New year, same Tucker Carlson.
The Fox News host kicked off 2018 by asking the tough questions: with websites like BuzzFeed and The Root constantly attacking white people, shouldn’t we expect a rise in white nationalism
“Well, there’s a basic moral principle that was, for a long time, conventional wisdom in this country,” Carlson said on “Tucker Carlson Tonight.” “You probably grew up with it. It was this: people deserve to be treated as individuals, judged by their own efforts and their abilities on the things they can control. Attacking people on the basis of their race is wrong. That was the standard and, for a long time, almost everybody in America believed it or claimed to believe it. Not anymore.
“On the left it is now acceptable, even encouraged, to attack and discriminate against people solely on the basis of their skin color. Now, you’re not supposed to say anything about it but suddenly, it’s everywhere.”
A 21-year-old chemical-engineering student asks a question. Fair360, formerly DiversityInc CEO Luke Visconti has an answer.
Carlson cited a BuzzFeed article titled “37 Things White People need to Stop Ruining in 2018.” In his tirade, perhaps he missed some on Fox’s own site, including a cleverly titled 2011 article, “Obama’s Hip-Hop BBQ Didn’t Create Jobs.”
In any case, Carlson continued:
“Now, liberals say they abhor white nationalism, and they should, but at the same time they are promoting it with crap like this. When rich liberals pull up BuzzFeed for the latest listicle of why white people are wrecking America, or whatever, they are happy to laugh along, because they are safe in the knowledge it doesn’t actually threaten them,”
“You are worried, and you should be, and now some smug private school kid from Brooklyn is lecturing you about how you are the problem, because the color of your skin, and the privilege it conveys. How much of that are you going to take before you explode at the unfairness of it all And at that point, why wouldn’t you embrace a racial identity
“Everybody else seems to be doing it. That’s a disaster, and it’s not theoretical, by the way. That’s what’s going to happen in this country, unless people start deciding they’re going to treat one another as individuals, rather than as members of groups.”
Fair360, formerly DiversityInc CEO Luke Visconti’s response to a question about whether Kanye West was racist when he said former President George W. Bush “doesn’t care about Black people” triggered some confused e-mails. Here, Visconti explains the difference between a racist and a bigot, and why Black people can’t be racist toward white people.
Carlson’s assertion that racism is a new concept crafted by liberals to shame white people into apologizing for their race seems to ignore comments he himself has made.
Just last month Carlson mocked an effort in California to remove large trees between a golf course and a neighborhood. The trees were initially built as a way to segregate Black and white neighborhoods. Today, they block residents’ views of the golf course, decreasing value of the properties. But Carlson made a joke of the entire issue, saying the people behind the efforts are punishing “racist trees.”
He reiterated his claim in a segment several days later: “The specter of racist trees now haunts America like a demon.”
Last March Carlson defended U.S. Congressman Steve King of Iowa, who took to Twitter to promote the white nationalist position on immigrants, saying, “We can’t restore our civilization with somebody else’s babies.” Carlson called King’s comments “defensible and probably right.”
And at Carlson’s own network, more than a dozen current and former employees of color sued Fox and its parent company, 21st Century Fox, for racial discrimination.
Last night’s segment comes as no surprise, though, as Carlson has echoed similar sentiments previously.
In 2016 Carlson said that anyone who acknowledges that white privilege exists is “by definition, a racist.”
“Anyone who alleges the white privilege is, by definition, a racist,” he said. “I think we can say that and we should say that. That’s not a legitimate form of conversation. That’s tarring an entire group based on the way they look. That’s the definition of racism and I think people should stand up and say that because it’s true.”
