The Making of A Great America Uprooting the Spirit of Racism

This is an excerpt from the chapter entitled "Guard Your Heart":

Ta-Nehisi Coates said, “Racism is not merely a simplistic hatred. It is, more often, broad sympathy toward some and broader skepticism toward others.” (Coates, n.d.) When I wrote MGA Vol I, one of the things I asked myself is how can you prove someone is racist? I know in part, we judge the fruit of the tree, but it is still very hard to get to motives at times. But in the example above, it is clear that Ingraham has one standard for LeBron and another standard for Brees. It would take an examination of what she says in other programs to get an idea of whether this was just because she didn’t like LeBron or if there was a more consistent pattern of skepticism against black athletes, black people.

That brings me to Tucker Carlson. The most-watched and easily one of the most controversial TV hosts in America.

Jun 30, 2020

“Tucker Carlson Has Highest-Rated Program in Cable News History

Fox News Channel host Tucker Carlson closed out television’s second quarter with one for the record books: his Tucker Carlson Tonight finished the quarter as the highest-rated program in all of cable news for the first time since the show’s launch, delivering an average total audience of 4.331 million viewers. In the process, Carlson broke a record held by his colleague, Sean Hannity, for the highest-rated quarter of any cable news program—ever.

It was a solid quarter for the network, which finished in first place across all of cable television for the first time in the network’s history, beating out all basic cable networks among total viewers and viewers 25-54, the demographic group most valued by national advertisers.

Some of those advertisers announced during the quarter that they would pull advertising from Carlson’s show after remarks the host made about the Black Lives Matter movement, but FNC viewers did not follow suit, instead lifting Tucker Carlson Tonight to a record high, breaking a previous record set in the first quarter of 2020 by FNC’s Hannity.” (Joyella, 2020)

I don’t know what Tucker Carlson’s motivations are for saying the incendiary things that he says. Maybe the motivation is ratings. We are in the rant generation. Ranting sports broadcasters (which I dislike) have the highest-rated podcasts and TV shows.  Personalities, in sports and news, tear down, berate, stir controversy, and we reward them by listening to them. We even elected a ranter to be President of the United States. Rants don’t have to be factual, thought out, politically correct, or even PG-13, but America has embraced it as part of the culture.

There is a little book entitled “Chicken Soup for the Soul.” When I thought of how to describe Tucker Carlson’s programming, particularly his segments on race, the only thing that I could come up with is “Rat Poison for the Soul.” I have considered that over and over, and that is the best compliment I could give. Again, I can’t speak to his motivations, but I can and will share some of his quotes. His comments are some of the vilest, most divisive, and hateful that I have seen on American television. They surpass even Sean Hannity, which I believe is why he has surpassed him in the ratings.

There is a great appetite in America for this racist, fear-mongering, divisive poison. These are the number one rated TV news programs in America. In my opinion, you cannot watch these programs regularly and not have the side effect of being more racist, more intolerant, more bigoted. I will let his quotes speak for themselves. I challenge anyone that disagrees with me that these quotes meet the Phil 4:8 test: "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any praise, think on these things."

I challenge anyone that is a Carlson supporter with the question of whether anything in his programming makes you have more Christlike thoughts toward black and brown people, immigrants, anyone who is non-white. I have voted republican in every election but the last. I used to think that Fox News is just what we republicans watched, and then it took a turn. In this turn, the network I was watching started taking an increasingly dark and hateful slant on immigrants and police brutality towards African Americans. I find the programs I have mentioned an affront to people of color, insulting, racist, and legalized hate speech.

I’m not condemning you if you watch it, although it sounds like it. But I’m not. I’m issuing a challenge. All black people don’t feel the way I do, most, but not all. I am just challenging you to put what you’re watching and browsing up against the standard of the Word of God, just like I did with the Roland Martin show.

In his own words, Tucker Carlson:

“Tucker Warns Fox Viewers that the Black Lives Matter ‘Mob’ Will ‘Come for You’

Fox News host Tucker Carlson raged against the social justice movement Black Lives Matter on Monday night, claiming that the movement for racial justice and fair policing was ‘definitely not about black lives’ while warning his viewers to “remember that when they come for you.”

