WEBVTT - Cecelia Lewis: The Manufactured Moral Panic Around Critical Race Theory 0:00:01.200 --> 0:00:03.920 Welcome to another episode of Internet Hate Machine. I am 0:00:04.040 --> 0:00:07.920 joined as always by my producers Sophie. Sophie, thank you 0:00:07.920 --> 0:00:10.600 for being here today. Happy to be here and happy 0:00:10.680 --> 0:00:14.160 to have our guests. That is here. I am happy 0:00:14.160 --> 0:00:17.040 to have our guest to someone who I realized I know, 0:00:17.600 --> 0:00:20.800 I guess I'm I would call myself voice familiar with, 0:00:21.120 --> 0:00:26.320 and that is James Stout, investigative journalist, historian, also educator. James, 0:00:26.360 --> 0:00:28.760 thank you for joining us. Yeah, thank you. It's nice 0:00:28.800 --> 0:00:32.360 to be face familiar as well. So we were just 0:00:32.400 --> 0:00:38.520 talking about this, James. You are a sometimes teacher, sometimes educator. Yeah, 0:00:38.560 --> 0:00:43.280 that's right. And so I'm currently adjunct faculty, which means 0:00:43.360 --> 0:00:46.760 i have no job security, which is great. Uh in 0:00:46.840 --> 0:00:50.040 San Diego Community College. It's a good thing that's happening 0:00:50.040 --> 0:00:52.199 to academia, which is overall a great industry that has 0:00:52.200 --> 0:00:58.040 no issues. But yeah, yeah, so I've taught you see 0:00:58.120 --> 0:01:01.760 San Diego. I've taught National University, UM, I like community 0:01:01.760 --> 0:01:03.560 Colley stuff, Moore, Um, that's way do you now, and 0:01:03.600 --> 0:01:05.800 to a little bit of high school and some little kids. 0:01:05.920 --> 0:01:09.320 I've done diabetes education stuff for I have to say 0:01:09.319 --> 0:01:11.720 I am also a former educator when you were talking 0:01:11.720 --> 0:01:15.360 about adjunct ing. I adjuncted all over the DC Maryland, 0:01:15.440 --> 0:01:18.520 Virginia area for many years. I taught full time at 0:01:18.520 --> 0:01:22.000 Howard University here in d C. I also I really 0:01:22.080 --> 0:01:25.440 enjoyed Community College. I thought that was I mean, I 0:01:25.480 --> 0:01:28.000 like Coward a lot too. That's kind of my my 0:01:28.200 --> 0:01:31.080 teaching home for the longest amount of time. But community 0:01:31.120 --> 0:01:33.520 college is really great. But when I was there, I 0:01:33.600 --> 0:01:37.720 also had the I guess i'll say lack of job stability. 0:01:37.800 --> 0:01:40.920 Lack of it was a it was a It was 0:01:40.959 --> 0:01:43.440 a pretty precarious time in my life. I remember I 0:01:43.480 --> 0:01:46.480 was like driving all over d C in Virginia, and 0:01:46.520 --> 0:01:50.720 I was making like twelve dollars a semester or something. 0:01:51.040 --> 0:01:54.720 And I remember very distinctly having at all staff faculty 0:01:54.760 --> 0:01:57.920 meeting with like full professors and like full time full 0:01:57.920 --> 0:02:00.000 time lecturers and stuff. And at the end of these 0:02:00.040 --> 0:02:03.040 meetings they would always give the adjunctors the bagels, and 0:02:03.240 --> 0:02:06.480 I wanted, I wanted to be offended, like, but then 0:02:06.480 --> 0:02:07.760 I would always be like, why I'm going to take 0:02:07.760 --> 0:02:11.880 the bagels? Yeah, right, it's uh, I will say. In 0:02:11.919 --> 0:02:14.160 San Diego, we have a really good union, the a 0:02:14.280 --> 0:02:16.720 f T, and we get paid better than any other 0:02:16.720 --> 0:02:19.280 I junk faculty, I know, so maybe everyone should join 0:02:19.320 --> 0:02:21.960 a union and stand up to their bosses. But yeah, 0:02:22.040 --> 0:02:27.399 freeway faculty. This struggle is struggle. It's real. So as educators, 0:02:27.960 --> 0:02:30.880 I guess I would say the state of education broadly 0:02:30.960 --> 0:02:33.720 is something that I really really care a lot about, 0:02:33.840 --> 0:02:35.880 Like it's something I think a lot about. I think 0:02:35.919 --> 0:02:39.040 it's really related to the well being of our nation 0:02:39.120 --> 0:02:40.919 and sort of like where we're going as a people. 