On their way to publishing, reworking, and retracting details; correcting some and then ultimately “clarifying” their hit piece on Christopher Rufo, virtually nothing conceptually changed about how The Washington Post characterized critical race theory (CRT).
The Washington Post published a hit piece on prominent CRT critic Christopher Rufo but had to issue several corrections. The June 21 article centered around the conservative movement against CRT – a topic that has sparked intense conflict during school board meetings and even prompted several states to implement anti-CRT legislation preventing it from being taught in schools.
CRT holds that America is fundamentally racist, yet it teaches people to view every social interaction and person in terms of race. Its adherents pursue “antiracism” through the end of merit, objective truth and the adoption of race-based policies. (RELATED: Where Did Critical Race Theory Get Its Start?)
The Post claimed that Rufo said that “his goal was to conflate any number of topics into a new bucket called CRT.” Specifically, the Post references a Tweet from March in which Rufo said that they “have successfully frozen their brand — CRT — into the public conversation and are steadily driving up negative perceptions. We will eventually turn it toxic, as we put all of the various cultural insanities under that brand category.” (RELATED: The Three Most Common Lies Pro-CRT Media Is Telling Concerned Parents And The Public)
We have successfully frozen their brand—”critical race theory”—into the public conversation and are steadily driving up negative perceptions. We will eventually turn it toxic, as we put all of the various cultural insanities under that brand category.
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) March 15, 2021
In a statement to the Daily Caller, Rufo said that his tweet wasn’t “creating a bogeyman” and that he stood by his statements 100%.
“We take the phrase ‘CRT’ and turn it into a national brand, giving American conservatives a new frame for understanding what’s happening around them,” Rufo said. “All of a sudden, when they see kindergarteners being told that they’re white supremacists or see vaccines being denied to certain racial groups, they can make the connection to CRT — and channel their emotional reaction into fighting a specific ideology and set of ideas.”
Rufo pointed out several of what he believed were inaccuracies in the Post’s article. The article initially claimed that immediately after Rufo’s appearance on Fox News discussing CRT, he was called into the White House; and soon after the Trump administration issued an executive order about diversity training. The Post issued a correction to note that Rufo was not invited to the White House until months after the executive order was issued.
The article also claimed that a “power and privilege” training at a Cupertino elementary school that Rufo had reported on never happened, but later added “a clarification from the Cupertino superintendent that a lesson was presented once before it was canceled.” Rufo also pointed out several other parts of the article that he said are inaccurate, including the Post’s definition of CRT.
“CRT holds that racism is systemic in the United States, not just a collection of individual prejudices — an idea that feels obvious to some and offensive to others,” the article said. The Post also refers to CRT as “efforts to inject awareness of systemic racism and White privilege.”
Despite repeatedly accusing conservatives of not being able to define CRT, establishment media seems intent on keeping their definitions vague or completely getting the definition wrong.
In an article about laws put in place to ban CRT, The Atlantic said that the bills are meant “to push back against the recent reexaminations of the role that slavery and segregation have played in American history and the attempts to redress those historical offenses.” NBC News vaguely described CRT as “the academic study of racism’s pervasive impact.” The New York Times describes it as “a framework used to look at how racism is woven into seemingly neutral laws and institutions,” and CNN said that it “seeks to understand and address inequality and racism in the U.S.”
The Washington Post, The Atlantic, NBC News, the New York Times, and CNN did not respond to a request for comment.
Time and time again, however, it’s proven that CRT is much more than just the study of racism.
The New York Post reported that officials from the East Side Community School in Manhattan passed out literature asking parents to “reflect” on their “whiteness” through a list of “The 8 White Identities.” A public school district in Massachusetts had a “healing event” after the Atlanta shooting and allegedly told white students they could not participate, and a Virginia public school held an event exclusively for white staff so that they could “critically and authentically examine our role and responsibility in” the school’s “antiracism” efforts.