MEDIA LOSER: Ty Smith On Tuesday, radio host Ty Smith appeared on Fox News to talk about critical race theory allegedly being taught in schools and at one point claimed slavery “never was a race thing.” Host Martha MacCallum said that university professors are “very invested in the idea that the nation was founded on the idea of systemic racism, that it’s built into every single institution in America.” “It’s absolutely absurd because nobody really wants to get the real history of it,” said Smith. He continued, saying, "Yeah, there was slavery going on, but slavery itself was not initially a racist thing. It never was about race initially. So to sit there and take it like America was founded on racism is a complete lie." Apparently out of time, MacCallum thanked Smith before ending the interview. She did not offer anhy objection or pushback. Later on, Alexander Stephens, the vice president of the Confederate States of America espoused the view shared by many slaveholders throughout the centuries that slavery is the “natural condition” of Black people. It's not just that Smith's view is in general offensive, or that saying "slavery isn't racist" gets on air and with no pushback on Fox. It's not even just the universal condemnation of the comments. This was a losing moment because the outrageous comment didn't even serve its own purpose. If anything, it undermined the segment objective - to decry CRT - and instead gave an excellent reason for supporting the theory in education. Because, clearly, there is work still to be done. |