0:02:41.320 --> 0:02:43.839 And that's kind of why it pains me to talk 0:02:43.880 --> 0:02:46.360 about what we're gonna be talking about today, which is 0:02:46.600 --> 0:02:52.120 critical race theory, or more specifically, the completely manufactured panic 0:02:52.360 --> 0:02:55.840 around critical race theory. So if you don't know what 0:02:55.880 --> 0:02:59.040 critical race theory is, don't feel bad. I think most people, 0:02:59.280 --> 0:03:03.239 even the people who are engaged in the loudest conversations 0:03:03.240 --> 0:03:06.440 about critical race theory, probably do not know what it 0:03:06.520 --> 0:03:10.360 is and have probably not even ever encountered it. So 0:03:10.639 --> 0:03:13.120 here's a definition of critical race theory from the Legal 0:03:13.160 --> 0:03:16.720 Defense Fund. They say, critical race theory, or CRT, is 0:03:16.720 --> 0:03:20.560 an academic and legal framework that denotes that systemic racism 0:03:20.639 --> 0:03:23.720 is part of American society, from education to housing, to 0:03:23.840 --> 0:03:26.800 employment to healthcare, which I don't know, seems like a 0:03:26.880 --> 0:03:29.480 kind of obvious statement to make in a country like America, 0:03:30.000 --> 0:03:33.519 But they go on. Critical race theory recognizes that racism 0:03:33.560 --> 0:03:36.640 is more than the result of individual bias and prejudice. 0:03:36.920 --> 0:03:40.280 It is embedded in laws, policies, and institutions that upholds 0:03:40.320 --> 0:03:45.360 and reproduce racial inequalities. According to CRT, societal issues like 0:03:45.400 --> 0:03:49.080 Black Americans higher mortality rate outside exposure to police violence 0:03:49.240 --> 0:03:52.080 and the school to prison pipeline, denial of affordable housing, 0:03:52.120 --> 0:03:54.520 and rates of death in black women and childbirth are 0:03:54.600 --> 0:03:59.400 not unrelated anomalies. So basically, it's this academic and legal 0:03:59.440 --> 0:04:03.040 framework that posits that racism is part of our society 0:04:03.040 --> 0:04:06.520 and that it's replicated in our institutions. It's not just 0:04:06.920 --> 0:04:12.240 individual like racist mean white people's like white meanings. It 0:04:12.360 --> 0:04:15.560 is institutional. I think it's also important to remember that 0:04:15.600 --> 0:04:20.320 the panic around CRT is completely manufactured and disingenuous. How 0:04:20.320 --> 0:04:22.880 do we know that, Well, the originator of the attack 0:04:23.120 --> 0:04:26.680 has said so pretty plainly, Christopher Rufo, senior fellow at 0:04:26.680 --> 0:04:29.680 the Manhattan Institute, And I would say all around like 0:04:29.839 --> 0:04:36.239 right wing, grifter, ship head, Yeah, whatever whatever choice word 0:04:36.320 --> 0:04:40.200 you want. To use to explain him. Basically, he is 0:04:40.240 --> 0:04:43.919 the person who brought us this like panic around a 0:04:44.000 --> 0:04:48.880 relatively obscure academic theory and having that academic theory being 0:04:48.960 --> 0:04:53.360 negatively conflated with anything even tangently related to race. This 0:04:53.440 --> 0:04:56.640 is an intentional strategy, Rufo says, Peo will eventually turn 0:04:56.760 --> 0:04:59.320 critical race theory taxic as we put all of the 0:04:59.400 --> 0:05:02.640 various cutural insanity. It is under that brand category. The 0:05:02.720 --> 0:05:05.039 goal is to have the public read something crazy in 0:05:05.040 --> 0:05:08.960 the newspaper and immediately think critical race theory. And I 0:05:09.000 --> 0:05:12.720 have to say I'm sad that he has been I 0:05:12.760 --> 0:05:16.280 would say, like pretty successful. The list of things I 0:05:16.320 --> 0:05:21.239 have seen people uninformed people on television call critical race theory. 0:05:21.560 --> 0:05:23.600 It would it's like things where saying I don't even 0:05:23.640 --> 0:05:26.640 know what that means, or like you know, this is 0:05:26.680 --> 0:05:30.680 just another critical race theory and then insert something that 0:05:30.720 --> 0:05:34.800 has nothing to do with the critical race theory. Yeah, yeah, 0:05:34.800 --> 0:05:37.160 it's just like a boogeyman. For like, I don't want 0:05:37.160 --> 0:05:41.880 to investigate my privilege or exchance or standpoint at all. Exactly. 