The media on Tuesday night worked to paint “Fixer Upper” stars Chip and Joanna Gaines, an interracial couple, as racists for donating $1,000 to Chip’s sister’s local school board campaign, which aims in part to stop highly controversial critical race theory from being taught in schools.
Countless media headlines bypassed that Shannon Braun, the woman to whom the couple donated, is Chip’s own sister. Many also framed critical race theory as nothing more than teaching students about “racism,” which it’s not.
“TV stars Chip and Joanna Gaines donate to campaign against critical race theory in schools,” a headline from The Hill read.
Reposted on Yahoo! News, Insider ran with the headline: “Chip and Joanna Gaines reportedly donated $1,000 to a Texas school board candidate trying to ban teaching about systemic racism.”
Numerous others outlets were on board with the same message: Chip and Joanna bad; Chip and Joanna racists.
They gave $1000 to Chip's sister who is running for local school board.
And this is the headline… https://t.co/8igS5PYlie
— Cabot Phillips (@cabot_phillips) May 25, 2021
Braun, who’s campaigning for the Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District (GCISD) School Board, has called critical race theory “the single most divisive threat” in education, according to The Dallas Morning News.
“I will vote down anything and everything that further promotes critical race theory in our school district and actively work to remove all critical race theory,” Braun has promised parents.
The mother’s position is in fact not radical, at all, but a push-back against new “woke” measures from radical leftists.
As highlighted by James Lindsay, the founder of New Discourses and a leading expert on critical race theory, the divisive ideology dangerously separates people into groups of the “oppressed” and the “exploiters.” The Daily Wire reported:
Lindsay begins by noting that, in the teachings of Critical Race Theory, skin color is the most important part of you. If you belong to a racially “minoritized” group, then you’re oppressed; if you belong to a racially “privileged group,” you’re an exploiter.
“Critical Race Theory begins from the assumption that racism occurs in all interactions,” notes Lindsay. … Because Critical Race Theory teaches that racism is present in every interaction, proponents of the ideology are forced to interpret every interaction “critically” — in such a way that identifies the racism. And Critical Race Theory will always find the racism it seeks, says Lindsay, “even if it has to read your mind to do it.”
“Critical Race Theory, therefore, is not a continuation of the Civil Rights Movement,” Lindsay emphasized. “It is in fact a repudiation of it. To Critical Race Theorists, Martin Luther King was both wrong and naïve. White Americans can never judge blacks by the content of their character. They can only judge them, always unfavorably — consciously or unconsciously — by the color of their skin.”
This is not the first time the media have taken aim at Chip and Joanna, who openly hold Christian views. The pair have been smeared in the media for alleged “homophobia” because they did not feature a gay couple on their highly popular “Fixer Upper” show.