3min chapter

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280. Critical Racists | Christopher Rufo

The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast

CHAPTER

Introduction

Christopher Rufo is a senior fellow and director of the Initiative on Critical Race Theory at the Manhattan Institute. He recently launched a YouTube channel called Christopher Rufo Theory, concentrating on all these philosophical, political, and practical issues. "I'm kind of an accidental activist, never set out to be an activist," he says.

00:00
Speaker 3
Hello, everyone. I'm very pleased today to be talking with
Speaker 2
Mr. Christopher Rufo, who's emerged as a national and international class troublemaker, I would say, and policy advisor on the culture war front, especially in relationship to issues of public education and critical race theory, whatever that means, and both philosophically and politically, that's what we're going to delve into today. Christopher is a senior fellow and director of the Initiative on Critical Race Theory at the Manhattan Institute. He's also a contributing editor at City Journal, where his writing explores a range of issues, including critical race theory, homelessness, addiction, crime, and the decline of cities on America's west coast. Mr. Rufo also, as I said, became a focal point of attention on the culture war front for reasons we will discuss in this podcast. He recently launched a YouTube channel called Christopher Rufo Theory, concentrating on all these philosophical, political, and practical issues. Thank you very much, Mr. Rufo, Christopher, for agreeing to talk to me today.
Speaker 1
It's a pleasure to be with
Speaker 2
you. So let's start with a broad question. Three, I suppose. Who are you? What in the world are you up to? And why have people so suddenly, in some real sense, become interested? Why have you become a focal point of attention on these issues?
Speaker 1
Sure. I think it's because I was really the first person to do the reporting, to actually substantiate the feeling that many people had that our institutions had been captured by left-wing ideologies. And this has obviously been a kind of concern for many people for a long time. But for many years, it felt like it was relegated to the university setting. And so conservatives could say, well, you know, there's something crazy going on at Vassar College. It doesn't affect me. Then after the death of George Floyd in 2020, it seemed like all of our institutions suddenly shifted overnight. So I did a series of reports on diversity training programs in the federal government that got the attention of then President Trump. Then I shifted to looking at critical race theory implemented as a pedagogical approach in K through 12 schools, which set off this massive response or really revolt amongst parents nationwide. And now I'm focusing on gender ideology as well, looking at K through 12 schools, government agencies, and even the Fortune 100 companies. And so what I think I've been able to do that's been able to galvanize attention is take these issues, establish a factual basis saying, this is what's happening. These are the documents. And then describing the origins, whether it's critical race theory or queer theory, in a way that the average person, a parent in a public school district, for example, can start to then push back. And that's really been my goal. I'm kind of an accidental activist, never set out to be an activist. But as it turns out, I'm kind of leading this fight in many ways in here in the United States.
Speaker 2
Right.

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