COMICSANDS
percolately
georgetakei
secondnexus
george's picks
Ty Smith, a conservative Black YouTuber and radio host of Cancel This placed himself back in the spotlight after his recent rant about Critical Race Theory (CRT) at a school board meeting.
In his appearance on Fox News earlier this week Smith presented an interesting take on slavery and it's history for someone with an education.
Watch the clip below:
Fox guest: Slavery "never was a race thing, so why are we making it a race thing now?" https://t.co/0u5DKiOFyq— Andrew Lawrence (@Andrew Lawrence) 1626206702.0
In the video Smith stated:
"Nobody wants to get the real history of [slavery]…America was not founded on racism."
Although Smith agreed slavery did indeed happen he repeatedly insisted slavery was not tied to racism—despite items like the law counting Black Americans as only 3/5ths of a person and slaves in the United States being exclusively people of color.
Indentured servants worked to pay off a debt then were free with their time in servitude determined by their voluntarily accrued debt. Slaves were not given a choice to not become a slave and were not allowed to work their way to freedom, with many dying as slaves.
Perhaps not knowing when to stop digging the hole deeper, Smith continued on defending his alternative history.
He said:
"Don't get me wrong—there was slavery going on, but slavery itself initially was not a racist thing."
"It never was about race initially, so to sit there and take it like America was founded on racism is a complete lie."
Despite the discussion being about the United States' history with slavery, which was clearly based on race, Smith used the world to again claim no connection between race and slavery in the USA.
"Yeah, there was slavery going on, but slavery was going on in all the world."
"It never was a race thing, so why are we making it a race thing now?"
In an ironic and surely unintended twist, Smith's lack of understanding of American history as it pertains to slavery and people of color has been used as an example on Twitter to show the importance of teaching the full history of the United States and CRT.
@ndrew_lawrence If only there was some sort of educational framework we could use to help people better understand… https://t.co/ZNdJLfGH9C— Brensummer Willcation (@Brensummer Willcation) 1626209432.0
@JoeSchlabotnic @ndrew_lawrence How could anyone think that "negro slavery" was about race? Smdh— Mr. B (@Mr. B) 1626207699.0
@ndrew_lawrence Yes, slavery, not a race thing. Also unrelated to race, Plessy vs Ferguson. Whites Only lines & ser… https://t.co/zciMuk6Qc4— But It’s Allll Riiiight Now, Fontella Bass (@But It’s Allll Riiiight Now, Fontella Bass) 1626208682.0
@ndrew_lawrence The less you know the more likely you are to be a guest on FOX— OlympicDane 🇺🇲 🇩🇰 (@OlympicDane 🇺🇲 🇩🇰) 1626206927.0
@ndrew_lawrence He does know that “black people” were considered property and were legally 3/5’s of a person?? If t… https://t.co/eaTPS0Zjxa— andrew brown (@andrew brown) 1626230046.0
@CandaceTX @ndrew_lawrence Also contracts for indentured servants stipulated conditions of the servitude, meaning m… https://t.co/v9GsdJnh9m— Shnootz (@Shnootz) 1626233940.0
It would be equally interesting to see how Smith explains away racially based legislation such as Jim Crow laws.
Learning the full history of your country is important before starting rants on TV.