“They say critical race theory means America is a racist country. It doens’t mean that.” As Michael Harriot’s series explaining the two CRTs continues, he introduces you to the man we have to thank for the recent CRT movement that is based on lies. He’ll explain Christopher Rufo’s agenda to rebrand critical race theory and how he’s managed to convince dozens of states to follow his lead.
READ FULL TRANSCRIPT BELOW:
TGD CRT Vs CRT part 2_FINALv2.mp4
Being Black in the 80s [00:00:00] Take a ride through the 1980s via the songs that tell the history of the decade. Being Black in the 80s is a podcast docu series hosted by me, Touré, looking at the most important issues of the eighties through the lens of the decade’s songs. This is the funkiest history class you’ll ever take. Join me, Touré, for Being Black in the 80s on theGrio Black Podcast Network, or wherever you listen to podcasts available June 1st.
Panama Jackson [00:00:30] You are now listening to theGrio’s Black Podcast Network.
Michael Harriot [00:00:33] Black Culture Amplified. Hello and welcome back. You know, I know you miss me or maybe you didn’t like maybe you came to this directly from the last episode. And if you did, you know that we’re having multiple episodes conversation about CRT versus critical race theory. And so I want to welcome you to theGrio Daily. The only podcast that will explain the two CRTs. Over the last episode, we talked about critical race theory, some of its origins. How, like Derrick Bell, didn’t necessarily create it. Was it involved because like some of the principles in the actual critical race theory have been around before Derrick Bell was even born, right? W.E.B. Du Bois always talked about some of these principles, even people like Martin Luther King. Right. So these principles have always existed among Black scholars as they evolved. More Black scholars kind of wanted to examine them in a structural way. And that’s how critical race theory was born out of critical theory.
Michael Harriot [00:01:51] Now, like one of the first critical theories was a guy named Karl Marx. He had this critical theory of economics, that is called Marxism, because Marxism was an early critical theory, anyone who uses any kind of critical theory, dumb people will always call them Marxists because they are examining something through the lens of another thing. Right? But what they don’t understand is that white people examine things through the lens of race, too. And that’s what birthed this whole controversy. Now we’re going to have to talk about CRT, not critical race theory. In 2021, 2020. White people begin to rebrand critical race theory as CRT, they talked about it on the Internet. And this guy named Christopher Rufo. He even tweeted that he is intentionally putting basically everything Black under the brand of CRT and then driving up the negative perceptions. That was his goal, Right. The reason that he did that was not because he was an opponent of like real history or Black people learning. He was just a right wing dude, right. He said like how do I brand this stuff that I don’t like. And he settled on critical race theory and people jumped in with both feet. Right. Because they had never taken this graduate level class and they had never heard of critical race theory. They just adopted his definition. Critical race theory is, you know, make a white kid feel bad. Critical race theory believe that every white person is racist and they didn’t just, like start believing this. They started writing laws. Right. Nearly every state law. The last time I counted was 34 states is based on Christopher Rufo’s definition of critical race theory.
Michael Harriot [00:04:01] They say critical race theory means America is a racist country. That means that. But that’s what it says. They say it means that one sex, race, ethnicity, color or national origin is inherently superior to another race. Sex, religion, national origin. Critical race theory doesn’t say that. In fact, it says the opposite. But CRT, this thing that they invented, says that, right. In fact, critical race theory is based on the principle that race is just something that people made up. Right. Countries are just arbitrarily drawing lines. But the other principle that CRT says that an individual, by the virtue of the race, sex, national origin, blah, blah, blah, can be inherently sexes, races or privileged, whether it’s subconsciously or unconsciously. Critical race theory doesn’t say that. Christopher Rufo And white people say that and they put it under the definition of CRT. The moral character of those individuals are determined by their sense of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, something like that. Like that’s one of the principles that meritocracy or traits like working hard, studying hard are racist, sexist and oppressive. Critical race theory doesn’t say anything like that, even though white people do think like they got everything by merit. And people don’t achieve that stuff by because they were lazy. Critical race theory doesn’t say that. It notes that is some of the products of racism. Right. That kind of mentality. Fault, blame or bias should be assigned to a race, sex or ethnicity based on nothing but their race or their gender or their privilege.
