In this episode of The Candice Malcolm Show, host Candice talks with Samuel Say about Critical Race Theory, a buzzword that has been around for a few years now, but few people are familiar with it. In this episode, we discuss what it is, what it means, and why it's important to know about it.
00:03:42.960What we're saying is we're repeating what Martin Luther King Jr. believed,
00:03:45.620which is that we don't judge people based on their skin color, but on their character.
00:03:50.160But they hate that because they do believe that we should treat people based on their skin color.
00:03:54.140So Ibram Kendi, who, as I mentioned, is a leading scholar on critical race theory alongside Robin DiAngelo,
00:04:01.360he mentioned in his book, How to Be an Antiracist, that racism is only wrong if it leads to inequity.
00:04:09.600But racism, or in his exact words, racial discrimination is good if it leads to equity, right?
00:04:16.760And he says that past discrimination has to be met with present or future discrimination.
00:04:22.520These are his exact words from his book, How to Be an Antiracist, which I call How to Be a Racist.
00:04:28.120So, you know, so critical race theory really is teaching that discrimination against people,
00:04:32.780really against white people, to bring about equity, which is equity sounds like equality.
00:04:37.940And in the past, it was synonymous with equality.
00:04:41.540But within critical race theory, what it really means is equality of outcome between ethnic or racial groups.
00:04:48.020So now, just to kind of bring it all home, critical race theory basically is saying that
00:04:52.560Western society, America, Canada, is fundamentally designed by white supremacists for white people.
00:05:02.480And that because of that, it will always, and Derek Bell says this, that America will always be racist.
00:05:08.740It will always be oppressed towards black people, always.
00:05:11.040He says that the only, the whole point of trying to be antiracist is to try to minimize that.
00:05:16.520But that America as it stands, and by extension, Canada as it stands, our values are racist systemically and culturally.
00:05:24.300Therefore, in their minds, we need a revolution against these systems, to destroy the system, to abolish the systems that we have, the prisons, the police, everything, in order for us to have an equitable or antiracist society.
00:05:38.880I mean, there's so many things you can say about this worldview.
00:05:46.040Because if you buy into this theory, and so many schools, as we'll talk about, so many schools in the U.S. and Canada already have, and they teach in critical race theory today.
00:05:55.220I mean, if that's your view, that no matter what we do, and no matter how hard we try, and no matter how tolerant we become of one another, how much we learn from one another, how much we try to improve and constantly strive, right?
00:06:05.140The beauty of what Martin Luther King taught was that he believed that the American ideals were just and righteous, and that we needed to work harder to live up to those ideals.
00:06:16.840And those were the ideals that he wanted us all to share in together, U.S. and Canada by extension.
00:06:23.020Whereas the way that these people view the world, it's like, it doesn't matter what we do.
00:06:27.540We're all racist, and the idea is that we have to start again.
00:06:32.620And it's like, well, what is that going to look like, right?
00:06:34.680Like, when it comes to equity, Samuel, I didn't really know what they were talking about at first, because when I think of equity, I think of, you know, the value of your home or something like that, like a financial term.
00:06:45.400But they're talking about equity as opposed to equality, and they had these, like, handy little picture graphics, and we can throw one up on the screen.
00:06:55.820It's like, oh, wow, okay, equality is like these two kids on a ladder.
00:06:59.440One's tall, so they can't see over the fence.
00:07:01.300And the other one, you know, all we have to do is give that second kid a taller ladder.
00:07:05.760And it's like, you know, they make it seem like it's so simple, right?
00:07:08.720All we have to do is just provide these taller ladders for these kids.
00:07:11.580But it's like, that's not a real solution.
00:07:14.020Like, what you're actually talking about, your point is equality of outcome.
00:07:17.300So someone in micromanaging every aspect of our life to say, like, it doesn't matter if you're, you know, not as hardworking or not as competent or not as capable or not as intelligent.
00:07:29.260We don't want everyone to have equal outcome.
