Shapiro accused Nance of “succeeding” within the very system of meritocracy he claimed was racist
Author and national security expert Malcolm Nance traded jabs with conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro on the topic of critical race theory during a segment of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher on Friday.
Maher prompted the clash during an interview when he shifted the discussion topic to “muzzle laws,” referring to the legislation Republican lawmakers are introducing in order to limit classroom discussions about race.
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Asked to define critical race theory, Shapiro admitted that while attending law school, he read “a lot” of books about critical race theory by authors such as the late American lawyer and civil rights activist Derrick Bell.
“Critical Race Theory, essentially, argues that racism is baked into all the systems of American society and that any sort of neutral system is in fact a guise for racial power,” Shapiro said “Even things that are purportedly good, in terms of race, so long as they uphold these broader systems, things like capitalism, things like the meritocracy, these things are just guises for power.”
“What that boils down to in sort of practical terms is, all disparity equals discrimination,” he added. “If you can see any stat where Black people are underperforming white people, this means the system was set up for the benefit of white people and that white people have a duty to tear down these systems in order to alleviate the racism that’s implicit in those systems.”
“When it comes to schools what this tends to boil down to is kids who are white have experienced privilege because the system was built for white people and we have to change the standards,” he continued.
Nance, when asked for his definition of the term, said he agreed with Shapiro’s definition because it was “grounded in truth,” and with a laugh, thanked him for “being honest in defining what it’s like to be Black American.”
Source: Malcolm Nance and Ben Shapiro clash over critical race theory
