Chuck Todd was politely criticized by Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones on Sunday’s episode of “Meet the Press,” after he contrasted “parents of color” with “parents” without noting that he was in fact referring to white parents.
The exchange came when Todd asked Hannah-Jones about the appropriate age for children to learn about race and racism.
“I think this is coming through a racial lens, but there’s this, you know, parents are saying, ‘Hey, don’t make my kid feel guilty,’” Todd said. “And I know a parent of color is going, ‘What are you talking about? You know, I’ve got to teach reality.’ When do you do it and how do you do it?”
Hannah-Jones replied, “Well, I think you should think just a little bit about your framing. You said ‘parents’ and then you said ‘parents of color.’”
“White parents and parents of color,” he interrupted. “No. Fair point.”
She then went on to say that although “white parents are representing fewer than half of all public school parents…they have an outsized voice in this debate.”
Later, she added: “I don’t think we should be asking what is the appropriate age, I think we should be asking what are the appropriate conversations at that age.”
The exchange came amid a discussion about Hannah-Jones’ book “The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story,” an expansion of the Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times Magazine issue and podcast she created in 2019. The project aims to center the legacy of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans in the teaching of American history.
Republican lawmakers in several states have attempted to abolish such educational topics from school curricula under a campaign misrepresenting the term “critical race theory,” most recently in Arkansas, Iowa and Mississippi.
Watch the clip below or here.