Eddie Glaude, a Princeton University professor who appeared on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” Tuesday, rolled his eyes when Manhattan Institute Fellow and prominent critical race theory critic Christopher Rufo described the materials used in classrooms.
Rufo said that parents are concerned about the materials being taught to their children, including content about how “whiteness” is harmful. He said the CRT content is taught in hundreds of schools across the country. (RELATED: ‘You Repeat These Same Things’: Joy Reid And Christopher Rufo Clash Over Critical Race Theory)
Critical race theory teaches children that America is fundamentally racist and instructs them to view every interaction through the lens of race. While pro-CRT liberals and the media have tried to say that it is not being taught in K-12 schools, several examples show that it is – officials from the East Side Community School in Manhattan asked parents to “reflect” on their “whiteness” when they passed out literature on “the 8 white identities.”
Fairfax County, Virginia, decided to end admissions tests for the prestigious Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in favor of a “holistic review” process to increase diversity. The largest school district in New York City also replaced merit-based admission to middle schools with a lottery system. The National Education Association recently pledged more than $127,000 to put CRT-based curriculum in place in more than 14,000 schools across the country.
“What I’m concerned about, and what millions of parents are concerned about is things that are happening in hundreds of public schools, in Illinois and Chicago, where they’re teaching children as young as kindergarten that whiteness is the devil and attempts to lure people into it with the promise of stolen land and stolen riches,” Rufo explained. “That’s a book used in hundreds of schools.”
Rufo said the book he’s referring to is called “Not My Idea.”
When Rufo said that “whiteness is the devil,” Glaude dramatically rolled his eyes.
Rufo then went on to talk about the increasing amount of public opposition to CRT. Parents have formed over 165 groups to combat CRT according to an NBC News analysis, and school boards across the country have been flooded with concerned parents.
“And people don’t think that’s right,” he continued. “People want to know where it comes from, people want to know what ideologies are for it.”
When host Joe Scarborough asked Glaude about preventing the “extremes” of CRT from being taught in classrooms, the professor told him that “there are going to be moments of overreach” but Americans have “to confront the ugliness of who we are.” He claimed that classrooms are reassuring a “lie” about what America is and American history.