Watch Joy Reid take down the architect of the critical race theory culture war in epic debate
MSNBC host Joy Reid took on Christopher Rufo, the think-tank "scholar" who claimed to be an expert on race because he works as a "scholar" at a conservative think tank. Speaking Wednesday, Reid got him to confess that he's neither an expert in race nor in law, which is where the idea of critical race theory is generally taught.
Rufo claimed that Reid was attacking him on air, which she corrected, saying that she was doing nothing more than reading the quote from his own documents.
Reid began by asking at what point "critical race theory" was invented, and he didn't know, saying sometime in the 1980s or 1990s. Reid cited the Harvard University paper in which it was first mentioned in 1981 by Professor Derrick Bell, who died in 2011.
She cited Rufo's "documentary" on critical race theory that cites professors or professorial types who he admits are academics who he claims are replacing equality with equity, which is a conservative charge Reid said she's been hearing since she was in high school. "To ending individual property rights and even to committing reverse genocide or calling for reverse genocide."
Rufo said that it wasn't true, which is when Reid said she would play the clip if Rufo allowed her to do it, but he wouldn't. He said that the term is counter genocide, a genocide perpetrated in retaliation to another genocide.
Rufo claims in his talking points that the father of critical race theory was Ibram X. Kendi, who told Reid that he wasn't a critical race theorist.
"I admire critical race theory but I don't identify as a critical race theorist. I'm not a legal scholar, so I wasn't trained on critical race theory," Kendi said. "I'm a historian and Chris would know that if he actually read my work or understood that critical race theory is taught in law schools. I didn't attend law school."
Rufo began to complain that Reid was citing things and not letting him answer, but she explained she wanted to go through her list of disputes.
Rufo claimed that he wasn't a political operative, but Reid rolled a video of Rufo speaking at the Claremont Institute on May 18 in which he called critical race theory a political "cudgel," meaning a giant political weapon. He went on to supplement his point by quoting Barbara Applebaum, who he said was a critical race theorist. She's, in fact, listed as being trained in philosophy and education and "her research is heavily influenced by feminist ethics, feminist philosophy, and critical race theory."
He also quoted American author Robin DiAngelo who did her thesis on whiteness in racial dialogues. She also is an education professor, not a critical theorist, according to her website.
"There are these very pathetic and very angry graduate students who try to fight me on these highly technical Hegel interpretations," said Rufo. "I don't have time for this. Like I don't give a sh*t."
Reid noted that there again explains that critical race theory isn't something being taught in kindergarten, it's a graduate-level conversation among academics.
His argument fell apart from there.
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