Bill Maher had a tense conversation on HBO’s “Real Time With Bill Maher” Friday about Critical Race Theory (CRT) with his guest Michael Eric Dyson, a Vanderbilt University professor, Fox News reported.
Dyson said that even though parents do not know how to define Critical Race Theory, they are “spooked” by it and are only mad because black history is now a focus of schools’ curriculums, according to Fox News.
“I find that a disingenuous argument because I don’t think that is what people are objecting to,” Maher replied. “They are not objecting to black history being taught. There are other things going on in the schools.” (RELATED: ‘I’m Team Dave’: Bill Maher Defends Free Speech And Dave Chapelle After Netflix Protest)
Bill Maher, Michael Eric Dyson clash on CRT in schools: It’s ‘disingenuous’ to say parents oppose Black historyhttps://t.co/MX9ljiIykO
— Joseph A. Wulfsohn (@JosephWulfsohn) November 6, 2021
“Like what?” Dyson asked.
“Like separating children by race and describing them either as oppressed or oppressor,” Maher said, according to Fox News. “I mean, there are children coming home who feel traumatized by this. That’s what parents are objecting to.”
“But Bill … the beginning of Critical Race Theory in the modern times is two years ago … Christopher Rufo, white guy, who said, ‘Look, I’m reading the anti-racist literature. I see this critical race stuff. This stuff will make good publicity.’ And he began to drive it home,” Dyson said, according to Fox News.
“It’s not Critical Race Theory,” Dyson reportedly added. “It’s the notion of centering black people as historical agents, and the question is, if you talk about white kids being traumatized, oh really? So that black kids being made to portray slaves – we got stories on both sides. I think you are underestimating the anti-black sentiment that’s deeply entrenched that’s way beyond Trump … It ain’t just Donald Trump, it’s the party itself.”
Dyson continued claiming that the debate in schools is about how black history is taught rather than Critical Race Theory ideology, according to Fox News.
“But that’s not all we’re talking about,” Maher reportedly said. “We’re talking about kids who seem to be too young sometimes to fully appreciate all this. I think if kids watched you, they wouldn’t know a lot of those words. So to ask them as opposed to letting kids be kids, maybe, where usually kids are pretty nice to each other if they’re instructed not to be.”
Another panelist, Brown University Professor Glenn Loury, reportedly said “we need to be getting beyond race” and that because “we’re in the 21st century,” kids should not be “put into boxes,” but should be allowed to experience “what comes naturally, which is cross the lines.”
After Dyson called that a “failed experiment,” Maher said that there has been progress, which Dyson then called a “strawman argument,” according to Fox News.
Maher and Loury both knocked the “self-segregation” that has been happening on college campuses, which Dyson said has only happened due to “pressure,” according to Fox News.