Fox Has Talked about ‘Vital Race Idea’ 1300 Occasions – Meet the Man Who Promised to Make It ‘Loopy’ and ‘Poisonous’

Fox News has mentioned “critical racial theory” 1300 times in the past three and a half months, making the term a college and university field of study, not local public schools, not just mainstream but “toxic”.

“Just last week, Fox mentioned ‘Critical Race Theory’ a record 244 times – an increase from the previous record high of 170 mentions the week before,” reports Media Matters.

A man with connections from Trump’s White House to upper-right think tanks promised to make this happen. It seems that he was successful.

There is tremendous fear, hatred and disinformation on the right about critical racial theory, which The Washington Post calls “an academic framework that focuses on the idea that racism is systemic and not just demonstrated by individuals with prejudice. The theory is that racial inequality is woven into legal systems and negatively impacts people of color in their schools, doctor’s offices, the criminal justice system, and countless other areas of life. “

Many on the right are feeling threatened by this, probably thanks in large part to Fox News, which keeps pounding viewers over the head on the term without properly explaining it.

How did it happen?

Meet Christopher Rufo, a research fellow at the religiously right-wing Discovery Institute and a Senior Fellow at the right-wing Manhattan Institute.

The Manhattan Institute was once the home of political scientist Charles Murray, whose infamous book “Bell Curve” was classified as racist. The Southern Poverty Law Center lists Murray as a white nationalist and says he uses “racist pseudoscience and misleading statistics to argue that social inequality is caused by the genetic inferiority of black and Latin American communities, women and the poor”.

But back to Rufo.

On Tuesday, NBC News published an extensive exposé on “Critical Racial Theory” and had this to say about Rufo:

Rufo, who said he was in contact with then-President Donald Trump’s staff before issuing an executive order banning federal agencies’ use of critical racial theory last September, promised in a March tweet that critical racial theory made public Making the idea “poisonous”. Rufo declined an interview request.

“The aim is for the public to read something crazy in the paper and immediately think of ‘critical racial theory’,” he wrote. “We have deciphered the term and will recode it to annex the full range of cultural constructions that are unpopular with Americans.”

He is clearly successful.

Republicans across the country are working to ban critical racial theory from schools, another example of far-right indoctrination and censorship becoming mainstream.

NBC News notes that “Organizations like the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, and the American Legislative Exchange Council, which publishes model laws on Republican issues, hosted webinars warning of the threat of racial criticism.”

In a series of tweets promoting their report on Rufo, The New Republic says: “Almost overnight, Christopher Rufo has become the standard bearer of a hysterical movement to solve a problem that may not even exist – while setting a course. ” for the rights in the Biden era. “

In addition to Rufo, a right-wing activist, Elana Fishbein, founder of No Left Turn in Education, rode the propaganda wave of critical racial theory.

“Fishbein said she attended a private briefing held in May by the Heritage Foundation that attended lawmakers from Idaho, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Texas and other states to discuss model laws to block critical racial theories.” , adds NBC. “Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Montana, Oklahoma, and Tennessee have some form of restriction in place, and 15 states have laws pending. The Heritage Foundation declined to comment. “

Why did this extremist cabal of right-wing think tanks, activists, and Fox News focus so much on panicked falsehoods about critical racial theory and systemic racism?

“Fox has admitted the reason for this souped-up coverage: the 2022 midterm elections,” notes Media Matter. “And to stir up outrage, the network has repeatedly spread a lie that critical racial theory teaches that one race is ‘inherently superior to another’. More recently, in its continued efforts to demonize them, Fox News has published a pamphlet reflecting white nationalist conspiracy theory of ‘Great Replacement’.

In addition to Fox’s seemingly endless repetition of the term “critical racial theory”, his misjudgments are terrifying to those who believe them.

“Fox’s obsession with what she defines as ‘critical racial theory’ has often crossed the threshold into the absurd and overly dramatic. Fox host Tucker Carlson called it “a cult” while host Will Cain said it was “modern day Jim Crow”. Fox writer Miranda Devine claimed that teaching the theory “would distort the minds of American children” and “is a recipe for social unrest and mental illness”. Fox’s Newt Gingrich said it was ‘driven by people who want to brainwash their child’. “

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