0:05:42.240 --> 0:05:46.120 So we know that panic around CRT is harmful for 0:05:46.320 --> 0:05:48.360 all kinds of reasons. But today I want to focus 0:05:48.400 --> 0:05:51.160 on the real human cost of what happens when you 0:05:51.240 --> 0:05:55.680 call anything even tangentially related to race CRT and then 0:05:55.720 --> 0:05:58.520 whip up an intentional panic around it. And the story 0:05:58.520 --> 0:06:00.360 that I want to get into today is the story 0:06:00.520 --> 0:06:03.359 of Cecilia Lewis, because she really is someone who is, 0:06:03.760 --> 0:06:07.640 by all accounts like a very accomplished educator who got 0:06:07.680 --> 0:06:11.400 caught up in this CRT panic when really she had 0:06:11.440 --> 0:06:13.320 nothing to do with it. And her story is a 0:06:13.320 --> 0:06:15.839 good reminder of the fact that, you know, when we 0:06:15.880 --> 0:06:20.880 talk about these whipped up outrage like moral outrages, it's 0:06:20.880 --> 0:06:24.000 not just ideological people. There are real people who get 0:06:24.040 --> 0:06:26.400 caught him across fire and it has a real damaging 0:06:26.440 --> 0:06:31.920 impact on their actual lives. Yeah, yeah, sad, Yeah. And 0:06:32.000 --> 0:06:36.640 if anyone's familiar with this story, it's it's it's terrible. 0:06:37.640 --> 0:06:42.760 I'm not so I'm excited. It's some terrible ship. So 0:06:42.839 --> 0:06:44.320 first of all, I have to give a very very 0:06:44.360 --> 0:06:47.359 big shout out to Nicole car investigative reporter at pro 0:06:47.440 --> 0:06:52.880 Publica who wrote a really media expose on Cecilia Lewis's story. Honestly, 0:06:52.920 --> 0:06:56.080 it sounds like Cecilia Lewis was not someone who was 0:06:56.160 --> 0:06:59.320 super interested in telling her story publicly, Like I think 0:06:59.320 --> 0:07:01.880 that she just wanted it to lay low and have 0:07:01.960 --> 0:07:04.000 all of this go away and did not want was 0:07:04.040 --> 0:07:06.279 not someone who was interested in being caught up in 0:07:06.279 --> 0:07:08.560 this kind of a public thing. But shout out to 0:07:08.640 --> 0:07:12.720 Nicole who really did a very meaty piece on what happened, 0:07:12.880 --> 0:07:17.320 but includes some like very very compelling, thoughtful interviews with Cecilian. 0:07:17.920 --> 0:07:21.000 So who is Cecilia Lewis. Cecilia Lewis is an educator 0:07:21.000 --> 0:07:23.640 who was living in Maryland. Her husband's job was being 0:07:23.640 --> 0:07:25.760 relocated to Georgia, and so she was like, Oh, I 0:07:25.800 --> 0:07:28.440 need to find a job in Georgia. They were preparing 0:07:28.480 --> 0:07:30.960 to move from Maryland to Georgia when she got a 0:07:30.960 --> 0:07:33.760 new job at the Cherokee County School District in Georgia, 0:07:33.880 --> 0:07:36.320 where she was going to be the county's first administrator. 0:07:36.360 --> 0:07:40.360 Focused on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives commonly known as 0:07:40.480 --> 0:07:43.400 d e I. If you ever worked, like most people 0:07:43.440 --> 0:07:45.320 probably know what d e I is or have come 0:07:45.360 --> 0:07:47.840 into contact with some aspect of it, you don't know 0:07:47.880 --> 0:07:50.760 what it is. It's basically initiatives that focus on things 0:07:50.760 --> 0:07:54.640 like implicit bias, able is um gender discrimination, and generally 0:07:54.720 --> 0:07:58.200 just tries to make everyone feel welcome and included in 0:07:58.240 --> 0:08:01.000 a space. So nothing to areas you know, if you 0:08:01.080 --> 0:08:05.120 if you had to take your employee, you know, harassment 0:08:05.200 --> 0:08:07.960 training or gender biased training, things like that. Folks are 0:08:08.000 --> 0:08:11.320 probably pretty familiar with it. It is a pretty common 0:08:11.400 --> 0:08:15.400 standard thing in a lot of our lives. Cecilia also 0:08:15.400 --> 0:08:18.640 focuses on what is known as social emotional learning, which 0:08:18.840 --> 0:08:21.080 I'm gonna kind of like boil this concept down. It's 0:08:21.160 --> 0:08:24.520 basically just the idea of being empathetic to the emotional 0:08:24.560 --> 0:08:27.400 and social realities of a goal in the classroom. So 0:08:27.880 --> 0:08:32.360 saying things like, oh, sometimes students can feel anxious taking 0:08:32.360 --> 0:08:35.080 a test, or it's good for everyone to work together 0:08:35.080 --> 0:08:37.920 to accomplish our goals. Uh, those would be examples of 0:08:37.960 --> 0:08:40.840 social emotional learning. So yeah, this whole stuff is remarkable. 