Abstract

The recent fervor over Critical Race Theory (CRT) in American public schools is the result of a confluence of contributing factors including: an eroded news media apparatus operating within a capitalist framework where an increasing portion of the American populace consume news through hyper-partisan cable news networks and social media that comports with their individual ideological preference; the decrying of CRT in schools as the latest iteration of historically-reliable White Backlash; and a highly-effective conservative messaging apparatus skilled in fomenting White Rage based on disinformation. In this essay I will, first, briefly survey America’s collapsing contemporary news media industry before discussing contextualizing White Rage throughout American history. From there, I will transition the article’s focus to the modern conservative media machine pushing fake news highlighting the (non-existent) issue of CRT in primarily suburban public schools as an exemplification of White Rage to protect whiteness and its hegemony for political gain.

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