MSNBC's Eddie Glaude Jr. on Tuesday clashed with a conservative activist who's whipped up hysteria over so-called critical race theory lessons in American classrooms.
Conservative activist and filmmaker Christopher Rufo appeared Tuesday on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," where he insisted his arguments against classroom lessons unraveling the historical role of racism and white supremacy were inherently biased against white students, but Glaude explained why his claims were intentionally twisted.
"Once you concede the initial claim that America in some ways comes into being in light of this extraordinarily painful reality, the contradiction that is at the heart of our beginnings, once you concede that, the way in which you begin to think about American exceptionalism shifts, right?" Glaude said. "Because it's not this idea that we are wholly innocent, that we are absolved of our sins, that recognizing who we are somehow condemns us to hell, as it were, that we are being bludgeoned by our sins and made to feel guilty. That's not what we're saying at all. What we're saying is that you have to confront it to release us to a different future."
Glaude, a professor of African-America studies at Princeton University, said the historic effects of racism and white supremacy still influenced the worst aspects of current events, and he challenged Rufo to confront that reality.
"I want to say quickly, this sort of argument is happening right now, and I want us to link it to Jan. 6," Glaude said. "I want us to link it to the attack on voting rights. This is, in effect, in my view, an attempt to arrest substantive change in the country, and we give these folk the credit that they're making the arguments in good faith, and I don't think they are. I'll say it to Christopher right to his face: I don't think this is a good faith argument, period."
Rufo insisted that Americans could disagree in good faith that anti-racism lessons were inherently anti-white, and Glaude argued that he was ignoring historic realities.
"In order for us to imagine ourselves differently, we're going to have to confront honestly who we are, what we've done, and that's going to require discomfort," Glaude said. "We're going to make some mistakes on the way, but we have to do it, we have to grow up. We have to grow up as a nation."
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