Comedian Bill Maher defended parents voicing their concerns about critical race theory, saying it’s leaving some children “traumatized.”
Mr. Maher, the host of “Real Time with Bill Maher” on HBO, made his defense during a heated debate with Vanderbilt University professor Michael Eric Dyson on his show on Friday.
“I find that a disingenuous argument because I don’t think that is what people are objecting to,” Mr. Maher said in response to his guest’s argument that opponents of CRT objected to teaching Black history in schools.
“They are not objecting to Black history being taught. There are other things going on in the schools,” the host continued.
When asked by Mr. Dyson what he meant, Mr. Maher said much of the opposition lays in “separating children by race” and “describing them either as oppressed or oppressor.”
“I mean, there are children coming home who feel traumatized by this. That’s what parents are objecting to,” he said.
Mr. Maher also said that children are “too young sometimes to fully appreciate all this,” and touched on GOP Virginia Gov.-elect Glenn Youngkin’s upset victory in the state’s gubernatorial election last week.
Mr. Youngkin centered his campaign around education and vowed to ban critical race theory in schools, though Virginia educators have refuted the claim that it is being taught in public schools.
Critical race theory is an academic thesis born in the 1970s that asserts that U.S. laws and institutions are inherently racist and perpetuate the oppression of minorities.
It’s been the subject of controversy at school board meetings around the country, including in Loudoun County, a northern Virginia county where Mr. Youngkin held his last campaign rally.
• Mica Soellner can be reached at msoellner@washingtontimes.com.
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