Likely Republican victories in the 2022 midterm elections mean that “the apocalypse is before us” and that parents’ opposition to Critical Race Theory reveals that “the integral part of an American educational system is to attack the intelligence of black kids,” said Michael Eric Dyson, a frequent MSNBC and CNN commentator, on Monday.
Tiffany Cross elicited the comments while guest hosting “The ReidOut” on MSNBC. “We’ve seen countless warnings that democracy is in danger,” she said, warning that Republicans would replicate the successful strategy of campaigning against CRT.
“This is a prelude to the kiss-off of American democracy,” said Dyson. “The apocalypse is before us. We speak in these apocalyptic terms; people call us exaggerators. ‘Oh my God, why don’t you stop over-responding?’”
Complaints that the filibuster and the election of Republicans like Virginia Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin pose existential threats to freedom are rejected by “people who are not used to being shat upon,” said Dyson, an ordained minister.
Cross also asked Dyson, a professor of African-American studies at Vanderbilt University, to explain the controversial, quasi-Marxist ideology of Critical Race Theory to her “non-melanated brothers and sisters” who oppose it.
“The truth is, they’re more down with O.P.P. than they are with CRT. They don’t even know what it is. They can’t even define it. They can’t even speak about it — Other People’s Politics, in this case,” Dyson said.
His statement is a familiar one. HBO’s Bill Maher dismantled the same argument from Dyson last month, after Dyson attacked “parents who were spooked by Critical Race Theory, none of whom can define it; when you ask them what it is, they don’t know.” As The Daily Wire’s Hank Berrien reported, Maher responded:
“I find that a disingenuous argument because I don’t think that is what people are objecting to,” Maher responded. “They are not objecting to black history being taught. There are other things going on in the schools.”
“Like what?” Dyson sneered.
“Like separating children by race and describing them as either oppressed or oppressor. I mean, there are children coming home who feel traumatized by this. That‘s what parents are objecting to,” Maher answered.
“Ain’t nobody teaching Critical Race Theory in kindergarten, or fifth grade or sixth grade,” Dyson claimed on Monday, arguing that “it is a law school theory.” But public schools are teaching young children “to be skeptical about the default position of whiteness in American education,” he said. White students “are hungry” for CRT, he claimed. CRT is resisted by “people who are not used to seeing black people be the indices, the index, the measure of who are as a nation,” Dyson said.
.@glennkirschner2 .@MalcolmNance .@B52Malmet .@JudyPete "American Democracy Is Only As Good As We Are Willing To Fight For It." – Michael Eric Dyson pic.twitter.com/nMBpFhUtXm
— ChattJazz (@ChattJazz) December 28, 2021
“We know that the integral part of an American educational system is to attack the intelligence of black kids,” Dyson asserted, adding that the racist structures of America mean black students face “getting kicked out of school at 4” years old and “being overpoliced by overzealous guardians of our safety.”
While Dyson has spent years accusing “vicious police forces of America” of having “victimized” the black community, a Gallup poll released at the height of the Black Lives Matter riots found that 81% of black Americans wanted policing to remain at the same or higher levels in their communities.
After a national grassroots backlash against CRT-themed public school curricula swept the country, CNN and MSNBC claimed the public schools do not teach Critical Race Theory. CNN took the unusual tactic of having a woman who teaches CRT in Philadelphia’s public schools tell its viewers, “Critical Race Theory is not being taught in schools.”
In reality, public school districts have filtered CRT principles of “privilege,” “oppression,” “whiteness,” and “institutional racism” into the curriculum for students and teachers alike. The Loudoun County Public School system handed out a graphic saying that Christians, white people, and people who speak English as their primary language are privileged, while non-Christians, immigrants, and gender non-conforming people experience “oppression” in American society. The Lower Manhattan Community Middle School announced in November it would separate seventh and eighth graders by race for two days of instruction.
Columbia University linguistics professor John McWhorter called denying that schools teach principles derived from CRT “a debate team stunt, not serious engagement with a dynamic and distressing reality.”
.@MichaelEDyson: "The truth is, they're more down with O.P.P. than they are with CRT. They don't even know what it is. They can't even define it. They can't even speak about it. Other People's Politics, in this case." #TheReidOut #reiders pic.twitter.com/dqpGQx0yud
— The ReidOut (@thereidout) December 28, 2021
Daily Wire editor emeritus Ben Shapiro concisely defined Critical Race Theory on “Real Time.”
WATCH: In only 65 seconds, @BenShapiro gives the best and most substantive definition of critical race theory you'll ever hear or read. pic.twitter.com/7pXXIxQHo6
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) August 7, 2021
Dyson had made a career out of making incendiary remarks on national television. He said that Virginia Lieutenant Governor-elect Winsome Sears, a black woman, was little more than a puppet for white nationalists. Republicans “want white supremacy by ventriloquist effect. There is a black mouth moving, but a white idea through the, running on the runway of the tongue … to have a black face speaking in behalf of a white supremacist legacy.”
Sears challenged Joy Reid to have her on the low-rated 7 p.m. show, but Reid has ignored the challenge while inviting Dyson back on the show numerous times since he made his caustic remarks.
Still waiting for my invite @JoyAnnReid 🤔 pic.twitter.com/qe3C5YlDmZ
— Team Winsome (@WinWithWinsome) November 5, 2021
Republicans are widely expected to retake Congress and fare well nationally during the 2022 midterm elections, due in large part to President Joe Biden’s low poll ratings, driven down by decades-high inflation rates, soaring COVID-19 infections, and rising homicide and overdose deaths.
“Pretty much every single indicator that pointed to a Democratic wave in the 2018 midterms now points to a Republican one in the 2022 midterms,” wrote CNN’s Harry Entin earlier this month.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.