Michael Harriot [00:05:58] This thing that they made up, they believe he says it. Now, all of those things are exactly contradictory to actual critical race theory. But if you pull up any states laws that have passed a bill and we’ll put some on the screen for you. Here’s South Carolina’s, here’s Mississippi’s, here’s Tennessee, you notice they all have those precepts like right in the law because they didn’t take critical race theory didn’t take that stuff that Derrick Bell it or they didn’t take the work of Kimberly Crenshaw. They didn’t take the book that was written by Richard Delgado. They didn’t use any of that. They didn’t use any actual critical race theory to define critical race theory. They use this definition by this white grievance studies, white supremacist named Christopher Rufo. Then Ron DeSantis hired Chris Rufo to be in charge of Florida schools. And voila. CRT was redefined, but doesn’t mean anything because, again, they redefined stuff. They redefined civil rights as communism. They redefined, you know, the Black power movement as anti-white. They redefined Black Lives Matter as anti-cop. It’s what they do. But it’s not true. So you have to realize that when you’re talking about critical race theory. It’s different from this CRT thing that was manufactured and written into law. And next episode, we’re going to get into the major differences. But first, you’ve got to tell a friend about this podcast. First, you’ve got to download that Grio app, and first you got to subscribe on whatever platform you listen to this podcast. And of course, you’ve got to wait for me to give you that Black saying that we end every podcast with and today’s Black saying is “A lie don’t care who tell it, but white people do.” We’ll see you next time on theGrio Daily. If you like what you heard, please give us a five star review. Download theGrio app. Subscribe to the show and to share it with everyone you know. Please email all questions, suggestions and compliments to podcast at theGrio dot com.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:08:46] I’m political scientist, author and professor Dr. Christina Greer, and I’m host of The Blackest Questions on theGrio’s Black Podcast Network. This person invented ranch dressing around 1950. Who are they?
Mar Lamont Hill [00:08:59] I have no idea.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:09:01] This all began as an exclusive Black history trivia party at my home in Harlem with family and friends. And they got so popular it seemed only right to share the fun with our Grio listeners. Each week we invite a familiar face on the podcast to play. What was the name of the person who was an enslaved chief cook for George Washington and later ran away to freedom? In 1868, this university was the first in the country to open a medical school that welcomed medical students of all races, genders and social classes. What university was.
Roy Wood Jr [00:09:34] This is why I like doing stuff with you, because I leave educated. I was not taught this in Alabama Public Schools.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:09:40] Question three. You ready?
Eboni K. Williams [00:09:42] Yes. I want to redeem myself.
Amanda Seales [00:09:44] How do we go from Kwanzaa to like these obscure.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:09:49] Diaspora, darling.
Amanda Seales [00:09:50] This is like the New York Times crossword from a Monday to a Saturday.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:09:54] Right or wrong. All we care about is the journey and having some fun while we do it.
Kalen Allen [00:09:59] I’m excited and also a little nervous.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:10:01] Oh, listen. No need to be nervous. And as I tell all of my guests, this is an opportunity for us to educate ourselves, because Black history is American history. So we’re just gonna have some fun. Listen, some people get zero out of five. Somebody can get five out of five. It doesn’t matter. We’re just going to be on a little intellectual journey together.
Eboni K. Williams [00:10:17] Latoya Cantrell.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:10:19] That’s right. Mayor Latoya Cantrell.
Michael Twitty [00:10:22] Hercules Posey.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:10:23] Hmm. Born in 1754 and he was a member of the Mount Vernon slave community, widely admired for his culinary skills.
Kalen Allen [00:10:30] I’m going to guess AfroPunk.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:10:33] Close. It’s AfroNation. So last year. According to my research, it’s Samuel Wilson a.k.a Falcon.
Jason Johnson [00:10:42] Wrong. Wrong. I am disputing this.
Latosha Brown [00:10:46] Very, very, very 99.9999 sure that it is Representative John Lewis, who is also from the state of Alabama. That let you know, Christina, we got some goodness come out of Alabama.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:10:58] There’s something in the water in Alabama. And you are absolutely correct.
Diallo Riddle [00:11:01] The harder they come.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:11:03] Close.
Diallo Riddle [00:11:04] Oh, wait, The Harder They Fall?
Dr. Christina Greer [00:11:06] That’s right. I’m one of those people that just changes one word.
Roy Wood Jr [00:11:10] I just don’t know nothing today. I’m going to pour myself a little water while you tell me the answer.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:11:15] The answer is Seneca Village, which began in 1825 with the purchase of land by a trustee, the A.M.E. Zion Church.
Roy Wood Jr [00:11:22] You know what games like this make me nervous? I don’t know if I know enough Black. Do I know enough? How Black am I? Oh, my Lord. They. They. We going to find out in public.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:11:30] So give us a follow. Subscribe and join us on the Blackest Questions.
