Have you noticed what's got the far right-wing of American politics hot-and-bothered lately? This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak to John Stoehr, the founder and editor of The Editorial Board about the latest red herring issue from the Right - critical race theory - and how it’s affecting political races across the country. In the first half of this two part discussion, Stoehr helps explain how the topic gained traction, distinguishes fact from fiction, and connects critical race theory to a larger discussion about race and American exceptionalism.

Narrator  0:01  This is Sea Change Radio covering the shift to sustainability. I'm Alex Wise.

John Stoehr  0:22  If you have bigotry on your side slander and smear campaigns are usually very effective, because people will they're already believing it. You're just telling somebody something they already believe, if they already believe the Liberals are out here trying to make trouble in race relations, meaning give let people freedom and equality, then they're communists, right? Or they're socialists, or they're troublemakers or just anything to smear their intentions.

Narrator  0:51  Have you noticed what's got the far right wing of American politics hot and bothered lately? This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak to John Stoehr, the founder and editor of the Editorial Board about the latest red herring issue from the right - critical race theory - and how it's affecting political races around the country.  In the first half of this two part discussion, Stoehr helps explain how the topic gain traction, distinguishes fact from fiction, and connects critical race theory to a larger discussion about race and American exceptionalism.

Alex Wise  1:46  I'm joined now on Sea Change Radio by John Stoehr. He's the founder and editor of the Editorial Board. John, welcome back to Sea Change Radio.

John Stoehr  1:55  Thanks for having me back.

Alex Wise  1:56  Always a pleasure to speak to you, sir. So you've written a piece about critical race theory on the editorial board. And so have some of your colleagues, Rod Graham and Trent Nelson. They're all slightly different takes on this hot button issue. First one, we summarize what the issue of critical race theory is to political debates going around in school boards and in the pundit class in America right now.

John Stoehr  2:26  Right. So the first thing you really need to understand about anything with the words critical race theory is that they are part of a backlash against the political gains made in the wake of George Floyd's murder. George Floyd, as everyone knows, I hope is, was killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis, and he was his murder was recorded. And this murder is set off a chain reaction across the country, in institutions from K through 12, up through colleges, nonprofits, other democratic institutions, to kind of do some soul searching about what we're doing that is contributing to the oppression of African Americans and other racial minorities. So that's the proper context in which to understand this critical race theory thing. I guess the second thing you should know is that it's not about education, even though the Republicans are insisting that it is about education

Alex Wise  3:26  Particularly K through 12 education, right?

John Stoehr  3:30  Especially K through 12. Exactly.