0:08:40.840 --> 0:08:43.680 And just thinking about, like with the social emotional learning, 0:08:43.679 --> 0:08:46.560 how like maybe this all kicked off. Do you remember 0:08:46.559 --> 0:08:50.800 when people were really mad about like content warnings in teaching. No, 0:08:51.040 --> 0:08:53.839 it's just very It's very strange to me because like 0:08:54.000 --> 0:08:57.480 a large number of the people that teach veterans right, 0:08:57.559 --> 0:09:00.360 just it's it's how poor people can go to niversity 0:09:00.400 --> 0:09:02.440 in this country and that that's not great, that's that's 0:09:02.440 --> 0:09:04.559 not a good idea, but but it is, it is 0:09:04.600 --> 0:09:08.200 what it is, And like it seems to me that 0:09:08.240 --> 0:09:10.160 if you're one of those people who very much enjoys 0:09:10.200 --> 0:09:13.200 respecting veterans, then maybe you should also not be trying 0:09:13.240 --> 0:09:16.000 to retroduce into things that might um like, I have 0:09:16.040 --> 0:09:18.079 a lot of students who might have PTSD right and 0:09:18.120 --> 0:09:20.480 they'll have an accommodation letter for that, and if they 0:09:20.520 --> 0:09:23.680 have a thing that might be difficult for them or 0:09:23.679 --> 0:09:26.079 hard for them to hear about, talk about whatever, then 0:09:26.120 --> 0:09:27.800 then seems to me that the kind thing to do, 0:09:28.080 --> 0:09:29.959 respectful thing to do is to be, like we've talked 0:09:29.960 --> 0:09:32.120 about if you don't talk about this, absolutely fine, you know, 0:09:32.160 --> 0:09:34.560 you can go and we'll come back later and it'll 0:09:34.600 --> 0:09:37.760 be great. But apparently that that became like a site 0:09:37.800 --> 0:09:40.400 of the culture wars, and of course these people are 0:09:40.400 --> 0:09:44.199 always hypocritical, like that's that's kind of the point. But yeah, 0:09:44.200 --> 0:09:47.760 it's just ridiculous. Yeah, we love respecting veterans until we 0:09:47.840 --> 0:09:50.880 have to do the things like like the smallest thing 0:09:51.000 --> 0:09:53.880 and not even do it just like except that this 0:09:53.920 --> 0:09:57.000 is a practice being done to help support veterans absolutely 0:09:57.040 --> 0:09:59.079 not no, no, no no, no, I can't have that. It 0:09:59.120 --> 0:10:01.280 can't be can be doing something just nice to everyone, 0:10:01.360 --> 0:10:04.680 Like maybe we can only do it for veterans because 0:10:04.679 --> 0:10:07.920 they've earned their right to to not be like traumatized 0:10:07.920 --> 0:10:10.600 further in the classroom. But yeah, it's very strange that 0:10:10.640 --> 0:10:13.000 these things suddenly became a site of the cultural when 0:10:13.040 --> 0:10:16.000 it's just being nice to your students. Yeah, I mean, 0:10:16.040 --> 0:10:18.560 that's that's something that when I was doing the research 0:10:18.640 --> 0:10:22.120 for this episode, I kept being struck by, Which is 0:10:22.160 --> 0:10:27.079 the things that these quote parents groups or concerned parents 0:10:27.160 --> 0:10:31.040 and air quotes say they are against are such basic 0:10:31.120 --> 0:10:34.360 tenets of like having respect for others, Like you don't 0:10:34.400 --> 0:10:36.480 want your you don't want your child being taught about 0:10:36.480 --> 0:10:41.040 having respect for others, or like basic empathy or you know, 0:10:41.080 --> 0:10:43.520 the things that the things that they would list as 0:10:43.559 --> 0:10:47.080 their grievances about the ways that our schools are being 0:10:47.200 --> 0:10:50.920 used to like indoctrinate their kids into wokeness or whatever 0:10:51.120 --> 0:10:54.280 are such basic