This Comedian Shows How Dumb the ‘Critical Race Theory’ Panic Is

If the right is good at one thing, it’s messaging. The term “critical race theory” is so specific—and until recently, relatively obscure—hearing Trump supporters cry about it is like hearing them recite a twenty-digit serial number from the specific vial of Fox News brain poison they’ve ingested. “Critical race theory” is now a nearly useless, catchall term that bears little resemblance to the legal academic concept from which the name was cribbed. 

Recently, a comedian’s speech at a school board meeting revealed the impotence of common anti-CRT talking points. On July 12, the Yorktown Central School District Board of Education held an open meeting about its diversity initiative in Yorktown, New York. The meeting was one month after a parent called the nearby Carmel Central School District racist for promoting “critical race theory,” claiming the school was teaching children to kill cops. (That parent is now an unhinged character-slash-hero in the Fox News Universe.) In that July 12 meeting, parents shared their varied opinions and concerns (some regarding “critical race theory”) including one Black father, who said his 10-year-old daughter had been called the n-word on the bus, and reasonably requested that the school faculty reflect the demographics of the student body, ending his speech with a simple request to do better.

About ninety minutes into the meeting, a man in an American flag short-sleeve shirt is called to the microphone. The man, Walter Masterson, identifies himself as an American, and a patriot, and goes on to rail against “critical race theory” even though he hasn’t read much about it. 

In his three-minute speech, the New York-based comedian says, “The best way to end racism is to stop talking about it.” He also takes a moment to ask if anyone knows how to disable comments on Instagram. Masterson is followed by a friend, Maximilian Clark, who makes a simpler claim. “There’s too much history in these history books!” 

The video is a satirical performance from both Masterson and Clark which highlights the idiocy around the anti-CRT “debate.” Its genesis is much darker, much less humorous, but indicative of the battles going on across the country. 

“The school I went to to make the speech, [people] had made violent threats, both open and private. They called the Black guidance counselor “boy,” and made open threats of lynching, to his face,” Masterson told VICE. 

Masterson has parodied Trump supporters for years. Some videos are poignant, like his school board performance, while others are simpler. For example, he recently posed for a photo with Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz at one of their events, and excitedly told Gaetz that he believes the State Representative from Florida is not a pedophile. By attending events like these—and Trump rallies—he told VICE, he’s gotten an inside look at how Trump supporters behave, especially in the midst of friends. (He often pretends he is a fellow Trump supporter.)

“When they think you’re the liberal media, they hold back,” he said. “They don’t really tell you how Hugo Chavez rigged the election and then called Biden to congratulate him.”

VICE spoke to Masterson about his experience trolling Trump supporters, and asked him if he thinks the panic around “critical race theory” will die down any time soon. 

VICE: Reports show it was a pretty coordinated astroturf campaign to rally against the term “critical race theory.” As someone who goes to a lot of Trump rallies, do you remember when you first started hearing people say it?
Walter Masterson: They’ve been talking about it forever. When I interview Trump supporters, if you say “CRT” in an interview, they see red. They light up. It’s Pavlovian. There’s another video where I was telling them that Starbucks is controlled by Antifa. And that if you go to Starbucks and you order a drink with soy, they’ll make you sit through a 15 minute presentation on critical race theory. They have no problem believing that’s what’s gonna happen. 

As a comedian, and a white guy, you have that benefit of using those facets as camouflage. Is that something that’s become more apparent over the years?
You’ve gotta dress the part, or they’re not going to trust you. Unless there’s something visual to represent where you’re coming from. The other part though, the culture war is such where, you, as a not-white person, could put on a MAGA hat, dress the part, go to rallies, and they’ll trust you all the same. It justifies their behavior. They get the point at [you], they do it all the time in interviews, saying, “Well, if we’re so racist, Why are they here?”

At one point in the speech, you say the school board should ban forced indoctrination, and also mandate standing for the Pledge of Allegiance. People applauded. A lot of political satire puts that contradiction right in front of people. But when it doesn’t register, do you wonder, “what else can I do?”
One thing I’m experimenting with, is when talking about something without using buzzwords, they’re actually very agreeable. They’re very conditioned against buzzwords. If you talk about socialism without saying the word “socialism,” it’s normally very agreeable. Like, ‘In order to stop the socialist agenda, we need to create strong communities where we help each other out and create mutual aid. Pool together our resources within the community so that we can help provide healthcare for each other.’ And 99 percent of the time I get full agreement. 

However, if you mention socialism, socialized medicine, Medicaid, Medicare For All, critical race theory, government assistance, government programs, Democrats, or democratic government, that’s when they get crazy, and they automatically shut down. 

You figured out early on that you weren’t trying to change people’s minds. Why is that?
One of my main rules in talking to [Trump supporters] is to let them speak, because they always say the funniest things. They always just walk into glass doors on their own. 

If you look at debate culture today, people think they’re owning everyone in arguments. In reality, people are just opting out, because the person talking to them is just being aggressive and irrational. I’d rather people just get there on their own. I also don’t have hope for them becoming de-radicalized.

People directed you to this board meeting because the school was getting violent threats. Were you nervous performing under those circumstances?
I’m okay insulting Trump supporters to their face. But there are so many progressives there that were very well-meaning. There was this lovely teenager, she was active in the NAACP, she spoke right before me and she gave a very heartfelt speech that wasn’t polarizing or inflammatory, and was very personal to her. I don’t want to be mocking the people that came there in good faith, that were speaking from the heart, with the genuine earnestness that our history not be erased. The rest of them can fuck off into the sun for all I care. 

Is there a difference talking to Trump supporters now versus when Trump was in office?
Yeah. It’s actually terrible. There used to be moderate Trump supporters, and they were semi-reasonable. After the election, the moderates believed things that were completely insane. Those same people believe in election fraud, that January 6 was Antifa. These are what you would consider the normal ones. 

I spend a lot of time with them. And some of them, they’re of good moral character. They’re decent human beings. They just believe awful things. You spend all this time with them, it’s just tragic. ‘You’re a decent human. And then you start talking to me about how Michelle Obama is drinking adrenochrome from babies that were sold to her at the goddamn border?’ 

People descending upon this meeting is kind of scary for what’s to come, in terms of dispatching a mob to any place where they say they’re having a hearing about CRT.
There’s a huge problem with our progressive media, we do live in this echo chamber. By the time we hear about [an issue], it’s mainstream. By the time we’re hearing about critical race theory, it’s mainstream. All of their propaganda when we hear about the Plandemic, vaccines, microchips, it’s mainstream information. And that’s when we’re pushing back on it, which is so late in the game. I know about it, I hear about it. And it gives me a lot of anger. It gives me huge amounts of anxiety. 

 Do you think this panic around CRT will flame out, or will it forever be part of the culture war?
The fact that they’re saying, ‘Don’t teach this. Don’t learn this.’ That’s great. The fact that they’re banning it is making it way more popular. Critical race theory, it’s kind of a boring subject. It’s not the most exciting subject next to a Marvel cinematic universe movie. They’re making it all sexy and satanic and subversive. 

Follow Ashwin Rodrigues on Twitter.