‘1619 Project’ Founder on DeSantis Attacking Critical Race Theory: ‘This Is Not About Making White People Feel Badly’

‘That’s just something that politicians are using to really stoke anger because they see this as a winning tool in the culture wars’

EXCERPT:

HANNAH-JONES: “Well, one, I would say that I doubt that Rick DeSantis or most Republicans actually know what critical race theory is. I doubt they have read any actual critical race theory text. Critical race theory has been around for a couple of decades. And all of a sudden now, all that you hear them talking about. Because the way that they describe critical race theory is actually not what critical race theory is. There are facts, There are facts. The fact is Rick (sic) DeSantis is speaking about the lack of systemic racism from a state that was de jure segregated. A Jim Crowe state that had segregation and anti-Black laws all across every county in the state where Black people could not really vote until the Voting Rights Acts, where there were de jure segregated schools, de jure segregated businesses. So to then argue in a state where legal discrimination existed in every aspect of American life until the 1960s, that there is no systemic racism is really arguing for a country again that has not ever existed. So what — it’s important to listen to what they’re actually arguing, they’re saying we can’t talk about our past because it is shameful. They’re not able to say that this is not the truth of our history. But that we shouldn’t teach children history because it’s shameful. I don’t think anyone who reads critical race theory has never seen to say white people should feel bad about being white. It does say that racism is imbedded in our institutions and until we acknowledge that, we will not be able to undo the harm of racism. But none of this, the 1619 Project, critical race theory, anti-racism training is about making white people feel badly about things that they have not done. That’s just something that politicians are using to really stoke anger because they see this as a — as a winning tool in the culture wars.”

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