Tucker vs. prof who questions white friendship under Trump

[Music] good evening and welcome to tucker carlson tonight we want to tell you about an op-ed that ran in the New York Times over the weekend you might not have seen the writer is a law professor in New York called echo Janka asked a simple question can my children be friends with white people you really asked it and he wasn't optimistic quote I will teach my boys the lesson generations-old he wrote I will teach them to be cautious I will teach them suspicions I will teach them distrust I will teach my boys to have profound doubts that friendship with white people is possible those doubts mirrored the writers own as he put it quote history has provided little reason for people of color to trust white people that piece was one of the most popular on the New York Times website even today was hardly unusual though go to any liberal web site salons slate Vox HuffPo and you'll find similar pieces arguing that an entire racial group is untrustworthy and dangerous this is a big change for the left for most of the 20th century liberals and it was noble argued that it was immoral to reward or punish people based on their skin color individuals ought to be judged solely by the choices they make anything less is bigotry liberals don't say that anymore what happened echo Janka is the author that new york times pcs a professor at shiva university's Benjamin Cardozo School of Law and he joins us tonight professor thanks for coming up thanks for everything so what struck me about this piece a couple of different things but the first thing was the generalizations about a racial group based on their race and I grew up probably not so much older than you in a world where overt expressions of that were not acceptable you weren't allowed to generalize on the basis of race because the assumption was each person is an individual and you judge each person by the choices he or she makes I don't understand what it became okay to generalize about racial groups well I mean it's a to me a strange way to put the question I mean while it's the case that we all hope that we can judged for who we are I think while some people have the luxury to be raised only being told to look at individual people it should be no surprise to you that black people in particular black men have been taught forever that they have to be careful how they behave around white people that the way they behave will be interpreted differently that when they misbehave it'll be punished differently that if they laugh too loud if they walk into a nice store so with all due respect Tucker what was true for you has never been true for lots of people well I mean I guess I mean there are a lot of ways to respond to that one on a factual basis and in truth in a lot of places in this country the main threat that African Americans face is not from white people as you perfectly well know but beyond that the idea that you could understand a person's motive merely by knowing his race dehumanizes that person it's the definition of racism in a you're engaging in it in the New York Times and nobody says anything about it and I just felt it was worth pointing that out and asking you if you feel it's okay to generalize about people you've never met about whom you know nothing beyond what they look like and say I know who you are what you believe so I first want to respond to the the first comment I think is odd not be let lie while it's true that of course people of color face threats from other people of color it's also true that white people face the overwhelming threat from white people that is right people face threats from who they live beside so I find exactly but it I think it's fair to point out that we often be take distasteful and say things like well the great threat it it does feed a certain ugly narrative that we don't want but to your core point why does the truth ever feed a quote ugly narrative the truth is worth telling for its own sake because it's true you're welcome to tell the truth but it is it is deeply suspicious that people are so quick to say things like the main threat facing African Americans as other African Americans but you never hear anybody say the main threat facing white people is white people right so there is no phrase why don't I know I mean people say that I mean I guess that the point is to face oppression which is a racial group you face a threat from individuals who've made individual choices well we should turn to that but just in closing I just say we should be honest and not pretend that there is a phrase like white on white violence right that phrase doesn't exist for we can invent it here but I guess the point I'm making is that you should never generalize about people on the basis of their skin color because it reduces them to the sum total of their skin color and again that's the definition of racism and you're engaging it in this piece and and I just I don't think it's helpful I think it's wrong well it so I just entirely deny that what I said was that you should generalize and dislike people because of their skin color what I do think is true is that in a world in which things have done ever more dangerous for people of color it is in fact the case that that undermines our ability to trust each other across racial bounds and here's what's true or at least here's what I wrote not that white people aren't unavailable for friendship but in this world it is up to our white friends and allies to be sure to stand up for those who are under attack if I want to prove that I'm the kind of person who can be your friend that means that when something is actually threatening you I actually have to be there for you okay but again you're making generalizations across racial groups so you say for example I will have to discuss my boys whether they can truly be friends with white people history has provided a little reason for people of color to trust white people I profound doubts that friendship with white people as possible again I were to write you know I was mugged as a pizza delivery boy and I told my children that they should ever trust anyone who looks like the people who mugged me that would be I would never do that I think that would be immoral but it would be the definition of racism because I would be equating the people who mugged me with everyone else who looks like that I think if that's the only part of the article you read it might sound like that but of course the article has a much richer argument and the argument I make is look in a country where it turns out that when the most vulnerable people of color under threat those who they count on are nowhere to be seen or at least for some group of people and I speak explicitly about the political no more in today right so if we have a president who marshals forces of hatred and anger and divisiveness and frankly just danger quite aside from who he is I'm not particularly interested in who he is if the people who call themselves your friends are not going to push back against that then maybe you can tell me why it is I should trust those people so I guess what you're saying is that people who don't agree with your politics can't be your friends