00:07:31.440And that's starting to feel a lot more like communism.
00:07:34.220So I just wonder, like, what, you know, what is it that critical race theorists are trying to accomplish?
00:07:44.840When the graphics you mentioned, which I'm sure we'll talk about this, but it's actually being shared across kids as early as kindergarten, that graphics that you mentioned in Ontario.
00:07:54.240Well, it looks like it's designed for kids, right?
00:07:56.160It's super, it's a cartoony kid friendly.
00:07:57.940Whenever I see it on social media, they share it all the time, people on the lab.
00:08:08.860But it really is, as you said, that it's really communism.
00:08:12.180Equity, the way you understand it, is really borrowed from the Marxist concept of, you know, of equality of outcome for all people.
00:08:20.100In fact, when we hear the word woke, which is associated with critical race theory, it's really a modern version of class consciousness.
00:08:27.540To be woke is that the oppressed has become conscious of their oppression.
00:08:33.080That's really what it means to be woke.
00:08:34.840And so critical race theory, what they do want is they believe that all non-white people are oppressed.
00:08:41.820Therefore, they want to make all non-white people woke or conscious to their oppression.
00:08:45.940And then to advocate changing all the systems, these good systems that I, as an immigrant, left my country with my mom to come to Canada to be privileged in these good systems, capitalist, free, impartial systems that we have in Canada.
00:09:04.840They want to abolish all of that so that in their mind, people like me can become, you know, a beneficiary of discriminating against white people and taking some of their, you know, their wealth and things that they've been accumulating themselves and give it to me as some evil form of justice in their mind.
00:09:28.640Well, I mean, it's like, again, it's hard to wrap your head around what they actually want, because like you say, the end outcome looks pretty nefarious.
00:09:41.020And to your point, you know, people do move from all over the world to come to Canada because they see it as a free and fair society.
00:09:47.920I remember during the George Floyd riots, Samuel, we saw a lot of articles in Canada talking, kind of almost like trying to, it's like they had like envy, like looking at the U.S. system where there is police brutality and there is a lot of disparity between some black communities in the mainstream.
00:10:04.880And it was like the Canadians were trying to show how bad things were here, too.
00:10:08.300And I remember seeing some articles, you know, talking about how black people fared in Canada.
00:10:13.440And I remember looking at the data myself thinking, like, this is actually amazing.
00:10:17.500Like, like, I think it's 50 percent, 56 percent of the black population in Canada are first generation immigrants, meaning that they they themselves or their parents chose Canada.
00:10:26.720You know, how bad of a place can Canada actually be if all these people are choosing to come here?
00:10:30.700And then even of that, when you looked at the incomes relative to other immigrants, relative to the Canadian average, it was like these communities are doing pretty, pretty good.
00:10:39.660We should be we should be happy about that.
00:10:41.160Obviously, we should strive to make sure that everyone has opportunities.
00:10:44.560But it's just sort of to me, what they're teaching, what fundamentally what they're teaching is to to little black children out there that no matter how hard they try, no matter how smart they are, no matter how intelligent they are, how hard they work, they're never going to be successful.
00:10:58.920And then they're teaching little white kids that there's something wrong with them, that they're inherently oppressive and that their society is evil.
00:11:06.880And that that like, you know, it's like no, no one, no one can benefit from this.
00:11:11.220It's such a it's such a poisonous thing to teach to little kids.
00:11:14.080I wonder how did this creep into our schools, Samuel, where did this come from?
00:11:17.980And what could parents do when they hear about this kind of stuff?
00:11:22.260Yeah, so it's so and I've done some, of course, research on this stuff and critical race theory has been part of America kind of school system, at least in the university or college level since the 90s.
00:11:36.260I mean, a lot of the top, even to this day, but since from the 90s, a lot of the top law schools in Canada have been teaching critical race theory for some time, so even though critical race theory just became part of the Canadian, I guess, consciousness over the last five years or so, it's been around for a long time.
