Former Secretary of State and director of the Hoover Institute at Stanford University Condoleezza Rice appeared on The View Wednesday, where she once again brought much needed common sense and intelligent analysis to the table.
Co-host Whoopi Goldberg raised the topic of Virginia’s gubernatorial race, centered on the toxic Critical Race Theory being taught in schools, and recited the much repeated and completely false liberal talking point that it actually wasn't:
One of the key issues up for debate is how much of a voice parents should have in their child's school curriculum especially when it comes to subjects like sex education and critical race theory. I thought they didn't teach Critical Race Theory until they went to like law school or something?
“That’s right,” Sunny Hostin immediately backed up her falsehood. Goldberg continued reacting skeptically to parents having a say in their child’s education. “The question is, do parents need more influence here or should they leave the lesson-planning to the pros?,” she proposed.
Former English teacher Joy Behar unsurprisingly agreed that parents shouldn’t “interfere” in their kid’s education, and if they wanted any say, they should homeschool:
I was a teacher and there's a curriculum that teachers follow and it's studied by supposedly experts, I have a lot of education credits because you learn how to teach and you learn your subject, so you can't really pit that up against a parent who is annoyed you're teaching, you know, to Kill a Mockingbird or whatever the curriculum says, you can't have the parents interfering to that extent in the curriculum. But its nice to hear from them. If they're adamant and they don't want you to teach what is being taught period they're going to have to homeschool their kids. Because this is not going to wash.
But Rice pointed out, “Well, they're actually homeschooling them in increasing numbers and I think that's a signal, first of all, parents ought to be involved in their children's education, their children are in school seven hours, that’s a very formative period. I think parents ought to have a say.”
She then powerfully compared CRT to the kind of racial segregation she faced as a child. She astutely argued that this kind of teaching wasn't good for anyone because it makes white kids feel guilty and black kids feel disempowered [click expand]:
But If I can take a moment to talk about the whole issue of critical race theory and what is and is not being taught, I have come out of an academic institution and this is something that academics debate what's the role of race and so forth?Let me be very clear, I grew up in segregated Birmingham, Alabama, I couldn’t go to movie theatre or restaurant with my parents, I went to segregated schools until we moved to Denver. My parents never thought I would grow up in a world without prejudice. But they also told me that’s somebody else’s problem, not yours. My parents told me you'll overcome it and you are going to be whatever you want to be.
That’s the message that I think we ought to be sending to kids. One of the worries that I have, about the way we're talking about race is that it either seems so big that somehow white people now have to feel guilty for everything that happened in the past. I don't think that's very productive or black people have to feel disempowered by race. I would like black kids to be completely empowered to know they are beautiful in their blackness but in order to do that I don't have to make white kids feel bad for being white. So somehow this is a conversation that has gone in the right direction.
Sara Haines then remarkably chimed in by listing several examples of CRT-type ideas being taught at the elementary and middle school level around the country. But the more liberal hosts knew they couldn’t argue with these points, so they constructed a straw man that parents were against teaching history.
“But again, if you have a teacher, History is going to be taught,” Goldberg responded, smearing parents as wanting to “hide” the history of slavery: “There's no way to hide the fact that white people owned black people. There’s no way to hide that.”
Hostin was also adamant this was about removing slavery from textbook. “I think that’s been the issue. There’s sort of been this rollback of history, people want to hide history,” she deceived viewers.
“What we're seeing is this rollback of history, parents don't want children to hear about the real history and when we teach children about the real history I think that's when we will really have true true racial reconciliation!” Hostin emphasized.
Rice agreed that history needed to be taught but said, “how we teach history is also important.” She pushed back against Hostin’s conspiracy theory that parents had an ulterior agenda to censor history. "Oh I don’t think-come now, come now,” she said shaking her head.
As Whoopi tried to end the segment, Rice smacked down her hosts’ nonsense once more:
People are being taught the true history but I just have to say one more thing, it goes back to how we teach the history. We teach the good and we teach the bad of history. What we don't do is make 7-year-old and 10-year-olds feel they are somehow bad people because of the color of their skin. We’ve been through that and we don’t need to do that again.
Behar bickered with her once more that CRT wasn’t about making white kids feel bad about their race. “That doesn’t seem to be part of the plan,” she huffed.
“Oh it is part of the plan, I’m sorry,” Rice schooled her.
This discussion followed a segment where Rice argued with Hostin over prioritizing January 6 over actual bread and butter issues affecting Americans’ daily lives.
Olay sponsors The View, contact them at the Conservatives Fight Back page linked.
Read the transcript below:
The View
10/20/21
WHOOPI GOLDBERG: Hey, so, the tight governors race in blue-leaning Virginia is being seen as a barometer for which way America will swing in 2022. In the midterms and one of the key issues up for debate is how much of a voice parents should have in their child's school curriculum especially when it comes to subjects like sex education and critical race theory. I thought they didn't teach critical race theory until they went to like law school or something?
SUNNY HOSTIN: That's right.
CONDOLEEZZA RICE: I sure hope not because I don’t think 7 years old need to learn it.