Carlson, who has been highly critical of the protests over George Floyd’s death while claiming systemic racism is nonexistent, began Monday’s broadcast of his primetime show by railing against calls for defunding the police. Calling the protests the ‘Black Lives Matter Riots,’ the Fox star claimed liberals didn’t want to abolish the police but instead planned on replacing law enforcement with an armed ‘woke militia’ to patrol cities.

‘Imagine if the Black Lives Matter rioters had weapons and immunity from prosecution,’ Carlson dramatically exclaimed. ‘That’s what they are talking about. Partisan law enforcement, and partisan law enforcement, incidentally, is hardly without precedent. In fact, it’s the rule in the Third World. This is an attempt to bring it here.’” (Baragona, 2020)

“Fox News Host Tucker Carlson Reiterates Claim Immigrants Make America 'Poorer and Dirtier' Even as Advertisers Flee

Fox News host Tucker Carlson has not backed down this week from his claim that immigrants make the United States ‘poorer’ and ‘dirtier,’ even as some advertisers have fled his program. In fact, he has reiterated that belief.

Carlson last week railed against the economics of immigration—bringing up the highly publicized migrant caravan—before slamming American leaders' immigration views.

‘Our leaders demand that you shut up and accept this,’ he said on his show. ‘We have a moral obligation to admit the world's poor, they tell us, even if it makes our own country poorer, and dirtier, and more divided. Immigration is a form of atonement. Previous leaders of our country committed sins; we must pay for those sins by welcoming an endless chain of migrant caravans. That's the argument they make.’” (Marcin, 2018)

“Carlson Falsely Claims Immigrants are Dirtying the Potomac

Says the Potomac River ‘has gotten dirtier and dirtier and dirtier and dirtier. I go down there and that litter is left almost exclusively by immigrants.’"  (McCarthy, 2019)

“The problem is there aren’t that many hate crimes occurring in the country.” —Tucker Carlson, Feb. 23, 2019 (Ramesh, 2019)

So when hosts like Tucker Carlson falsely claim that “there aren’t that many hate crimes occurring in the country,” and devoted viewers hear and see that, they believe it, despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary. This is a disservice to the victims of racist violence and hate crimes and also a disservice to the viewer whom is being lied to.

“Tucker Carlson: Fox host under fire again over resurfaced racist comments

Fox News host Tucker Carlson is under fire for the second time in as many days for remarks he made years ago as a guest on a shock jock radio program – this time for a barrage of racist language about the people of Iraq.

‘I just have zero sympathy for them or their culture. A culture where people just don’t use toilet paper or forks,’ he said of the nation in a 2006 appearance on the Bubba the Love Sponge radio show, in audio rediscovered by the liberal media watchdog group Media Matters. ‘They can just shut the fuck up and obey, is my view.’

Carlson went on to call Iraq a ‘crappy place filled with a bunch of semiliterate primitive monkeys’ during a 2008 call-in on the show, which he was a regular guest on from 2006 to 2011. He added of Afghanistan: ‘It’s never going to be a civilized country because the people aren’t civilized.’” (Lartey, 2019)

“Unearthed audio shows Tucker Carlson using white nationalist rhetoric and making racist remarks

Between 2006 and 2011, Fox News host Tucker Carlson spent approximately an hour a week calling in to the Bubba the Love Sponge Show, a popular shock jock radio program where he spoke with the hosts about a variety of cultural and political topics in often vulgar terms. In addition to making many misogynistic remarks and sexual comments about underage girls, Carlson, who was hired by Fox in 2009, also repeatedly made racist remarks.

Carlson credited ‘white men’ for ‘creating civilization’ and made numerous racist remarks about the Obamas, including agreeing that Michelle Obama would ‘be a problem’ because she ‘turns into a sister’ and asking of Barack Obama, ‘How is he Black, for one thing? He has one white parent, one Black parent.’” (Peltz, 2019)

“Tucker Carlson’s Top Writer Resigns After Discovery of Racist, Sexist Comments in Online Forum

Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s top writer, Blake Neff, has resigned after CNN Business discovered that he had been posting racist and sexist material in an online forum under a pseudonym…

Neff disparaged Black and Asian people and derided a woman for being a ‘megashrew’ in multiple pseudonymous posts. Comments include, ‘Black doods staying inside playing Call of Duty is probably one of the biggest factors keeping crime down,’ which CNN said Neff wrote last month. In another post made this week, CNN reported that Neff said that he ‘wouldn’t get LASIK from an Asian for free’ in response to an email thread with the subject line, ‘Would u let a JET BLACK congo n—– do lasik eye surgery on u for 50% off?’ (Chan, 2020)

“Tucker Carlson: America is in the race of its life against China because of people like LeBron James

Thirty years goes pretty fast. Thirty years ago, it was the fall of 1989, believe it or not -- it seems like yesterday.

