory,"' she said. 'Radicalized parent activist across the country are targeting school boards with behind the scenes help from conservative groups.'
MSNBC host Joy Reid said the movement to ban CRT across the country is a strategic maneuver from conservatives who are radicalizing parents through Fox News
Fox News host Tucker Carlson demanded cameras to be put in every classroom to 'oversee the people teaching your children' in a broadcast earlier this week
'Protestors are swarming those meetings, vowing to revolt against a curriculum they've labeled unacceptable and reverse racist and leading the charge in this fight is, you guessed it, right wing media,' Reid added.
She pointed out that on Tuesday FOX News mentioned CRT more than 100 times before 2pm and said the network's 'fearmongering standard bearer' Tucker Carlson, who she nicknamed 'Tuckums', 'went full 1984' while denouncing what he called 'the greatest threat to our society'.
Reid was referring to the host' broadcast on Tuesday night about CRT where he demanded cameras to be put in every classroom to 'oversee the people teaching your children'.
Carlson showed a clip of a black father attending a school board meeting in Illinois where he criticized CRT, which he branded 'civilization-ending poison'.
The presenter said the theory was 'more than BS', claiming that an 'overwhelming majority of Americans' think that 'this is insane' and 'think you should judge people by what they do, not on the basis of their skin color'.
Carlson said: 'How widespread is it? Well, we can't really be sure until we finally get cameras in the classroom, as we put them on the chests of police officers, until we finally get a civilian review board in every town in America to oversee the people teaching your children, forming their minds - and let's hope we get both of those very soon.'
Six states have banned the critical race theory and another dozen are considering passing similar resolutions
Joy Reid's greatest hits: MSBNC host likes to sow division just as much as Fox News
While Reid on Wednesday accused Republicans of sowing division in the country - she herself has caused plenty of stirs in the past.
Reid's assertion that opponents of CRT are 'steeped in white nationalism' comes a few weeks after she invited CRT opponent Christopher Rufo onto her MSNBC show.
Rufo, who has been working to expose 'critical race theory indoctrination' in American companies and institutions including government agencies for at least a year, clashed with the host in a fiery debate, in which Rufo said Reid did not let him complete 'at least two sentences'.
CRT continues to be a topic of debate, with many liberals supporting the curriculum while conservatives have pushed for it to be banned from schools.
Once an obscure academic idea, critical race theory has become a political rallying cry for Republicans who argue that it sows division and makes children feel guilty for being white.
According to Education Week, CRT is a concept which is more than 40 years old with the core idea that 'race is a social construct'.
It says that racism is embedded in legal systems and policies, rather than just being the result of individual biases and prejudices.
Conservatives have accused the theory of poisoning discussions on racism, while former president Donald Trump called it a 'Marxist doctrine' which holds that 'America is a wicked and racist nation, that even young children are complicit in oppression, and that our entire society must be radically transformed'.
Founding critical race theorist and law professor Kimberlé Crenshaw said that acknowledging the history of racism in the US is seen as 'anti-American'.
CNN reported that the theory's teaching is banned in public schools in Tennessee and Idaho.
CRT exploded to prominence in the spring as it started to appear in classrooms from kindergarten to Grade 12, leading to several bans including in Florida and Texas, however it has been taught in higher education for decades.
It says that racism is not the result of nature or biology but that it is a social construct, an idea invented to exploit and control minorities.
It argues racism is a structural problem in the United States, particularly towards black people, embedded in its institutions, legal system and even the Constitution.