“KABOOM: On Her Show, Joy Reid Gets Sunk By Critical Race Theory Critic”

Christopher Rufo is one of the leading voices against Critical Race Theory in American Institutions. He’s well versed in Critical Race Theory and the effects of it through his in depth reports. And yet Joy Reid accused him of not even knowing what CRT is on her show. She made outlandish claims about CRT and pretended that she was telling the truth. She even said, “I don’t allow people to come on and just make up things and say lies on my show.”

1. She claims that Ibram X. Kendi isn’t a Critical Race Theorist. She even reached out to Kendi to confirm her theory.
2. She claims that Robin Diangelo (author of “White Fragility” isn’t a Cricital Race Theorist).
3. She argues says she doesn’t even know “who that Applebaum lady is” (which should be telling on how much homework joy has done on her own).
4. She argues that Kimberly Crenshaw isn’t a Critical Race Theorist! And the theory of Instersectionality which Crenshaw invented has nothing to do with CRT!
5. Reid says Rufo has created his own thing — Christopher Rufo Theory

Point #1:

Kendi will not be honest about Critical Race Theory. I’ve read him extensively and he’s clearly operating from a CRT framework. If prior CRT scholarship had not existed, then his work wouldn’t exist either. Period. He’s playing the game that all of the news networks are playing right now… they say, “CRT is high and lofty only taught in law schools.” Yes, it was birthed by Derek Bell at Harvard Law but it has sprawled out into every discipline by now. Even some of the seminal CRT texts explain this. Yet the far left wants to play the semantics game, so Kendi makes it sound as though you must be a lawyer to be a Critical Race Theorist.

Another quick point. This debate is not about identifying Critical Race Theorists. There might be a philosophical field of study, but people don’t have to have a PhD in philosophy to espouse and teach those beliefs. Just like many Christians study their Bibles and even study Greek and Hebrew or other works of theology but they’ve never gone to seminary nor could you argue that they are theologians. Nonetheless, there are many pastors and leaders who have far reaching public platforms where they diffuse their teaching without ever having earned a theology degree. Nonetheless, they are influenced by particular streams of theology. For instance, Joel Osteen a famous preacher doesn’t have a divinity degree at all. As a matter of fact according to Wikipedia he dropped out of college. Nonetheless, he is the premier prosperity teacher out there. You could say he’s the guru. No one has spread the health, wealth, and happiness gospel with as much effectiveness as Joel Osteen. However, if he wanted to shirk responsibility for diffusing prosperity theology he could say, “but I’m not a theologian. Therefore, I can’t be the one teaching this theology.” Yet, those of us in the real world understand that it’s the Joel Osteen’s who have the reach and bring the message to the masses. Not the guy who wrote the theology books. In the same way, Kendi is the guru who brings critical race theory to the masses.

Joy claimed that the quote from Kendi posted below contradicts what Rufo is arguing as though he’s misrepresenting Kendi. Yet those who operate within the framework of critical theory rhetoric believe that language is a weapon so they change meanings of words all the time.

I’ll admit, Kendi does have a nuanced CRT view, but upon closer examination it’s more oppressive than Robin Diangelo’s in my opinion. The nice thing is that he doesn’t assign racism to white people, yet functionally white are assigned to the same perpetual purgatory of penance in order to receive forgiveness as Diangelo ascribes. But what’s worse is that he creates the same mandate upon people of color. They, too, must believe the right things otherwise they are racist as well. And I don’t mean racist against whites. I mean blacks who don’t believe correctly are racist against blacks. Essentially they are white supremacists.

A racist is someone who is supporting a racist policy by their actions or inaction or expressing a racist idea. An antiracist is someone who is supporting an antiracist policy by their actions or expressing an antiracist idea.

Kendi, “How to Be An Antiracist” p.22

So racism isn’t just mistreating someone because of the color of their skin it’s also not having the right politics. If he meant policies like Jim Crow laws, red lining, etc. Then that would make sense. But he means any kind of policy like minimum wage laws, gun control, abortion, education, economic. So how do we know which policy is racist? We must ask Ibram X. Kendi. He is the arbiter of truth. A conservative seriously believes that hiking the minimum wage will actually hurt people in poverty. They base this not on greed, but economic facts that have a long record of proof. But Ibram Kendi would argue it’s a racist policy. Why? Because he refuses a world of complexity, nuance, and multiplictiy and prefers a totalizing philosophy that gives the simple theory of everything: Antiracist or Racist.

Kendi’s words sure sound CRT

When Amy Coney Barret was being considered as a supreme court justice someone on Twitter posted a picture of Barret and her husband with their 2 adopted children from Haiti. Ibram responded to the tweet with this:

Point # 2 ( Reid claims “Robin Diangelo isn’t a Critical Race Theorist”)

Diangelo’s specialty is Critical Whiteness Studies, which a sub-discipline of Critical Race Theory. Technically this is still under the umbrella of CRT. Reid adamantly denies this. Below is a tweet with some pictures from “Critical Race Theory an Introduction” by Delgado. I have read this book and still refer to it regularly. It’s one of the core books in understanding CRT.

It is egregiously unprofessional that Joy Reid stated on television that “intersectionality” is *not* part of critical race theory and that critical whiteness studies is *not* a subfield of CRT. Per Critical Race Theory: An Introduction, this is demonstrably false: pic.twitter.com/vozRFojxfs

— Thomas Chatterton Williams (@thomaschattwill) June 24, 2021

Point #4 is answered above. Point 3 isn’t worth responding to.

Point #5 – the claim that Christopher Rufo has made up his own version of CRT is a perfect example of gas lighting.

Everything Rufo says about CRT is true. But people like Joy Reid are banking on Americans never going to the source to find out for themselves. Instead she accuses him of making up the things he’s saying, which reveals that she knows that the truth of CRT is appalling. This is why she wants to make it look like he has made all this up. “Oh don’t worry, America, that’s not what CRT really is. It won’t discriminate, promote division, shame children, and rob our young (rich and poor) of a decent education. No, Christopher Rufo made that all up. It’s business as usual. Nothing to see here. Move along now!”

Finally, this is from “Critical Race Theory” explaining how broad the discipline is:

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