Shame on You, Joy Reid

I stand with this mom, proudly

A mother speaks at what I assume is a school board meeting (or something like it) and makes a statement with which the vast majority of Americans, regardless of race, would agree.

Mythinformed MKE @MythinformedMKE

MSNBC contributor Joy Reid laughs and calls people opposed to Critical Race Theory in the classroom racists.

“Just because I do not want critical race theory taught to my children in school does not mean I’m a racist, dammit.”

“Actually it does,” quips Reid, laughing.

Reid’s decision to play video footage on her national platform of a private citizen she has never met, and label her a racist, is vile.

I can already imagine people looking at this mom, whose life we know nothing about, and thinking she’s just another “Karen,” the modern day slur for white women who have opinions. It certainly started out to describe white women who see themselves as “the policewomen of all human behavior” and call the cops on black men who birdwatch in Central Park. Predictably, it has morphed into a lazy way of describing those of us who are white and female and have something to say that they don’t like. (One of my sons has artfully adapted it to use on me whenever I tell him “no.”)

I did not hear this mother ask that her children not learn about history. Or slavery. Or Frederick Douglass. Or Jim Crow. Or lynching. Or the Tulsa Massacre. I did not hear her say anything to indicate that she holds a single racist view or sees any of her fellow humans as “less than” based on their race or any other immutable trait. I see a concerned mom. And there are countless moms (and dads!) just like her who are black, brown, white, Asian and biracial who would stand right by her side and say the same the exact same thing.

If it is erasure to aspire to colorblindness, as some believe it is, it is also erasure to dismiss, diminish and use slurs to describe people of color who oppose the use of critical race theory in schools. It is easy for Joy Reid and others to pick on the blonde mom they do not know but we have seen this same vitriol directed at Senator Tim Scott as well as black school leaders, professors, students and parents who do not subscribe to much of what is peddled in schools in the name of equity and antiracism. The same is true for Asian and Eastern European immigrants who literally fled communist and socialist regimes to live in a place where their children would not be indoctrinated and groomed during the school day with an ideology they find repugnant and antithetical to free thought, free expression and a rigorous exchange of ideas. They came to the United States to get away from compelled speech and disdain for merit and now they are being told that those ideals make them white supremacists or white adjacent or just plain old racists.

Reid goes on to say during the clip that “it’s just another example of Republicans turning kids into a wedge issue just like their politically motivated attacks on transgender youth who just want to play sports.”

There are a few problems with this assertion.

Does she know the political affiliation of the mom speaking at the meeting?

And is she aware that in a county that went for Biden in 2020, school board members who supported Critical Race Theory just lost seats by a margin of 70-30?

And is she aware that life-long Liberals of every race and creed are speaking out against all of this?

With regard to the transgender athletes, the specific issue of concern is biological males who identify as female being allowed to play in the girls’ division—she completely mischaracterizes that entire subject.

Reasonable people can and will disagree about what critical race theory is and whether or not it belongs anywhere near a K12 classroom. These are worthy and needed debates to have if and when they are based on the merits of the argument and not laced with ad hominem attacks, mischaracterizations of one another’s views and constant shifting of definitions.

I have stood at the microphone of school committee meetings and public hearings many times over the past decade. If I were as concerned as the mom in the video is right now about my own children’s school, I’d be doing exactly what she is doing. I hear from parents, grandparents and teachers every day across all demographics who feel exactly the same way she does. They deserve to be heard and respected, as does she.

It takes courage and strength to speak out as this mom did. Joy Reid’s response shows weakness.