GOLDBERG: It’s just sounds crazy to me. The question is, do parents need more influence here or should they leave the lesson-planning to the pros?
BEHAR: I was a teacher and there's a curriculum that teachers follow and it's studied by supposedly experts, I have a lot of education credits because you learn how to teach and you learn your subject, so you can't really pit that up against a parent who is annoyed you're teaching, you know, to Kill a Mockingbird or whatever the curriculum says, you can't have the parents interfering to that extent in the curriculum. But its nice to hear from them. If they're adamant and they don't want you to teach what is being taught period they're going to have to homeschool their kids. Because this is not going to wash. [ Applause ]
CONDOLEEZZA RICE: Well, they're actually homeschooling them in increasing numbers and I think that's a signal, first of all, parents ought to be involved in their children's education, their children are in school seven hours, that’s a very formative period. I think parents ought to have a say. We used to have parent teacher conferences, we used to have PTAs, there are lots of way for parents to be involved and they should be.
But If I can take a moment to talk about the whole issue of critical race theory and what is and is not being taught, I have come out of an academic institution and this is something that academics debate what's the role of race and so forth?Let me be very clear, I grew up in segregated Birmingham, Alabama, I couldn’t go to movie theatre or restaurant with my parents, I went to segregated schools until we moved to Denver. My parents never thought I would grow up in a world without prejudice. But they also told me that’s somebody else’s problem, not yours. My parents told me you'll overcome it and you are going to be whatever you want to be.
That’s the message that I think we ought to be sending to kids. One of the worries that I have, about the way we're talking about race is that it either seems so big that somehow white people now have to feel guilty for everything that happened in the past. I don't think that's very productive or black people have to feel disempowered by race. I would like black kids to be completely empowered to know they are beautiful in their blackness but in order to do that I don't have to make white kids feel bad for being white. So somehow this is a conversation that has gone in the right direction.
[applause]
BEHAR: Repeat that last part, you don’t have to what?
RICE: Yeah so there's a little in order for black kids who quite frankly, for a long time the way they were portrayed, the way their history was portrayed, it was second-class citizenship, but I don't have to make white children feel bad about being white in order to overcome the fact that black children were --
SUNNY HOSTIN: How does that happen?
SARA HAINES: I have some examples here. In Cupertino, California, in an elementary school third graders are instructed to rank themselves by their power and privilege. California’s Department of Education is proposing to eliminate opportunities for accelerated math in the name of equity. In Greenwich, a white bias survey is handed out to a 7th grade English class. A New York private school is separating by race, gender and ethnicity, white identifying group met with a white consultant who displayed a slide that named supposed characteristics of white supremacy. An equity statement from palm beach county, outlined the dismantling structures rooted in white advantage. It's happening across the country.
GOLDBERG: But again, if you have a teacher, History is going to be taught.
HAINES: Absolutely, it should be taught.
GOLDBERG: History is going to be taught. As we were talking earlier, when you go to Texas, you talk to Mexican kids who feel like crap because they're being told they're less than because of the Alamo. The whole idea of teaching history is so that we don’t repeat it. I think that if you're a good teacher you don't teach to make a white kid feel bad, you're supposed to say, listen, you didn't do any of this but you should know what happened.
TABLE: Absolutely. [ Applause ]
GOLDBERG: And make sure along with black kids and native American kids and all the colors that be in school --
RICE: I have no problem with letting people know what happened.
GOLDBERG: Yes.
RICE: But Let's remember, history is complex.
GOLDBERG: It is.
RICE: Human beings aren't angels now and they weren't angels in the past. So how we teach about history is also important.
WHOOPI GOLDBERG: There's no way to hide the fact that white people owned black people. There’s no way to hide that.
RICE: No, of course not.
SUNNY HOSTIN: I think that’s been the issue. There’s sort of been this rollback of history, people want to hide history.
RICE: [shaking head] Oh I don’t think-come now, come now.
HOSTIN: Yes, yes. That is true.
HOSTIN:: What we're seeing is this rollback of history, parents don't want children to hear about the real history and when we teach children about the real history I think that's when we will really have true true racial reconciliation.
RICE: People are being taught the true history but I just have to say one more thing, it goes back to how we teach the history. We teach the good and we teach the bad of history. What we don't do is make 7-year-old and 10-year-olds feel they are somehow bad people because of the color of their skin. We’ve been through that and we don’t need to do that again.
GOLDBERG: We don’t want anybody to feel that. That’s the idea.
BEHAR: That doesn’t seem to be part of the plan.
RICE: Oh it is part of the plan, I’m sorry.
BEHAR: I mean even in Germany they teach the Holocaust to every student. I met a German girl one time--
RICE: Of course. And we teach slavery to every student.
BEHAR: A school trip is a trip to Auschwitz, or Dachau. They learn about their history. And not two sides to the story.
RICE: We all have to learn about our history but we also--
BEHAR: I don’t think there has to be two sides to the story.
RICE: We have to recognize that we have to live together and we’ll do a better job living together---
GOLDBERG: We have to go.
