On Wednesday, “The View” co-host Whoopi Goldberg lashed out at co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin after she pointed out that parents are concerned about Critical Race Theory being taught to their children.
The panel was discussing Republican Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders for proposing legislation to ban CRT and “indoctrination” in her state’s schools, lamenting the decision, and discussing Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ decision to prohibit an AP African American History course that included readings on “queer theory.”
Griffin said that while she disagrees with DeSantis’ decision to prohibit the course, she resonates with the concern over CRT, which claims that America is fundamentally racist and teaches people to view every social interaction and person in terms of race.
“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 10-year-olds. It’s not what 10-year-olds learn! Look, if you’re scared of American history … I don’t get it.”
Contrary to Goldberg’s claims, elements of CRT have been shown to be taught in K-12 level courses in public schools. An October poll found that the majority of high school students learned at least one aspect of CRT in their curriculum with 69% saying they had heard in school that “white people have white privilege” and 57% being 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.”
Last month, the Florida Department of Education barred an advanced placement African American history course, due to the fact that it contained 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 that “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 that it will review a revised version of the course that was released which eliminates those aspects. DeSantis’ administration requested additional information on the course Wednesday over the concern that it may still contain aspects of CRT.
Goldberg alleged that Florida was aiming to ban black history from being taught to white students, claiming that both Sanders and DeSantis were aiming to block schools from teaching about slavery, segregation and the Little Rock Nine.
However, students in Florida are required by law to 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?” Goldberg asked.
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