00:11:55.260And it wasn't really till the Black Lives Matter riots, not last year, actually, but in 2015, 2014, with Michael Brown and Ferguson, that you started seeing a huge push in America and in Canada for critical race theory at a mainstream level for children as early as kindergarten.
00:12:13.260So, so it's been around for a long time and it was so it's usually police brutality, or at least accusations of police brutality that leads to these issues.
00:12:25.260These, these ideas become more accepted. But for parents, one of the things they need to do, and I've seen many of this happening, is that parents just need to call their schools, call their local school boards and just ask them about the curriculum.
00:12:39.260They will be shocked that the vast majority of schools in Canada, and I really do mean Canada, I don't know, I don't just mean Ontario, I mean Canada as a whole, are teaching critical race theory.
00:12:49.260I've had parents reaching out to me, from every single province in this country, saying that they've asked their school, what is being taught to the children, and some of them will deny it, but in their words, it's pretty obvious they're teaching critical race theory, including Christian schools or Catholic schools.
00:13:07.260If even these schools between critical race theory can only imagine what's being taught to your children at public schools.
00:13:14.260Well, I remember a couple years ago, Jordan Peterson sort of advising parents in one of his videos like, tell your kids that if they hear the teacher talk about things like white privilege, your child should get up and walk out of the classroom.
00:13:26.260That was what he advised, and I don't know if parents are doing that now, but we've got a bunch of examples of CRT in schools.
00:13:33.260So, Ottawa is debating whether or not to ban the singing of O Canada in schools because they say it's oppressive.
00:13:39.260Lord of the Flies, the book, was removed from schools in Ottawa.
00:13:42.260An anti-black agenda, and I put that in quotations because this is the thing that these people do, you know, they call themselves anti-racist, they call themselves anti-black.
00:13:51.260And then if you oppose them, it's like, well, then you must be racist and you must be anti-black because they're anti-black racist.
00:13:57.260But that's what their agenda is. They're being pushed in Hamilton.
00:14:00.260And then we saw the crazy story of weighted voting.
00:14:04.260I don't know if you saw this out in Halton, where depending on your skin color, your vote is worth more on school boards.
00:14:10.260You know, I think this is the kind of thing that parents would just be kind of outraged.
00:14:16.260Oh, another one. Someone sent me this the other day because I've got a little baby and someone sent me that there's a book out called The Anti-Racist Baby by Amber X. Kennedy.
00:14:25.260And I flipped through it. It's interesting because, you know, it's a number one New York Times bestseller.
00:14:31.260I'm sort of trying to indoctrinate babies, read this to little kids about how they live in a racist world.
00:14:36.260But I did like how the ratings, the Google review ratings of this book is 13 percent of people like this.
00:14:43.260So even though, you know, it's the New York Times talk of the town bestseller, when it comes to actual parents reading this kind of stuff, being like, why would I why would I read this to my baby?
00:14:51.260Like, it's so wild. I have that book. I bought that book because it really.
00:14:57.260So I mentioned Abraham Kennedy's book, How to Be an Anti-Racist. Well, that's the kids that's the kids version of that.
00:15:03.260And that book, I kid you not, is being read across all Ontario to kindergarten students.
00:15:09.260So again, and this is all I've received internal documents from teachers in Peel and in Toronto who are telling me this, that they're being compelled to read that book, which is teaching kids.
00:15:20.260It's teaching especially white kids that they are racist and they need to accept this and then be an ally with black people or non non white people.
00:15:30.260So it's wild. So, like, do you think this this idea is popular? Because so many of the people I see pushing this, to be completely honest, are not black people.
00:15:38.260You know, it's white people. It's this sort of white guilt kind of thing that people feel like this is what they must do.
00:15:43.260It's the latest trendy iteration of leftist ideology. Do you think this idea resonates, the idea that people who aren't white need to be woke and fight back against the system?
00:15:54.260And then also in the US, this has become a huge issue. It's become a public debate.
