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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?"pic.twitter.com/0u5DKiOFyq— Andrew Lawrence (@Andrew Lawrence) 1626206702
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.
If only there was some sort of educational framework we could use to help people better understand the racial impact of policies like slavery. I\u2019m sure someone can put together a theory that we can all discuss together.— Brensummer Willcation (@Brensummer Willcation) 1626209432
How could anyone think that "negro slavery" was about race? Smdh— Mr. B (@Mr. B) 1626207699
Yes, slavery, not a race thing. Also unrelated to race, Plessy vs Ferguson. Whites Only lines & services for decades had zero to do with race and everything to do with careful separation of laundry colors to avoid bleaching dark clothes. Learn some history, people!— But It\u2019s Allll Riiiight Now, Fontella Bass (@But It\u2019s Allll Riiiight Now, Fontella Bass) 1626208682
The less you know the more likely you are to be a guest on FOX— OlympicDane \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf2 \ud83c\udde9\ud83c\uddf0 (@OlympicDane \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf2 \ud83c\udde9\ud83c\uddf0) 1626206927
He does know that \u201cblack people\u201d were considered property and were legally 3/5\u2019s of a person?? If that\u2019s not the definition of race based I don\u2019t know what is. I understand that we all have to make our way in this world but DAMN!— andrew brown (@andrew brown) 1626230046
Wait what? So if you\u2019re taken from Africa, made a slave and viewed as property and as less than human, that\u2019s about what? The level of self hate here is next level crazy— AT (@AT) 1626251460
Except that it was. There were no white slaves in America. \nFor those who want to bring up the Irish, they were indentured servants who worked off a debt for 4 to 7 years. \nSlavery was a life sentence.— Krishna Bhakta (@Krishna Bhakta) 1626211683
Also contracts for indentured servants stipulated conditions of the servitude, meaning masters couldn't simply do and order whatever they wished. The abject, hereditary slavery of black Africans had no such protections or contractual limitations.\n\nSo again, totally different.— Shnootz (@Shnootz) 1626233940
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.