Ted Cruz Rails Against Critical Race Theory, Gets It Totally Wrong

Ted Cruz, the junior Republican United States Senator from Texas, railed against the teaching of critical race theory at the Faith and Freedom Coalition Road to Majority Conference in Kissimmee, Florida on Friday, claiming that educating schoolchildren about the history of American slavery and racial injustice “is every bit as racist” and “bigoted” as the hate promulgated by the Ku Klux Klan.

First, Cruz mistakenly declared that critical race theory “derives from Marxism” and that it “takes that same Marxist concept except” – that people are subjugated along economic lines – and “replaces class with race, and it says that all of America and all of the world is a battle between the races.”

This is completely false.

According to Education Week, critical race theory’s “core idea is that racism is a social construct, and that it is not merely the product of individual bias or prejudice, but also something embedded in legal systems and policies.”

Cruz then incorrectly asserted that critical race theory teaches that “every white person is a racist,” that “America is fundamentally racist and irredeemably racist,” and that it “seeks to turn us against each other and if someone has a different color skin, seeks to make us hate that person.”

In reality, critical race theory aims to enlighten people in the present about the sins of the past; not for the sake of placing blame, but with the hope that such knowledge will be part of the framework of a brighter and more just future for everyone.

But Cruz, ever the heckler of rational thought, believes otherwise.

“And let me tell you right now, critical race theory is bigoted, it is a lie, and it is every bit as racist as a klansman in white sheets,” he shouted at the audience. “As a Christian and as an American, I love my brothers and sisters whatever skin color you are, whatever ethnicity you are, whatever faith you are, whatever creed you are, we are commanded to love. Period. The end.”

Cruz added – without a scintilla of irony – that “those who would divide us, those who would spread lies, it is evil.”

Watch below via The Hill:

Sen. @tedcruz: "Critical race theory is bigoted, it is a lie and it is every bit as racist as the Klansman in white sheets." pic.twitter.com/zE8FaZNcgp

— The Hill (@thehill) June 18, 2021