00:15:59.260And yes, a lot of people say it's a Republican conspiracy theory, but we've actually seen states ban the teaching in the US.
00:16:07.260Do you think there's any anything like that coming in Canada?
00:16:10.260Do you think there's any any political leader or any political movement out there to say, hey, we don't want this stuff at our schools in Canada either?
00:16:17.260Unfortunately, no, I don't see that at all. Because so so I've said this, actually, and it shocks many people, but critical race theory is just as popular here as it is, or as it is in America, if not more popular.
00:16:31.260The reason why I say it's more popular is because in the US, you actually have some pushback against it over here. We don't have a lot at all. I know you guys have been fighting against it. I know that some conservatives are against it, but the mainstream conservative movement here is not fighting against it at all.
00:16:48.260In fact, I know some politicians, some of the conservative politicians have pushed critical race theory and have been saying some of these ideas on social media and on their platforms. So, unfortunately, I don't see any of that happening. I would be very glad to see that, but it would be a huge shock to me.
00:17:04.260You know, so that's, yeah, so it's unfortunate in that case, but I don't see that changing.
00:17:10.260Right. Well, I mean, a lot of this is happening in Ontario, which is currently run by a progressive conservative government. But what about the idea that this is sort of designed to, you know, the class consciousness and awaken people of other races to sort of what revolt against the system?
00:17:27.260Do you think that that's having an impact? Do you think that it's, you know, it's sort of designed to tempt, you wrote this once that critical race theory is a sinful ideology that can tempt people like me, people who reject critical race theory to sin.
00:17:41.260So it's designed to tempt people like you. Do you think it's working? Do you think that it is a lot of new Canadians or people who aren't white that buy into this ideology and that it guides them?
00:17:52.260Absolutely. You mentioned earlier about the first generation Canadians. It's not tempting them at all. But the second generation Canadians are absolutely being tempted by it. I know many, many, most of my friends have embraced critical race theory. It's influencing how they view other Canadians, no doubt about it.
00:18:08.260There was a poll last year that said that 54% of Canadians believe that Canada is systemically racist. That's actually the same number as it is in America.
00:18:19.260So, so that, that includes, of course, black Canadians, immigrant Canadians and white Canadians.
00:18:25.260Now, the most, the most vocal people for critical race theory in America and Canada happens to be white women.
00:18:32.260And that's because I think a lot of white women are, you know, are influenced by Robin DiAngelo, who is a white woman who is next to Abraham Kennedy, the biggest voice on critical race theory right now.
00:18:43.260But also, white guilt tends to be very appealing to white women who feel basically bad about being white and believe that, well, they can become, they can be, they can be seen as, you know, the better white people if they would just, you know, be an advocate for, for black people.
00:19:02.260But really, it's just pride, it's just arrogance, it's just virtue signaling, and they're not really considering what they're really saying.
00:19:07.260Many of them are becoming more racist against their parents.
00:19:10.260But they're not really understanding that they're really being racist.
00:19:13.260They just think that they're being anti-racist.
00:19:15.260Well, and we've seen this so often that so many, so often, the most racist people are the sort of woke, leftist, white people who preach about it.
00:19:25.260I mean, someone like Justin Trudeau, who talks a good game about diversity, and then in his own private life, he likes to, you know, paint his face black and go out and celebrate that way.
00:19:35.260Like, or, or, you know, when you're talking about the, the white women, I don't know if you ever saw this, there's a, I think it was in the New York Times, there's a story about how these women would organize like really expensive dinner parties.
00:19:46.260And they'd hire one of these ladies to come and give a seminar basically, where they could like, air their, their racist thoughts and, and, and learn about how they're actually racist.
00:19:56.260And there's one woman who, who was actually an adoptive parent, and she had adopted a child who's black.
00:20:02.260And the whole idea was that even though she has her own black child, that is racist.
00:20:07.260It is racist to adopt someone from a different race and to love them as a child, which, you know, it's like, how far have we gone in this, in this, in this ideology where everything is about race, every, like, that's all that matters.
