Don Lemon launched the first episode of his newly renamed CNN show with guests who claimed that “critical race theory is not anti-patriotic; in fact, it is more patriotic than those who are opposed to it.”
They also likened parents who oppose teaching their children controversial and divisive race-based theories to “abusive” men who beat their wives.
“The majority of people who are probably commentating on what critical race theory is, don’t have an understanding of it,” said Ashley Allison, a CNN contributor and former member of the Obama administration’s Office of Public Engagement.
But “many” of “the elected officials that are pushing” patriotic and race-neutral educational laws “have an understanding of” CRT and are “afraid of it,” Allison warned. “They use these tropes to incite chaos.” Princeton African American Studies professor Imani Perry agreed that opposition to CRT is just the “post-Trump era way of inciting anxiety, fear, and actually trying to sort of [create] illicit hostility towards” left-wing “progress.”
Lemon’s team of experts told CNN that CRT merely wants to include more people in the dialogue. “Critical race theory just says that we have to expand the story to tell everyone’s perspective … so that we don’t repeat some of the mistakes of our past,” Allison said.
The show featured one of the supposed founders of critical race theory: Kimberlé Crenshaw. After calling Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ negative description of CRT “false and slanderous,” Crenshaw said that ackshually, CRT is more patriotic than patriotism:
Critical race theory just says let’s pay attention to what has happened in this country, and how what has happened in his country is continuing to create differential outcomes, so we can become that country that we say we are. So, critical race theory is not anti-patriotic; in fact, it is more patriotic than those who are opposed to it, because we believe in the Thirteenth, and the Fourteenth, and the Fifteenth Amendment[s]. We believe in the promises of equality, and we know we can’t get there if we can’t confront and talk honestly about inequality.
Crenshaw did not specify how opponents of CRT disbelieve in the Reconstruction Amendments, which ended slavery, granted black Americans U.S. citizenship, and recognized black Americans’ right to vote.
Opponents of CRT, Allison said, claim that “if you teach critical race theory, then you don’t love America,” but they need a more exalted vision. According to Ashley Allison, real patriotism means having the courage to say America sucks:
But really, the courage to teach critical race theory is saying to America that despite removing indigenous people from their land, despite enslaving black people and having them build this country for free; despite saying give me your poor, you know, all the folks come to the shore to breathe for free except for those coming from the Southern border; despite a former president who uses racist names and helps increase hate crimes that are going against Asian-Americans — despite that, critical race theory says if we look it in its evil eye, the Original Sin of this country and even some of its most recent sins, that we love America enough to move beyond it, because we can find solutions to end the hate and the discrimination. … People who are pushing critical race theory really love America despite the pain it has caused. and say that if we can work together there is something better and she can reach her greatest ideals.
“Republicans” and “conservatives” oppose CRT, “because they don’t have this love for the country that people who want to tell the whole story do,” said Allison.
In fact, parents who object to having their children indoctrinated in the controversial new creed of CRT are sort of like perpetrators of domestic violence. “It’s like an abusive relationship,” Allison said. “If it doesn’t go [their] way, then they are going to negotiate” (which is not, in fact, a sign of an abusive relationship).
The misinformation and attempt to redefine critical theory as patriotism conflict with CRT’s core tenants, according to its founders, as we shall see.
The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.