Tucker Carlson and the turning point for right-wing antisemitism

Back to Tucker Carlson... For at least a decade, he's not been a reliable source of truth, including how he cherry-picks history to support his arguments. But I am glad that conservative Christians finally draw a line now that anti-semitism is involved.

Two years ago, I debated one of my friends over Tucker's commentary about Eliza Fletcher's brutal rape and murder in Memphis. In it, Tucker whitewashes Memphis' history from over 100 years ago until the 1960s as a model city, blames racial rioting in the 1960s for people moving out of Memphis leading to the city's crime problem, and then blames "equity" for why Fletcher's killer was released early from prison. All of these claims were wrong.

Whitewash Myth #1. Memphis was a model city. Well, maybe for White people, but for blacks, it was a city of racial oppression, especially from the Great Depression on through the 1970s. In the 1920s, there existed some racial political cooperation between black Republicans and white Democrats, but that all changed when the Great Depression hit, with the prospect of Federal money coming from the New Deal. Then, the Democrats no longer needed to negotiate politically with the black Republicans, and so they used their political power to oppress black folks, devastating their housing and businesses. For example, EH “Boss” Crump, both a Mayor as well as the boss of the Democratic machine in Memphis, went after one of the first black millionaire families in the South (Bob Church Jr) by unjustly seizing his mansion and then leveling two prosperous middle-class black neighborhoods that Church’s home bordered in the name of urban renewal and slum clearance to ensure segregation. As a result, hundreds of businesses were destroyed, along with thousands of homes. In their place, Federal Housing Projects were built—the William Foote Homes and the Clearborn Homes, housing over 6,000 African Americans displaced by urban renewal throughout Memphis. During this time, homeownership went from 50% to 29% among Blacks throughout southern neighborhoods of Memphis as many middle class blacks were forced into government housing. Before Johnson’s War on Poverty, redlining, urban renewal slum clearances and the building of Federal Highways were destroying black neighborhoods, displacing businesses and homes throughout every major city in America.

Whitewash Myth #2. People moved out of major cities due to the riots/crime wave in the late 1960s. Tucker conveniently leaves out an entire history of blacks attempting to integrate white neighborhoods leading to mobs of mostly white people destroying the properties of blacks who were attempting integration. Also, blockbusting, a segregationist real estate practice (which became illegal in the 1980s) by greedy real estate corporations and agents, convinced fearful white homeowners to sell their homes to them at considerable below market level because homeowners believed blacks moving in the neighborhood would lower their property value. And then the real estate folks would sell these houses at high prices to black folks who were trying to escape the housing projects they were forced to live in. These former white neighborhoods became instant ghettos because their homes were now worth 1/5th of what they bought them for due to everyone selling them at once. I know grandparents of my former students who are bitter towards the white folks who moved to the suburbs due to white flight because they lost 30 thousand $ in investments in their homes due to the fear of white folks towards blacks lowering property values and the predatory practice of blockbusting.

While Riots may have played a more significant part in cities such as Chicago, where after MLK’s death, the riots caused 10 million in damage, Memphis’ mini riot only did $400,000 damage. 1/25th the damage ratio in Chicago. For 12 years after MLK’s death in Memphis, the Democratic machine continued the horrible housing and economic (social engineering) urban renewal policies that continued to destroy its neighborhoods.

Myth #3. Eliza’s murderer was released early due to “equity” criminal policies as Tucker claims. Tennessee as a state has one of the most conservative and punitive criminal justice systems in the country. This is not California or NY or Illinois. He was released because of COVID, as many convicted felons were in 2020 in each state throughout the country. He was released not because he was paroled early, but rather it was an effort to contain the virus in prisons.

Carlson, in an effort to continue old racialized tropes that so many conservatives hold dear, will cherry-pick history and make up stuff to support his false narrative. Motivated reasoning among his Conservative fans ensure that these historical white-washed lies never die.