which i think is an unfortunate conclusion to reach but it's different from the one you articulate here you're making again for the third time generalizations based on race and the truth about the last election is this is not an offensive Donald Trump merely an acknowledgment of the fact that he received more african-american votes in any Republicans since 2004 to get 8% of african-american men so that's not a huge number but that's that's thousands of people are they in the same category too can you not trust them I mean I don't really understand if you're saying Trump voters fine white people I mean that's a grotesque generalization I'm a little worried that you keep reading the same parts without I mean you would make it seem as though the entire piece was just that paragraph so the piece goes on to say title of the piece and it's in four separate graphs yeah so I have no problem standing behind the title of the piece but it is worth pointing out as I have again and again what the piece says is when those who count themselves as your friend see that others put you in danger right it is their opportunity to prove they're your friend and if we have a pool let's be let's just speak plainly about this Tucker you have children like I do right I do and if your daughters were I don't know friendly with a group of people and it just turned out that repeatedly when they went out and your daughters were in danger those group of young men just disappeared I think at some point you tell your daughters look it's fine to be friendly with them but these are not your friends because I'm not a racist what I wouldn't say is anybody of a certain race falls into that category I would never do that again if one of my daughter's was mugged by someone of a certain color I would never say to my daughter that's more evidence you can never trust anyone who looks like that because I would be inculcating race hatred in my children anymore so what I well I mean obviously I deny that look what I said over and over was we live in a country where we ought and pretend that these divides have not consistently been on racial grounds and we see that over and over and over when black people are in danger when yeah when black people are in danger from say addiction we get policing when white people are in danger from diction they get rehabilitation when black people don't have jobs we get stories about why we're making the wrong choices when white people's don't have jobs we get a presidential campaign about the Forgotten class except them I'm gonna go ahead and I'll finish and then I'm happy to hear your point of view so if it's the case that we live in a country where these divides have always consisted in racial then I think it's not only delusional but it would be dangerous of me not to teach my boys that when they walk out in the world there'll be a world that treats them differently should I say the same thing to my children yeah your african-american law professors who dislike you because of your color and you should dislike him back no at all african-american law professor I would never say that because that's grotesque but again it's it's race hatred so I mean you you keep saying the same thing and I keep trying to say because I can't get past it yeah apparently so what I've said over and over is look what matters when people are in danger if you're going to say that you're the kind of person they can trust as a friend is you have to step up and when it's the case that these friendship lines break down on racial lines then it's your turn to step up because of these racial lines so if I know that in my school there's a tense point because everybody hates the Filipino student when the Filipino student walks into my area I'm going to make sure that he knows I'm an ally I'm not going to disappear when he's in danger and now I didn't play keep myself by saying I'm his friend no no but I agree with you it's when you implicate people you don't know simply because if I have a look that you crossed the line let me just ask you in a line on a question let you answer it quickly which is how would you feel if I told my children in an op-ed in the New York Times what you told your children but the colors will reverse thank you sir can I ask you a question of course will you teach your girls to be cautious around men until they prove that they are men that can be trusted men but not men of a certain race because I because I don't think that the races are as different as you think they are you think one is good and what is evil that's what I'm said in your piece I didn't at all say that in peace and if you can cite that I'd be very happy to see it but trust them and I think making a headway but I'm gonna give you I asked you a question can you answer that no forgive me you asked me a question and I returned the question so I want to conclude on that look in the same way that you will teach your daughters to be careful around men until they prove that they can be gentlemen if somebody said oh my god that's outrageous tucker carlson is teaching his daughters that men are evil that would be laughable your grace forgive me no no you forgive me because we acknowledge differences between the sexes but not significant ones between the races and so that's that citizen what you're doing I don't think it's off isn't about I play I find it remarkable that you can live in the America we live in and pretend that we oughtn't see that racial lines are that's not what I was saying I said would you be okay with me writing this piece to my children if the races were reversed because the feds a question because the facts are different currently Tucker he said because one guy no one's good all right god that's that's absurd if I don't teach my boys how to be cautious how to be careful how to be perceived in the right way all right I'm not just risking their feelings being hurt I'm risking their bodies being did I teach my kids that you don't teach your daughters to be cautious until they can be sure that the men around them are trustworthy it's not that's not what the conversation is about it's not about sex it's about race right so I don't serve them that they owe them to be sure is between the races so to be sure so to be sure it's fine for you to care for your daughters and make sure that they're healthy and well but if I care for my sons ladies and gentlemen we're out of time thank you professor I appreciate it you're coming on and explaining that thank you

Channel: Fox News

Views: 2,495,142

Rating: 4.6648221 out of 5

Keywords: Tucker Carlson, Tucker Carlson Tonight, Apple News, Charlottesville, Executive Branch, Foxnews Insider, Media, National Interest, On Air, Opinion, Personality, Politics, Primary Opinion, Special, US, Fox News, News

Id: kg_63wV7bL8

Length: 12min 59sec (779 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 13 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/og_m4]

I thought it was a great segment and both Tucker and the Prof earned my approval and had some good points. At the end Tucker tried to "win" the argument on a cheap technicality and that was cringey but otherwise Tucker showed himself to be more reasonable than the average Fox reporter.