Op-Ed: Tulsa Isn't A 'Gotcha' Question
Op-Ed: CNN Host Says Question To Education Secretary About Tulsa Race Massacre Was A ‘Gotcha’ Question. Umm…No!
Here’s the thing: white conservatives want to do away with DEI, critical race theory, and everything else that gets their racial resentment flowing, but they don’t really want to get into the weeds of whether their anti-progress stances have merit, or whether the people in charge of deciding what constitutes DEI and CRT are equipped to make such assessments. All white conservatives do is make claims with little to nothing to substantiate them and dismiss any challenges to those claims as “woke,” “leftist,” or, in the case of CNN host Scott Jennings and his ilk, fraught with “gotcha” questions.
Last week, Education Secretary Linda McMahon was grilled during a congressional hearing about the Trump administration’s efforts to ban what it considers to be “illegal DEI practices” at K-12 public schools. She was asked for examples of what historical teachings might fall under that category, specifically, whether teaching students about the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 would violate federal policy.
“I’d have to get back to you on that,” McMahon responded multiple times, including after she was asked if she even knew the massacre happened — indicating that the white person in charge of the office that is deciding how much Black history is too much Black history wasn’t aware of arguably the most well-known race riot in American history.
The importance of why someone in McMahon’s position should be better versed in Black history — especially if she’s involved in deciding what should and shouldn’t be taught — eluded Jennings, apparently.
During a Wednesday segment of CNN’s “News Night with Abby Phillip,” Phillip noted correctly that McMahon has shown herself to be a woefully underqualified Cabinet member in the administration of President Donald Trump, despite the administration presenting its anti-DEI agenda as a campaign for meritocracy. Jennings responded by deflecting to his perceived failing of the Biden administration (because MAGA supporters have nothing if they don’t have, “But…but…but Sleepy Joe”) before segueing to his actual point, which was generally no real point at all.
“The only thing I care about for the education secretary — the literal only thing I care about — is what they are doing to close the Department of Education,” Jennings said. “I don’t care how many books she’s read; I don’t care what answers to ‘gotcha’ questions she had. I just want to know how quickly we can close the department.”
See, this is what I call mindless Trumpetting.
First of all, Jennings is out here gleefully admitting on live air that he doesn’t care how educated the Secretary of Education is as long as she shuts down the department she’s in charge of, an agenda of President Donald Trump that is transparently rooted in ideology, not merit or practicality.
Secondly, everything isn’t a “gotcha” question just because a MAGA official who doesn’t know things got “got.”
McMahon was asked about Tulsa and Ruby Bridges in a discussion about what her office considers “illegal DEI” curriculum. (She wasn’t even asked the more relevant question: What does school curriculum have to do with diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in the first place, unless we’re simply otherizing any teachings that don’t center white America?) McMahon wasn’t asked any difficult questions, but she was asked questions that would have forced her to present Trump’s anti-DEI mission in a way that isn’t so vague and ambiguous.
And the Trump administration couldn’t have that because people might find out the anti-diversity and critical race theory war is actually just a bunch of racist nonsense.
That would be the ultimate “gotcha,” wouldn’t it?
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Op-Ed: CNN Host Says Question To Education Secretary About Tulsa Race Massacre Was A ‘Gotcha’ Question. Umm…No! was originally published on newsone.com