common principles and I can't I can't 0:10:54.280 --> 0:10:56.520 imagine that they would have that, like someone would make 0:10:56.520 --> 0:10:59.040 a big issue about their kids learning about it. Yeah, 0:10:59.080 --> 0:11:01.800 it's a very strange terrain to like to like make 0:11:01.880 --> 0:11:03.719 your stand in the culture wars. You know, I mean 0:11:03.720 --> 0:11:05.960 that as we recalled this, the culture wars are like 0:11:06.000 --> 0:11:08.320 really focused on gas ovens. So I guess we're just 0:11:08.440 --> 0:11:12.800 like we're doing weird ship. Now wait what yeah, I 0:11:12.880 --> 0:11:17.160 don't know. Some it's some Texas representative was posted today 0:11:17.160 --> 0:11:19.600 that you could take his gas oven from his cold 0:11:19.640 --> 0:11:23.040 dead hands, which like like if they're going to focus 0:11:23.040 --> 0:11:27.360 on gas ovens and not like harass like trance people 0:11:27.679 --> 0:11:31.280 or children and fine, like like I can't wait for 0:11:31.320 --> 0:11:33.600 them to and then make a stand at their bath 0:11:33.679 --> 0:11:37.560 and beyond like whatever, whatever, whatever's coming next. But if 0:11:37.800 --> 0:11:43.120 no more induction heat only, it's woke. It's the new 0:11:43.120 --> 0:11:47.360 woke oven. We should use coal. It's funny that you 0:11:47.440 --> 0:11:49.240 say that, though I did just recently learn that the 0:11:49.280 --> 0:11:52.160 reason why, and I'm sure people are going to disagree 0:11:52.160 --> 0:11:54.320 with this, and I'm not an expert, but that the 0:11:54.360 --> 0:11:57.720 reason why we think of gas as better than electric 0:11:57.840 --> 0:12:01.840 is just because of propaganda from the like the like 0:12:02.000 --> 0:12:05.080 petroleum ministry and natural gas industry. I had no idea. 0:12:05.400 --> 0:12:08.120 So basically my whole life I have I've never had 0:12:08.960 --> 0:12:10.520 a gas stove, and I've always been like, oh, it 0:12:10.520 --> 0:12:12.520 would be so great to have one. Come to find out, 0:12:12.559 --> 0:12:15.960 elect electric is just as good, if not better. Yeah, 0:12:16.000 --> 0:12:19.120 it's it's fine. You've been gasolate, and the phrase I've 0:12:19.160 --> 0:12:22.120 been gasolate and the phrase, um, now you're cooking with 0:12:22.200 --> 0:12:27.280 gas that was a a manufactured phrase by the gas 0:12:27.559 --> 0:12:31.360 fun fact. I just learned that that is fascinating. It's 0:12:31.360 --> 0:12:33.520 great to see these people have adopted marketing is their 0:12:33.679 --> 0:12:38.960 entire identity, the thing that's never happened before. So back 0:12:39.000 --> 0:12:42.360 to Cecilia Lewis. Basically, you know, if you think back 0:12:42.400 --> 0:12:46.360 to when the entire world was having this sort of 0:12:46.400 --> 0:12:49.600 like reckoning around race and racial justice. In the wake 0:12:49.679 --> 0:12:52.600 of that climate, the Cherokee County School District was like, 0:12:52.679 --> 0:12:55.520 we should have our first ever d e I administrator, 0:12:55.559 --> 0:12:56.880 and that was one of the part of the reason 0:12:56.920 --> 0:12:59.800 why Cecilia was hired. But as we know that climate 0:13:00.080 --> 0:13:03.880 so came with this backlash from folks who probably felt like, oh, my, 0:13:04.720 --> 0:13:08.080 I feel challenged. My I'm starting to feel a little 0:13:08.120 --> 0:13:10.120 bit threatened in the fact that I am on the 0:13:10.160 --> 0:13:13.000 top of the of you know, the social hierarchy. So 0:13:13.280 --> 0:13:15.160 as we know that came with backlash, and I think 0:13:15.200 --> 0:13:18.199 that what happened to Cecilia is part of that backlash. 