Thread by @digitalsista

I know this is an opinion piece. And I'm going to break down why this is a problem. A problem media keeps participating in. 🧵

Opinion | Critical race theorists do not do what Ted Cruz says they do msnbc.com/opinion/ted-cr… via @msnbc @KevinMKruse

Right now the media CONTINUES to do profile pieces on insurrectionists and white supremacists.

As a Black woman in this country with centuries of this behavior all I see is a repeat of what my Ma would whisper about. y'all are elevating people that want me and mine dead.

Those that continue to twist narratives that our defending ourselves from people who want us dead are the real racists and the violent ones.

But yet scream the first and second amendment. Just NOT for us. That's what you are saying. That's what you keep writing.

These narratives where you are allowing Wyte reporters, columnists & etc. to continue to "tell" our story like they are objective while they write a biased piece that doesn't reveal in any way how violent the people they are writing about are or were to us.

the energy in these pieces to NOT say Black people but white is everywhere to be read. Hinting at the NAACP isn't going to cut it re: attempting to debate "both the same." You are aiding the very narrative that you think you are "uncovering" or "exposing." and it's TRASH!!

We aren't able to tell these stories from our perspectives but YOU can? From the anger over #1619Project to Voter suppression bills, to this very CRT debate with little to no quotes or comments from Black scholars? why are the very ones being targeted?

all these words y'all are allowing to be thrown around about us Marxism, communism, socialism with little or no critical analysis. I know most of you aren't critical thinkers but you are proving the point.

Let's start here.

"critical race theorists take as their starting point the belief that race is a fiction, that it’s an invented concept that has no basis in biology or science."

is this writer an expert on this or did I miss the memo?

He's attempting to "debunk" theories. But it wasn't only the Klan that did this....

"The Klan worked to put its racist beliefs into action through Jim Crow laws in the South and immigration restrictions for the nation as a whole"

that whole statement in that piece says this wasn't just your everyday southern WP doing this. It's those extremists over there. While y'all are literally doing puff pieces on violent insurrectionists as we speak but...

"And, most obviously, the KKK was a terrorist organization responsible for decades of white supremacist violence that included thousands of murders, mutilations and bombings of African Americans and other minorities. The law school professors behind critical race theory are not."

why couldn't that whole paragraph live all on its own without that last sentence? PERIODT!!

Then the response from the author to Cruz's lies re: CRT "Critical race theory seeks to turn us against each other and if someone has a different color skin, seeks to make us hate that person."

BP: there are people who are literally killing us because of our skin.

this lame ass BS is what he wrote:
"Cruz offered no evidence for these claims, because there is none. Far from arguing that individual white people are all racist, critical race theorists assert that focusing on the actions of individuals is meaningless"

so where does he land? on the nonsense, re: lie? a response we hear every day from WP. The words that fall along:

"I want to be treated as an individual"
"you shouldn't generalize"

from BP: "WP think being called a racist is worse than experiencing racism"

But I'm supposed to think this isn't a biased piece in my view? Like I haven't seen it before.

y'all pull from the same bag. in print, on tv or in person. Slight changes in words don't mean y'all aren't all saying the same thing over and over.

Then he goes from:

"Critical race theorists also do not seek to turn Americans against each other, but rather to help them understand the actual history of the nation they share as citizens."

To: a slick comment about Cruz and then...

"it notably fits into a larger historical pattern in which white southerners asserted that the critics of white supremacy were just as bad — or worse — than the defenders of white supremacy."

Did you catch it? cause I did.

this will probably be the only screenshot. This is where Blackness lands finally. And it's still framed as the white southerners were innocent in ALLLL of this while subtly repeating the "both sides" disinfo. No bias here tho? Right?

But he clarifies here right? still both the same or naw? Asking for you of course:

"the NAACP, which was seeking enforcement of the Supreme Court’s rulings against school segregation, and the White Citizens’ Councils, which was working furiously to block its implementation."

"ordinary white southerners soon drew the same conclusion."

They were innocent right? none of them lynched or murdered BP because of their skin right? This was all the fault of "organizations" "politicians" "segrationists?" what other titles will you use to avoid the truth.

yet it's tried and true? a staple but egregious in THIS instance? not historically?K!

"This is a tried-and-true line of attack from those who wish to preserve the status quo, but in this instance it’s especially egregious."

The lede is buried in the last few lines I will break down this way:

"Critical race theorists seek to expose the ways in which white supremacists.. or Johnson — abused the powers of their offices."

CRTs are Black scholars and they are completely missing from this entire piece.

The politicans use their legislative powers to be racist. Ie using the system. But they were individuals doing this? They are not seperate from the system.

"to embed racist principles and policies in our political and legal systems."

politicans are dong that right now.

they literally gave tours, organized rallies, paid for travel of every day "white southerners" oops I mean your average "non violent" white joe or jane to breach the capitol because BP determined who would be the next POTUS.

but you can't even name us? quote us?