I won’t say that Bryan Cranston has always been 100% unproblematic. He’s an intelligent man who has sometimes said stupid sh-t. But what I like about Cranston is that he actually listens – when he says sh-t and there’s a backlash, he sits back and he listens and he tries to figure out how to do better. So, we’re in the “no zealot like a convert” era of Cranston’s woke politics. He had a come-to-Jesus moment several years ago over the Trump administration’s terrible racism, plus the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement and the importance of critical race theory. Last year, he spoke about being in his 60s and needing to change, needing to understand his own white privilege. Well, in recent days, Cranston has appeared on Chris Wallace’s CNN show and Bill Maher’s show… and he’s arguing that we need more education on race and racism, basically. I assume he’s trying to reach the people who… would watch a Chris Wallace or Bill Maher talk show.

The importance of critical race theory: Cranston briefly shared that he finds it “difficult to try to find truly unbiased reporting news,” before reiterating his previous sentiments about his support of teaching critical race theory. “I think it’s imperative that it’s taught, that we look at our history, much the same. I think that Germany has looked at their history in involvement in the wars, one and two, and embraced it and say, ‘This is where we went wrong. This is how it went wrong. This is why it can’t go wrong again,’” Cranston said.

We need to talk about slavery: He noted that Germany had done a “very commendable job” with their public reckoning of the Holocaust, but that the U.S. “really hasn’t” confronted its historical relationship to slavery in the same way. “You present it and say, ‘Well, 400 years of slavery, yeah, but we’re moving on, we’re moving on,”‘ he said. “And it’s like, ‘No, let’s really discuss it. How did that happen? How did we get to a point where we treated other human beings as slaves? And we’re OK with that?’”

“MAGA” is racist: “When I see ‘Make America Great Again,’ my comment is, ‘Do you accept that that could possibly be construed as a racist remark?'” Cranston said to Wallace. “A lot of people go, ‘How could that be racist, to make America great again?’ I said, ‘So just ask yourself from an African-American experience: When was it ever great in America for the African-American? So if you’re making it great again, it’s not including them.’ It’s to teach us, in the ‘woke’ world, to open up and accept the possibilities that our privilege has created blind spots for us. Maybe I haven’t seen what’s really happening, in all my years.”

[From THR & EW]

I live in a state (Virginia) where the current governor ran on a platform of anti-wokeness and anti-critical-race-theory. His campaign was just as stupid and racist as you would imagine. The whole thing was basically: public schools are going to teach your children about Black folks, isn’t that horrible?? Nevermind that critical race theory – and the whole 1619 Project – were meant as supplementary educational tools for college-level courses. The current governor of Virginia conflated all of that with a platform of… kids shouldn’t read Black authors or be taught about slavery. Seriously.

Anyway, to me, what Cranston is saying in these interviews seems very obvious and very much like a mainstream conversation that people have been having for years already. But I’m not the audience for this and I appreciate that Cranston is trying to, like, reach these people? I find this particular audience to be a lost cause, but Cranston doesn’t and bless his heart.

Actor Bryan Cranston explains why he thinks the phrase "Make America Great Again" could possibly be construed as a racist remark. pic.twitter.com/GvrICiftvp

— CNN (@CNN) February 26, 2023

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.