Oklahoma Superintendent Can't Believe Media 'Twisted His Words' By Directly Quoting Him

Ryan Walters said Oklahoma kids could learn about the Tulsa Race Massacre so long as race was not mentioned.

Ryan Walters, the Oklahoma superintendent of schools who was criticized last week for his comments about the Tulsa Race Massacre, is very upset about the media twisting his words all around and has helpfully released a statement in which he completely doubles down on the same thing he was criticized for saying on Friday.

You may recall that Walters, speaking at an open forum, explained that teaching students about the Tulsa Race Massacre in the state's history need not violate his "critical race theory" ban, because teachers could explain that the actions of the mob of angry, homicidal white people, in which the city was later found to be complicit, were the actions of individuals who were individually bad. 

“I would never tell a kid that because of your race, because of the color of your skin, or your gender or anything like that, you are less of a person or are inherently racist." he said. "That doesn’t mean you don’t judge the actions of individuals. Oh, you can. Absolutely, historically, you should. ‘This was right. This was wrong. They did this for this reason.’ But to say it was inherent in that because of their skin is where I say that is critical race theory. You’re saying that race defines a person.”

 It does when it determines what they can get away with . Also when they are burning down a Black neighborhood.

PREVIOUSLY:

 Oklahoma Schools Superintendent Wishes We Could Keep 'Race' Out Of Tulsa Race Massacre 

 The Tulsa Race Massacre Was A Hundred Years Ago And Just Yesterday 

 HBO's 'Watchmen' Gives Us A Hero Forged From The Fires Of The Tulsa Massacre 

By quoting him directly, Walters explained, "the media" misrepresented what he was saying. He then went on to say pretty much the exact thing he had been criticized for saying on Friday.

“The media is twisting two separate answers,” he told KOCO-TV . “They misrepresented my statements about the Tulsa Race Massacre in an attempt to create a fake controversy. Let me be crystal clear that history should be accurately taught: One, the Tulsa Race Massacre is a terrible mark on our history. The events on that day were racist, evil, and it is inexcusable. Individuals are responsible for their actions and should be held accountable. Two, kids should never be made to feel bad or told they are inferior based on the color of their skin.”

Well, they weren't held accountable. In fact, the massacre was barely mentioned by anyone in the state for 75 years after it happened and was not taught in schools until 2002, by which time we can assume that anyone who participated was dead or close to it. (An Oklahoma judge just dismissed a lawsuit from the few survivors of the massacre who were seeking reparations.)

That being said, everyone knows and knew what he was trying to say here and on Friday. His words were not twisted. They were just wrong to begin with and they are wrong now. He wants children to be taught that the people who burned down and destroyed the Greenwood District were independently bad people and that the society they lived in had zero impact or influence on their behavior whatsoever and definitely has nothing to do with our society today.

To be clear, literally no one anywhere teaches that white people are inherently bad due to the color of their skin. That is not a thing and to say so is patently ridiculous. What is taught is that people who live in a racist society frequently develop racist tendencies. The people who burned down the Greenwood District in 1921 knew they'd get away with it because they were white, and they did. If you live in a society in which white vigilantes are allowed to burn down a Black neighborhood with zero consequences, that is going to affect your worldview one way or another.

The massacre was not the result of a bunch of "individuals" independently deciding that they didn't much care for Black people. They lived in a state with Jim Crow laws and segregation. They were taught that they were superior and they believed it.

However, yes, students of all colors who are not sociopaths should feel badly when they learn about the Tulsa Race Massacre or the Holocaust or slavery or the AIDS crisis or the Challenger exploding or the Titanic sinking or any other terrible tragedy. This doesn't mean that they themselves are going to feel personally responsible for these things, but that they are developing empathy for those who experienced them and learning how to stop those things from happening, either by standing against racism and unlearning prejudices you may have yourself or by not ignoring reports of icebergs in your way when sailing across the Atlantic.

It's not that hard.

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