It's right in the Declaration of Independence that everyone is created equal. So why is an entire political party so scared of talking critically about race in this country? This week on Sea Change Radio, the second half of our discussion with John Stoehr of The Editorial Board centered around the latest Republican boogeyman, critical race theory. We look at the media's role in creating something out of nothing, compare critical race theory to the debate over gun control, and examine how the hullabaloo about CRT is connected to the so-called "Big Lie" and why both pose a threat to our democracy. Then, we hear an excerpt from Editorial Board contributor Magdi Semrau on how Black voices are largely left out of public education debates in this country.

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

John Stoehr  0:22  The whole expansion of guns everywhere the loosening of gun laws and stuff is a reaction to democracy, putting guns in the hands of people who will not be punished by the law but will be protected by the law, even as they commit crimes that would otherwise be crimes in order to maintain those hierarchies of power. If you can't turn to democracy to get what you want, then you turn to your gun.

Narrator  0:49  It's right in the Declaration of Independence that everyone is created equal. So why is an entire political party so scared of talking critically about race in this country? This week on Sea Change Radio, the second half of our discussion with John Stoehr of The Editorial Board centered around the latest Republican boogeyman, critical race theory. We look at the media's role in creating something out of nothing, compare critical race theory to the debate over gun control, and examine how the hullabaloo about CRT is connected to the so-called "Big Lie" and why both pose a threat to our democracy. Then, we hear an excerpt from Editorial Board contributor Magdi Semrau on how Black voices are largely left out of public education debates in this country.

Alex Wise  1:47  This is Alex Wise on Sea Change Radio, and I'm speaking to the founder and editor of the editorial board, John Stoehr. So John, we were talking about the role of the press and you hit upon Fox News. But let's turn to more mainstream news outlets if we can like the New York Times, how are they playing along with this critical race theory malarkey?

John Stoehr  2:10  The thing about the press corps is, first of all the big media companies are is really about six companies that own all the big, profitable media companies, as opposed to 50 years ago when there was 50, and more. And so when they speak with one voice, that's a really big, loud voice. And the other thing that I've come to, sadly, realizes that fascism or being friendly to fascism is really profitable. I mean, the Fox News model is Case in point, it's the most profitable cable news channel. And for there's one reason for that, it's because it foments anger, it taps into bigotries and prejudices that people already believe to be true. It smears the intentions of the of minority voices, etc. And even the New York Times is really catching on to this.

Alex Wise  3:03  But they do it in a coy kind of both-sides-ism way.

John Stoehr  3:06  Absolutely. It's never ever. I mean, Fox News is actually pretty coy, but much less. Yeah, it sounds overt side, but the lucrative media properties, they also don't want reform, they don't want Democrats changing things, because the way things are right now is really good. You know, it's really profitable. And at the same time, the Democrats in power, so the press corps has an incentive to elevate the part the voices from the party out of power. And so you put those in economic incentive plus this kind of like this n...