The New York Post warns of a CRT monster under every racist’s bed.
Today the New York Post furthered its reputation for promoting right-wing paranoia by publishing an opinion piece by Christopher Rufo headlined, “Critical race theory is about to segregate America like an open-air prison yard.” Sensational, over-the-top hyperbole? Of course.
Conservatives, like every other addict, need an ever more powerful fix to find happiness. And the New York Post, like any dealer, knows its users. It was not always this way.
In 1801, Alexander Hamilton founded the New York Evening Post. And for the rest of the 19th century, it was a respected broadsheet, whose most renowned editor was William Cullen Bryant — a significant proponent of liberal politics. Bryant was an early supporter of organized labor. He also defended religious minorities and immigrants; and promoted the abolition of slavery.
In 1939, Dorothy Schiff bought the newspaper. Under her leadership, it remained a progressive instrument devoted to liberalism, trade unions, and social welfare. In 1976, Schiff sold the New York Post to Rupert Murdoch. And now, the newspaper is one of the most extreme conservative voices in American media. A place where no opinion is too far-right to be denied exposure in this tabloid sewer. Bearing that in mind, let’s look at what Rufo has to say.
First, he gives us a look at the California prison system,
When new inmates arrive in California state prisons, they pass through the gauntlet of other men and must make a quick decision: With whom do they stand? They have four options: the whites, the blacks, the Latinos and the others.
For most of the “fish,” or fresh convicts, it’s not much of a choice — they are chosen. The prisons are divided into strictly separated racial gangs, which have their own leadership structure, lunch tables, yard space and black markets.
New inmates typically fall in with their racial brothers: whites with whites, blacks with blacks, Latinos with Latinos.
His analysis of prison racial groups goes on for another five paragraphs before we get to the crux of his argument,
I began studying critical race theory and the racialist ideologies that are becoming entrenched in American schools. Though the comparison is provocative, frightening parallels exist between the racialist logic of the prison yard and the racialist pedagogy of many public schools.
First, as has been repeatedly pointed out, CRT is not taught in American high schools. And that’s enough to refute Rufo’s point. However, just for the exercise, let’s have a look at what else he has to say. We can start with,
“racialist ideologies that are becoming entrenched in American schools.”
“Becoming?” Racialist ideologies have always been entrenched in American schools. They are entrenched in all of American life. You cannot stop conservatives claiming the US was founded on ‘Judeo-Christian values.’ And right-wing nationalists celebrate America’s ‘European’ (a.k.a. ‘white’) identity.
“Becoming?” Racialist ideologies are so entrenched in American schools that many American schoolchildren celebrate the Confederacy, which was nothing more group of racist traitors who tried to destroy a country simply so they could continue to own slaves — a group of human beings who were exclusively Black. And adding salt to the wound, the US military named bases to honor the leaders of the armies that killed American soldiers.
“Becoming?” Schools in America were legally segregated until 1954. And since then have been de facto segregated — increasingly so.
Rufo was just getting warmed up. He followed with three unsubstantiated claims that only the most uncritical thinker could think were true. To wit,
“First, schools that have adopted critical race theory reject individualism and colorblindness; to achieve an authentic identity and gain collective power, individuals must identify first and foremost with their racial group.”
Once again, slowly, no school has adopted CRT.
“Second, as in the prison yard, some public schools have begun segregating teachers and students for training sessions, classroom exercises, field trips and even playground activities.”
Rufo uses the technique of people who know their argument is weak — he obfuscates with incendiary language. Comparing schools to prisons is not a tactic designed to promote a thoughtful discussion.
“Third, many schools that have adopted critical race theory explicitly teach that children belong to categories of “oppressor” or “oppressed” based on a racial hierarchy, and then tell students that they must tear down society in order to “decolonize” the land, settle racial scores and direct the spoils to their compatriots.”
Once again, even more slowly, CRT is not taught in American schools. This time he adds trigger words and concepts to his lie — “oppressed,” “tear down,” “decolonize,” “direct the spoils” (a euphemism for “mugging”?) It is wall-to-wall dog whistles, and at this point, the Post’s readership is looking to rip some academics and school administrators apart.
Who is this Christopher Rufo character? To his ‘credit’, he was the first to identify the obscure academic discipline ‘critical race theory’ as a potential conservative political weapon to eviscerate public schools. He ‘sold’ his discovery to the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, where he became a visiting fellow. He was also a Lincoln fellow at the Claremont Institute, yet another conservative think tank, notable for being an early Trump backer. And tellingly, he was a research fellow at the Discovery Institute, a Christian conservative think tank whose raison d’être is evolution-denial. And which promoted “teach the controversy” — an earlier attempt to interfere in public schools — to promote the pseudo-science ‘intelligent design.’ He is now a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, yet another conservative think tank.
In short, he is a zealot, an intellectual poseur, a political opportunist, a science-denier, and a fabulist who is uninterested in evidence, especially when it contradicts his paranoid polemics. And therefore, Rufo is a welcome luminary in conservative circles.