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TRANSCRIPT of TY SMITH, ILLINOIS FATHER: 'When you talk about Critical Race Theory, which is pretty much gonna be teaching kids how to hate each other, how to dislike each other … it’s pretty much what it’s all going to come down to. You going to deliberately teach kids, this white kid right here got it better than you because he white? You going to purposely tell a white kid, “Oh, the black people are all down and suppressed.” How do I have two medical degrees if I’m sitting here oppressed?
Two medical degrees. No mom, no dad in the house. Worked my way through college, sat there and hustled my butt off to get through college. You going to tell me somebody look like all y’all white folks kept me from doing it? Are you serious? Not one white person ever came to me and said, “Well son, you’re never gonna be able to get nowhere because, you know, the black people,” but guess what? What’s sickening about this whole thing is what y’all doing right now is already something I do in my community right now, to speak out against [this stuff] because black folks are getting told by other black folks, “Oh, you know you ain’t going to be able to nothing out there in the world because them white folks ain’t going to let get no … the white man, the white man gonna keep you down.”
(cont.) ...
'Well, how did I get where I am right now if some white man kept me down? How am I now directing over folks that look just like you guys in this room right now? How? What kept me down? What oppressed me? I worked myself from off the streets to where I am right now, and you’re going to sit here and tell me this lie of Critical Race Theory? Of this, the reason why black folks can’t get ahead because of white folks? Are you kidding me? This is what we’ve come to? I can’t believe we even talking about this right now.
The last thing I’m going to say right here is something that’s crazy. Martin Luther King said he wanted his kids to grow up in the world where they are judged by the contents of their what?
AUDIENCE: Character.
SMITH: Their character. Not their skin. If they letting this stuff go on right now, it is absolutely going the complete reverse of what he’s doing, so when February comes, don’t talk about Martin Luther King. When February comes, don’t talk about [black history month if y’all going to sit there and pretty much just pee on his grave] with this nonsense. That’s exactly what’s about to happen.
Lastly, we are talking about our kids. We are talking about our children and what’s so [inaudible], I love the Discovery Channel, you will see that on Discovery Channel, animals will put their lives on the line to protect their children from danger. … Nobody want to get to the heart of the matter, get to the meat of the matter, get to the moral of the story. What it all comes down to it, the person that’s going to be suffering from this, the ones [who are] going to be hurt from this is the kids. Ten years from now if this stuff goes on … who’s fault is it going to be? Who’s fault is it going to be? Who we going look back on and blame for this? Because this is stuff we talking about right now; this stuff is going on right now. I do this stuff on a daily basis. I’m in the hood, I’m in the communities, I’m out there with folks in their face, I’ve been doing stuff since I was 18 years old, talking to black folks. And you know what? None of them are buying this nonsense. None of them are. But if you want to implement this into the school system, I guarantee you to the day that I die, I’m going to be the very person right there debunking this stuff, tearing stuff down, letting them know they can do exactly what I did and get exactly where I am by putting themselves to work and getting their [inaudible] … not one white person ever going to keep any of them from getting there. So CRT stuff, BS.'