0:13:18.320 --> 0:13:20.839 Cecilia was excited to start her new job and by 0:13:20.840 --> 0:13:24.960 all accounts was like a talented, accomplished educator. But she 0:13:25.000 --> 0:13:27.400 gets an email from the administrator at her new school 0:13:27.400 --> 0:13:29.959 district asking her if she has ever heard of CRT 0:13:30.520 --> 0:13:33.439 and this was kind of before the CRT panic had 0:13:33.520 --> 0:13:36.640 really taken root, and Cecilia was like, I don't, I 0:13:36.640 --> 0:13:38.880 don't know what that is. I've never really heard of that. Now, 0:13:38.920 --> 0:13:41.200 the fact that she was such an accomplished teacher with 0:13:41.240 --> 0:13:43.040 like a master's degree, had been in the field for 0:13:43.040 --> 0:13:45.120 a while, and that she had never even heard of 0:13:45.160 --> 0:13:48.280 it really goes to show you how wild of a 0:13:48.400 --> 0:13:51.720 claim it is that she was somehow also planning on 0:13:52.240 --> 0:13:55.960 incorporating this this academic theory into her into her work 0:13:56.000 --> 0:13:57.880 at the school. She said she had never even heard 0:13:57.880 --> 0:14:01.720 of the concept. Right, So before she even starts at 0:14:01.720 --> 0:14:05.120 the school, district, parents start using a private Facebook group 0:14:05.600 --> 0:14:09.400 for Cherokee County School District Parents to dig into her background. 0:14:09.760 --> 0:14:13.559 Um One person posted that Cecilia's quote critical race theory 0:14:13.600 --> 0:14:16.560 background was a threat to the kids and encouraged everybody 0:14:16.600 --> 0:14:18.880 to send an email to the school board complaining, but 0:14:18.960 --> 0:14:22.320 again Cecilia say she didn't even know what this was. Basically, 0:14:22.440 --> 0:14:25.120 what they are saying is, this is a black woman 0:14:25.200 --> 0:14:27.840 who has the word diversity in her title, right Like, 0:14:27.840 --> 0:14:31.360 It's like very clear that this is Cecilia was not 0:14:31.440 --> 0:14:35.520 somebody who had had any history of teaching CRT. She 0:14:36.040 --> 0:14:37.880 says that she had never even heard of it. It 0:14:37.960 --> 0:14:41.400 does not show up in any public posts or statements 0:14:41.440 --> 0:14:43.520 that she has ever made in the history of her 0:14:43.560 --> 0:14:46.360 being alive at this point. And yet these parents are 0:14:46.440 --> 0:14:49.240 convinced that she has a background in critical race theory 0:14:49.400 --> 0:14:54.040 just for no reason other than her being a black woman. 0:14:55.560 --> 0:14:57.600 That's so odd, like, and it's not something that anyone 0:14:57.640 --> 0:15:01.280 ever will be teaching to like anyone unless you're like 0:15:01.640 --> 0:15:05.440 precocious and extremely smart, You're not engaging with like critical 0:15:05.480 --> 0:15:08.520 theory in school, and not until you get like upper 0:15:08.560 --> 0:15:11.640 level university classes, right exactly. I mean, the whole the 0:15:11.680 --> 0:15:13.880 whole thing is a farce, right and so um And 0:15:13.920 --> 0:15:17.120 I think this really shows to me how so much 0:15:17.160 --> 0:15:20.360 of the reporting around critical race theory was bad in 0:15:20.520 --> 0:15:22.440 so many ways, But probably the way that was the 0:15:22.480 --> 0:15:25.320 most infuriating to me and the most harmful in my opinion, 0:15:25.400 --> 0:15:28.640 is the way that it really allowed grifters to raise 0:15:28.720 --> 0:15:32.400 their personal profiles by getting up in school board meetings 0:15:32.440 --> 0:15:35.600 and screaming about critical race theory, you know. And I 0:15:35.640 --> 0:15:38.640 think that I would watch news reports, like local news 0:15:38.680 --> 0:15:42.880 reports where parents were being called, you know, concerned parents, 0:15:43.000 --> 0:15:47.520 or parents concerned about school transparency, or parents a parent 0:15:47.560 --> 0:15:50.160 who started a local grass rood organization, but they would 0:15:50.160 --> 0:15:52.440 never talk about the way that those organizations were funded, 0:15:52.480 --> 0:15:55.840 coordinated and propped up by right wing think tanks for instance, 0:15:56.200 --> 0:15:59.360 or you know, they just would let these people go 0:15:59.480 --> 0:16:03.040 on tell vision, spewing nonsense and getting engagement on it 0:16:03.160 --> 0:16:06.160 without ever asking any kind of critical questions about why 0:16:06.200 --> 0:16:09.520 that was. And I think that I don't know, I 0:16:09.560 --> 0:16:13.160 think that when we allow for grifters to just have 0:16:13.360 --> 0:16:16.280 the stage, all of us