Video: Does O’Brien know what “Critical Race Theory” is?

hot air ^ | 3/8/12 | allah pundit

[Nachum]

Via Dan Riehl and Ace, this almost too good to check. Go read Rebel Pundit’s post for an explanation, then skip to 2:00 below. (If you missed Ed’s post this morning, by all means watch the whole thing.) After sneering at Joel Pollak for supposedly mischaracterizing the discipline and then refusing to define it herself, she finally demonstrates her grasp of Critical Race Theory by uncorking a definition that’s curiously similar to … the opening of Wikipedia’s intro on CRT, replete with the noncolloquial use of “intersection” to describe an interdisciplinary study. Could be a coincidence — the definition she gives is generic — but the thought of her taking this much of a tone with him over his alleged ignorance while she’s got some intern reading Wiki entries to her in her earpiece is irresistible.

But is that what happened? Turns out O’Brien does know who Derrick Bell is. Go look at this page at Michelle’s new site Twitchy compiling some of her tweets about him. She marked his passing last October, retweeted Charles Ogletree’s tribute to him, and mentioned that she was “re-reading” one of his books, so obviously she’s familiar with his work. Could be they were even acquainted (she was a Harvard undergrad), although in that case, it might have been worth mentioning to the viewers as a prelude to the ritual savaging of Pollak as a racist, huh? Bottom line: Yeah, evidently she does know what Critical Race Theory is, and somehow, despite that fact, the formulation she came up with here is vague to the point of meaninglessness. Pollak’s definition is much closer to the mark : CRT is all about how American law is used to disempower blacks and preserve white privilege. To get a sense of the academic environment in which it

[Larry Lucido]

Collin O’Brian? He wrote “The Big Game” didn’t he?

[HangingTuff]

I thought the same thing.

[SaraJohnson]

O’Brien is a condesending B*&$h

---

That is the way a superior Black racist addresses an inferior whitey. He was born a whitey racist and doesn’t know his place in O’Brien’s diversity race order. She was out of her mind furious. She needed a whip. And if you want to get creative...I loved the role that white CNN man played for masta race-girl O’Brien. “Yesem, we’s all racis. You shouldn’t talkin’ uppity like that, White boy!”

[jmacusa]

You have to be taught that? Just get in their faces too. I used to be a liberal. It’s all about emotionship, not logic and lefties are cowards. They like to be rude and pugnacious but it’s all a front. Nothing to be afraid of. Pollock handled himself superbly. He won the moment O’ Brien started stumbling and when the flunkie Thomas chimed in he had them eating out of his hand.

[longjack]

I think she had a ear phone or teleprompter and was able to muddle through some obfuscation of “Critical Race Theory” after her handlers were forced to go look it up.

That's exactly the impression I had.

First, she seemed to sneer at Joel Pollack's description of CRT and when Pollack asked her to give her description of it she couldn't.

A short time later, when the opportunity came up, she rattled off the definition of CRT as if she were reading a definition.

At that time I thought it sounded just like the description of CRT I had looked up on Wikipedia a day earlier.

She was either fed it on a teleprompter or over her headset. She was not prepared for the challenge originally.

[Born to Conserve]

Now I recognize him! He’s the dumb hockey player from cheers!

He should’ve stuck with playing dumb.

[RobbyS]

Morgan Freedom is from the Mississippi Delta, but he went to school and mastered diction. So we have an actor was a “black” voice that is nonetheless perfectly clear to everyone. Jesse Jackson, with his Carolina voice, is a great orator. IMHO, better than King, very fertile in expression, but always clear, and less Southern than Haley Barbour. Barbour really truncated his political career by hanging onto his “native” tongue. Scottish actors and politicians “tone” down their brogues. Julie Andrews, they say, mastered real cockney for her role as Eliza, only to be told she should go more toward her own accent. An actor —a player in any field—must always know what his audience will be.