00:20:22.260Nothing else matters, your character, your qualities, what you, how you live your life, how you act in the world, your day to day, you know, virtues, none of it matters.
00:20:31.260The only thing that matters is, is your skin color, which to me seems like racist, it seems regressive.
00:20:36.260And, and, and I think that that, that that's how I would describe this whole movement.
00:20:40.260Yeah, I, I'll, I'll tell you, I think, you know, our society, we've, we've suggested that racism or being anti-racist is the most important thing you can be in this world.
00:20:53.260Therefore, that means that they're telling people that the best way for them to feel good about themselves is to be anti-racist, which includes lying to themselves about being racist when they're not.
00:21:02.260The vast majority of all these people are not, at least traditionally racist, they've become racist by embracing critical race theory and anti-racism, but originally they weren't.
00:21:12.260And that's, that's a scary thing. I've been seeing, if I told you the number of people who've called me an uncle Tom or a coon, and mostly from white people, you'd be shocked by it.
00:21:22.260It's almost a daily occurrence on social media and sometimes in person, but I'm a big guy. So that's, that's, that's rare.
00:21:28.260But for the most part, it's online. And, and it's, it's mostly coming from white people. And it's, it's quite shocking.
00:21:36.260It's, it's, it's not being shocking now, but it's alarming when white people are telling me in racist terms, how much they love black people more than I do.
00:21:43.260But that's what critical race theory is doing.
00:21:45.260Well, I'm sorry to hear that. It's despicable. And I, I mean, I, I can say that I've seen it too, online and, and, and in the other way, you know, all these men who claim to be feminist and claim to want more women in power, you know, as soon as they don't agree with you, they're, they're more than happy to call you really disgusting names and, and denigrate you.
00:22:03.260Well, you know, I, I feel like one of the things that conservatives need to do to fight against critical race theory is come up with our own kind of narrative, like this idea that no, Canada isn't an irredeemably racist country.
00:22:15.260Yes, we've had our own history and we've had ups and downs. There've been bad, bad actors and good actors and, and, and bad initiatives and good initiatives.
00:22:22.260But, you know, at the end of the day, we should celebrate what we have in common, the things we've done right and strive to, to, to, to be better.
00:22:30.260So what, what, what do you think that, that conservatives and not even conservatives per se, but just people who reject this sort of race, racist, um, obsession that, that is going on, um, race exception with critical race theory.
00:22:42.260What, what, what, what do you think that we can do, um, to fight back against this dangerous trend and what, what do you think a better narrative that we can be telling, uh, little kids about our society would be?
00:22:52.260A big part is what you already referenced, which is this, um, you know, my, my, my tribe, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm Fanti, uh, in Ghana, and we were, you know, many of my distant relatives were taken as slaves, including people who have my, my last name.
00:23:06.260Um, I, I, I saw a slave ship with people, uh, with my last name, say, um, on it, and these would be my distant relatives.
00:23:13.260So, um, they were taken over by force over the Atlantic, um, into the, into the, the new world.
00:23:22.260And then I see me many years ago, um, willingly happily with my mom flying over the Atlantic, uh, to come to this great country.
00:23:30.260And that that's a gap of 200 years where not people, Africans were being forced out of their homes into this new world and then over the Atlantic.
00:23:38.260And now we are willingly very glad to leave everything we, we love and, um, you know, in our original nations to come to Canada.
00:24:05.260Uh, Canada talks about how diverse we are.
00:24:08.260Well, this diversity is going to be destroyed, um, if we embrace critical race theory, which is teaching us that, well, Canada is always going to be racist and therefore we need to be discriminated against white people.
00:24:21.260Well, I, I couldn't have said it any better myself.
00:24:24.260That's that was so, um, eloquent and you're right.
00:24:26.260They, they tried to erase 200 years of progress and say that we're just as bad as, as, as it was back then today.
00:24:32.260Well, uh, same say, thank you so much for joining the show.