And at the time, if you can remember that far back, America seemed unbeatable. Our chief rival, the Soviet Union had just collapsed. Our economy and military strength dwarfed those of every nation on the planet. America in 1989 was the uncontested leader of the world -- free and otherwise.

But just three decades later, that advantage has evaporated completely. Instead of expanding and solidifying our power, we've wasted it. And as a result, we're now in the race of our lives against a country that in 1989 was so poor that many of its people could not afford meat or electricity -- China. And at this rate, China will beat us.

So the question is, how did America fall so far so fast? And the answer is simple -- bad leadership. The people who benefited the most from this country cared about it the least. They were also the quickest to sell it out to foreign powers for profit.

That's obvious now, thanks to people like LeBron James. James, of course, is one of the most famous athletes in history. But he started off at the very bottom. He was born to an impoverished 16-year-old mother in Akron, Ohio. He never went to college.

And yet, thanks to hard work and remarkable skill, James' endorsement income alone now exceeds $50 million a year. If there's anyone whose life is a tribute to America, to its decency, to its endless opportunity, it's LeBron James. In return, he showers America with contempt.” (Carlson, n.d.)

“Tucker Carlson refuses to apologize after tapes surface of him calling women 'primitive' and comparing them to dogs

‘The rapist, in this case, has made a lifelong commitment to live and take care of the person, so it is a little different. I mean, let's be honest about it,’ Carlson argued about marriage before clarifying that he's against the practice.

In a clip dated to 2009, Carlson could be heard defending Jeffs, who was then awaiting trial on charges related to his organized polygamist cult that was accused of arranging marriages between adult men and underage girls. Jeffs was suspected of running the group from prison, but the case was dismissed because two accusers backed out of testifying. In 2011, Jeffs was convicted of two counts of child sexual assault and sentenced to life in prison.

‘Here's my point,’ Carlson said in the tape. ‘If a guy wants to be polygamist, that's kind of his business.’

When pressed about the age of the children involved, Carlson responded: ‘He's not accused of touching anybody — he is accused of facilitating a marriage between a 16-year-old girl and a 27-year-old man. That's the accusation. That's what they're calling felony rape. [crosstalk] That's bulls---. I'm sorry. Now this guy may be [crosstalk], may be a child rapist I'm just telling you that arranging a marriage between a 16-year-old and a 27-year-old is not the same as pulling a stranger off the street and raping her.’" (Benjamin Goggin, 2019)

“Tucker Carlson: White Supremacy is a ‘Hoax’ and ‘Not a Real Problem in America’

Three days after a Texas man allegedly killed 22 people in El Paso after apparently posting a manifesto complaining of a ‘Hispanic invasion,’ Fox News host Tucker Carlson said white supremacy is not a problem in the United States and is actually a ‘hoax’ and a ‘conspiracy theory.’

Carlson, who regularly spouts the same anti-immigrant “invasion” rhetoric the El Paso shooter is believed to have espoused in a racist manifesto, hit back against those who say President Trump’s rhetoric on immigration may have emboldened the suspected shooter. The Fox News star claimed it is ‘just a lie’ to say Trump ever ‘endorsed white supremacy or came close to endorsing white supremacy.’” (Baragona, Tucker Carlson: White Supremacy Is a ‘Hoax’ and ‘Not a Real Problem in America’, 2019)

"Worry About What Kamala Harris Plans To Do To Your Country

The first thing to know about Kamala Harris is that in just a few months, she could run your country. If Biden wins the election, Kamala Harris will effectively become the president…

This is not the democracy we were promised. It’s not democracy at all. It’s oligarchy, and it has consequences. If candidates are only accountable to a small number of partisan executives in New York and San Francisco, they’re unlikely to care when your neighborhood police station is on fire. They probably won’t be too upset when packs of mentally ill homeless take over your street, or your nephew overdoses on fentanyl. They have no incentive to improve your life. Instead, they just lecture you about your moral failings. That's the system we have now. Kamala Harris embodies it.” (Schwartz, 2020)