lose out right. And so 0:16:16.320 --> 0:16:18.040 these are people who realize that if they showed up 0:16:18.040 --> 0:16:20.720 to their local school board meetings and gave like a 0:16:20.840 --> 0:16:24.000 fiery speech, they might end up on Fox News. They 0:16:24.080 --> 0:16:26.520 might end up being a contributor to Fox News. They 0:16:26.600 --> 0:16:29.000 might be able to parlay this and a run for 0:16:29.120 --> 0:16:31.600 public office, which more on that later, um. And I 0:16:31.640 --> 0:16:34.720 think that these people are just like Charlatan's who use 0:16:35.840 --> 0:16:39.640 these kinds of issues to personally enrich themselves and the 0:16:39.680 --> 0:16:42.600 way that the way that local media especially allows them 0:16:42.640 --> 0:16:46.400 to do that, I think it's criminal. Yeah, it's yeah, 0:16:46.400 --> 0:16:48.800 it's it's ridiculous, kind of credulous or even like this 0:16:48.960 --> 0:16:51.400 both sidesing of things right that you don't actually need 0:16:51.440 --> 0:16:54.480 to give the side who are lying about stuff at time. 0:16:54.880 --> 0:16:56.840 And they did a coup here by the way they 0:16:56.880 --> 0:17:00.800 cooed the school board really yeah, like I forget exactly 0:17:00.840 --> 0:17:02.720 what's happening. There was like a protest and then the 0:17:02.720 --> 0:17:04.960 school board basically left and I think people were like 0:17:05.040 --> 0:17:07.520 interrupting a shouting touch and and the school board and 0:17:07.760 --> 0:17:10.800 decided to leave for their for their own safety, I think. 0:17:10.880 --> 0:17:14.160 And then these people installed themselves as the school board. 0:17:14.200 --> 0:17:18.320 They like went out there and did like a that's right, 0:17:18.400 --> 0:17:20.920 that's right, like we're the school board now, yeah, yeah, 0:17:21.840 --> 0:17:25.200 Which it's not how school boys work? Is that how 0:17:25.240 --> 0:17:29.040 anything works? Like yeah, and you're so right about this 0:17:29.160 --> 0:17:33.600 kind of really bad both sides that we see because 0:17:33.880 --> 0:17:36.280 something that so I live in d C and one 0:17:36.280 --> 0:17:40.480 of the hotbeds of anti critical race theory nonsense, was 0:17:40.600 --> 0:17:42.760 loudon County, which is in northern Virginia, pretty close to 0:17:42.840 --> 0:17:44.800 d C. And so I would watch on my local 0:17:44.840 --> 0:17:48.919 news how this issue was being framed by local like 0:17:49.040 --> 0:17:51.760 local media, and I know that we you know, I 0:17:51.800 --> 0:17:54.280 don't want to rag on local media too much because 0:17:54.280 --> 0:17:55.920 I know that they're very under resource, and so I 0:17:55.920 --> 0:18:00.639 can I can understand why you would flap together both 0:18:00.680 --> 0:18:03.600 sides package and just like air it. And it's fine 0:18:03.680 --> 0:18:05.880 because you know, when you just have to get something out. 0:18:05.880 --> 0:18:08.359 I told I can understand that, but just what a 0:18:08.400 --> 0:18:12.480 disservice it did. And I think it's interesting how whenever 0:18:12.720 --> 0:18:17.440 local media would highlight parents on the issue, almost always, 0:18:17.520 --> 0:18:20.920 by default, those parents were white and had a problem 0:18:21.040 --> 0:18:24.359 with inclusion in the classroom, And so where were black 0:18:24.440 --> 0:18:27.480 parents who were like this is kind of scary. People 0:18:27.520 --> 0:18:31.399 are showing up at school board meetings foaming at the mouth, 0:18:31.520 --> 0:18:35.119 and it's it's concerning to me who we centered as 0:18:35.240 --> 0:18:39.840 concerned parents in that whole conversation. Yeah, yeah, it's fascinating, 0:18:40.000 --> 0:18:42.920 and yeah, it's you have to think about the impact 0:18:42.960 --> 0:18:44.639 your reporting. Like yet, like you said, people have to 0:18:44.640 --> 0:18:46.639 get stuff out, and I understand that, and I've had 0:18:46.680 --> 0:18:49.600 to get stuff out myself. But like maybe we have 0:18:49.600 --> 0:18:51.879 a little bit too much news, and this is what 0:18:51.920 --> 0:18:54.880 happens when when we don't