“The View” co-host Whoopi Goldberg angrily cut off fellow co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin for pointing out that parents are concerned about Critical Race Theory (CRT) being taught to their children.
The panel lamented Republican Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders for proposing legislation to ban CRT and “indoctrination” in her state’s schools. Griffin said that while she disagrees with Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis prohibiting an AP African American History course from being offered to high school students, she resonates with the concern over CRT.
CRT holds that America is fundamentally racist, yet 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.
“Can I say one thing because this is really important. What Ron DeSantis did with banning black history, that is going way further than what many members of my party have raised concerns with,” Griffin said. “There’s a lot of parents who get concerned with elements of critical race theory—”
“I’m gonna say this one more time,” Goldberg interjected. “Elements of critical race theory are not being taught to five-year-olds! It’s not taught to eight-year-olds, it’s not taught to ten-year-olds. It’s not what ten-year-olds learn! Look, if you’re scared of American history… I don’t get it.”
Elements of CRT have been shown to be taught in K-12 level course in public schools. A poll in October found that most high school students learned an aspect of CRT in their curriculum, with 69% saying they had heard in school that “white people have white privilege” and 57% were taught that “white people have unconscious biases that negatively affect non-white people.”
“But, I think it’s an important distinction because what he’s doing is so absurd, it’s going so far,” Griffin continued. “You’re literally talking about erasing history, not bringing in the theories and the theoreticals and the more college-level stuff that is in CRT. You’re literally saying we’re not going to learn about slavery, we’re not gonna learn about the Civil War. That’s more dangerous. I want to separate those two, not that both don’t deserve to be discussed, but that’s going dangerously far. I don’t know that Sarah is trying to do just that yet, but it’s a slippery slope.” (RELATED: ‘Vote Your Ass Out Of There’: ‘The View’ Co-Hosts Rant About DeSantis Defunding DEI From Florida Universities)
The Florida Department of Education barred an advanced placement African American history course for containing elements of critical race theory, queer theory and intersectionality content in its syllabus. Unit 4 contains a lesson called, “Black Queer Studies,” which has a lesson teaching “the concept of the queer of color critique, grounded in Black feminism and intersectionality, as a Black studies lens that shifts sexuality studies toward racial analysis.” Another unit contains a reading by Eduardo Bonilla Silva which “examines in detail how Whites talk, think, and account for the existence of racial inequality and makes clear that color-blind racism is as insidious now as ever.”
The education department told the College Board it will review a revised version of the course that eliminates those aspects. DeSantis’ administration requested additional information on the course Wednesday over the concern that it may still contain aspects of CRT.
Goldberg decried people for allegedly wanting to ban black history from being taught to white students, claiming that Sanders and DeSantis want to prevent schools from teaching slavery, segregation and the Little Rock Nine. However, students in Florida are required by law learn about African American history, and Sanders never indicated that students will not learn about these subjects.
“If you’re so concerned that your children, and particularly I’m talking about white children because that’s the conversation that they seem to be having, if you’re so concerned that white children are gonna feel bad because history happened and they happened to be white, how do you think black kids are feeling?”