As we discussed last week, critical race theory is a subtle philosophical construct where the answer to everything is: THATS RACIST! Teachers hawking this glop are being defended by their journalist allies, who sneer that CRT critics are too stupid to understand the nuances of the theory.
The Aristotelian ideal of this sneer was Elle Reeves special report for CNN pre-taped to eliminate any danger of Elle being contradicted by someone smarter, such as a 10-year-old.
CNNs Brianna Keilar introduced the segment by asking her: Do these vocal opponents of critical race theory actually understand fully what it is?
(Thats whats known as a rhetorical question, kids!)
Elle: No. [Bored] And why should they? Its an academic theory taught mostly at the grad student level. But what they think it means is teaching white kids that all white people are bad and racist. And so, of course theyre afraid of that. Theyre afraid!!! Wait remind me: Whos banning books, again? Whos flipping out about microaggressions? Whos demanding that Big Tech censor people? Whos demanding trigger warnings and safe spaces from speech they dont like?
Parents arent afraid; theyre incensed. Theyre paying the salaries of people who spend all day telling their kids that America is racist. (Elle didnt give that explanation. Perhaps it frightens her.)
The vocal opponents of CRT who dont actually understand fully what it is seem to be mostly billionaire investment bankers at least judging by the articles in the Daily Mail. Elles conclusion: A theory that consists of going around shouting RACISM! is too complex for those guys to understand.
The format of Elles pre-taped report consisted of her interviewing opponents of CRT
then nailing them with her brilliant comebacks! Except even with CNN doing the editing, the CRT opponents sounded perfectly reasonable, while Elles comebacks kept revealing her yawning stupidity.
Early in Elles report, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is shown saying, Critical race theory says Americas fundamentally racist. What a dope! But why bother knowing stuff when smug arrogance is good enough for CNN?
About 60 seconds later, Elle deferentially asks a hijab-wearing high school teacher to explain CRT. The teacher exclaims: Race and racism is literally the building blocks of this country! (Were I the editor of Elles piece, I think I would have cut that part of her answer.) Next, Elle talks to a parent fighting CRT, who says: Dont force on our kids a particular worldview. Taking a wide brush and painting this country as structurally racist, its insane
its a lie.
To this, Elle patronizingly informs the parent that Americas racism isnt distant history. Her evidence of contemporary racism? In the 90s, the crime bill gave much more severe sentencing to crack cocaine versus powder cocaine simply because black people were perceived as doing crack cocaine and white people werent
HOW MANY TIMES DO WE HAVE TO GO THROUGH THIS? The reason crack penalties were so severe is because the Congressional Black Caucus demanded it. (And as long as Im correcting Elles false facts, the crack penalties were passed in 1986 and 1988, not in the 1990s.)
Black churches, black leaders and black members of Congress were enraged by what the crack epidemic was doing to their neighborhoods. A 1986 New York Times article reported on all-night vigils held by the leaders of 60 black churches, who called the crack epidemic a new form of genocide. Urban League President John Jacob railed against communities held hostage by crack dealers, saying drugs kill more blacks than the (Ku Klux) Klan ever did. Running for president in 1988, Jesse Jackson spoke of the scourge of crack cocaine and told a cheering crowd, When I become president, the drug pusher is in trouble.
White supremacists right, Elle? This has been patiently explained roughly 1 million times. But why bother knowing stuff when smug arrogance is good enough for CNN?
Elles next big gotcha was even more embarrassing, if that is possible. She rolled out the old chestnut about blacks being considered three-fifths of a human being in our Constitution. Yes, she really did that.
Heres her exchange with a college Republican:
COLLEGE REPUBLICAN: To paint the country as an inherently racist country from its founding I think is dangerous.
REEVE: The three-fifths compromise is written into the Constitution in which slaves are counted as three-fifths of a person.
SCORE!
How can you be in journalism and have no idea what the three-fifths clause means? No research is involved, Elle! Just read it.
The three-fifths clause means exactly the opposite of what Elle thinks it means. This was not a general statement on the slaves humanity: It was about congressional apportionment. The slave states wanted to count slaves as full persons in order to increase the number of their representatives in Congress.
If you adored slavery, youd want the Constitution to count each slave as a full person as 20 people! The slaves still couldnt vote, but their slave masters would get more votes in Congress. Its the same idea behind Californias demand that illegal aliens be counted when determining that states congressional apportionment.
I cant even believe theres anyone in America who needed that explained again. (Next time, Ill just say: Get a home-schooler to explain it to you, Elle.)
It must have been embarrassing for everyone at CNN to watch this bimbo misstating well-known facts in a network special report that was supposed to show what cretins CRT critics are.
So how did the CNN hosts react? They were gobsmacked by the genius of Elles report!
JOHN BERMAN: That was so great.
KEILAR: Right?
BERMAN: I mean, that was just so great, and just the way the questions are asked. Just by asking simple questions you revealed so much. I mean, that was just fantastic.
ELLE: Thank you.
My idea of hell is being condescended to by an idiot, forever and ever, with no respite. In other words, watching CNN.