take any kind of editorial stance, 0:18:55.119 --> 0:18:58.280 and yeah, we'd like act like a fucking golden retrieve 0:18:58.320 --> 0:19:00.879 with just being like, oh look look at these people 0:19:01.400 --> 0:19:07.760 and retrievers already. I don't know, I just feel like 0:19:07.800 --> 0:19:10.359 sometimes like we report things like with like these little 0:19:10.400 --> 0:19:12.560 dogs that are just like, oh look someone's shouting, let's 0:19:12.600 --> 0:19:16.040 give them a microphone as supposed to being like huh, 0:19:16.200 --> 0:19:18.240 example I like to use for local media, it's like 0:19:18.240 --> 0:19:22.159 cops withs fentanyl. I love goal media here, like about 0:19:22.160 --> 0:19:25.040 a year ago, did this insane story on like this 0:19:25.119 --> 0:19:27.360 cop who would like contact overdose, which isn't a thing 0:19:27.440 --> 0:19:30.280 that you can do, and yeah, just being like, oh look, 0:19:30.280 --> 0:19:32.160 it's a great story, it's an exciting video. Put it out, 0:19:32.160 --> 0:19:33.919 put it out, put it out, and not just be 0:19:34.000 --> 0:19:36.400 like her. But what if it's not true? Why don't 0:19:36.400 --> 0:19:40.159 we contact a single medical doctor or just Google? Can 0:19:40.240 --> 0:19:43.879 you contact overdose fentanyl? Because like the American College of 0:19:43.880 --> 0:19:48.480 Medical Toxicology is extremely clear. But yeah, instead, you know, 0:19:49.040 --> 0:19:50.840 I guess you get some clicks or something. I don't know. 0:19:50.880 --> 0:19:54.800 It's disappointing. There are great local reporters too. Yeah, yeah, 0:19:54.800 --> 0:19:57.440 I don't want to read a local reporting. The fentanyl 0:19:57.480 --> 0:20:01.040 thing is something that burns me up. I will go 0:20:01.080 --> 0:20:02.960 I always go off on a complete hand. Yet I 0:20:03.000 --> 0:20:07.160 saw one recently where the headline suggested that a police 0:20:07.200 --> 0:20:11.719 officer was doing a traffic stop the fent atyl blew up. 0:20:11.760 --> 0:20:13.800 There was a gust of wind, and they say that 0:20:13.840 --> 0:20:17.199 the fent atyl like blew up her nose and that 0:20:17.320 --> 0:20:20.320 she that like she had an overdose that way, it's 0:20:20.359 --> 0:20:25.560 like the amount of anti Just just think about it 0:20:25.640 --> 0:20:27.399 for one second, if that's something that you think that 0:20:27.440 --> 0:20:30.320 makes sense. Like she opened the car door, there was 0:20:30.359 --> 0:20:32.560 a gust of wind, wouldn't you know it it blew 0:20:32.640 --> 0:20:36.439 right up her nose. Yeah, it's mad, it's and it 0:20:36.560 --> 0:20:40.320 really hurts people, right like, because if you see someone overdosing, 0:20:40.440 --> 0:20:42.199 you should go and try and help them. And if 0:20:42.200 --> 0:20:44.440 you have knock and you can very very easily help them. 0:20:44.440 --> 0:20:47.520 And there aren't many downsides using knock at but if 0:20:47.520 --> 0:20:49.760 you think that by being within twenty of them, you're 0:20:49.760 --> 0:20:52.000 going to overdose yourself, and you might not do that, 0:20:52.080 --> 0:20:54.439 and that that person might not make it and like 0:20:54.640 --> 0:20:58.040 it's really damaging. It's not just like silly and funny, 0:20:58.240 --> 0:21:01.960 and it's unfortunate for these dec ops, but like it's 0:21:02.000 --> 0:21:04.040 it's unfortunate that someone's told them a lie to the 0:21:04.080 --> 0:21:08.080 degree that they're they're having these sort of psychosomatic problems, right, 0:21:08.080 --> 0:21:11.040 Like totally it's not very nice for them, I'm sure. 0:21:11.480 --> 0:21:13.080 And it's also I think that your point is such 0:21:13.080 --> 0:21:16.200 a good one that it's incredibly stigmatizing for people who 0:21:16.560 --> 0:21:18.840 do use substances. I think the idea that like you 0:21:18.880 --> 0:21:21.320 can't even touch them or you'll get it, like it 0:21:21.320 --> 0:21:24.760 it's it's incredibly like dehumanizing, and I think it I 0:21:24.760 --> 0:21:31.440 think it is a myth that normalizes this kind of stigmatizing, 0:21:31.680 --> 0:21:35.200