Ryan Walters waits until TLO goes on vacation to say dumbest thing yet…

Ever since we covered his stair-sliding escapades with Governor Stitt in June of 2021, TLO has led the local way in covering all the moronic, imbecilic, stupifying, embarrassing, pandering, trollish, unethical, terrifying, face-palming, possibly illegal things Oklahoma State Public School Superintendent Ryan Langston-Walters has said, done and filmed from his SUV as he’s used culture war topics as a front to attack, sabotage and destroy Oklahoma public education in Oklahoma from the inside.

Here's a sampling in case you need proof.

As apparent payback for this wall-to-wall non-award-winning coverage of his reign of terror, Ryan took things to a personal new low and intentionally waited until we embarked on a little 4th of July holiday vacation to say the dumbest thing he's said as Oklahoma State School Superintendent.

In case you missed it, Ryan ventured into enemy territory last week and held a little town hall thing at the Norman Public Library.

While dealing with an angry and unruly crowd of local villagers, Ryan held a little Q&A with the audience. One of the people asked him “How does the Tulsa Race Massacre not fall under your definition of CRT?”

Check out this insanity.

If you're more of a reader than a listener, here’s the first half of his answer…

I would never tell a kid that because of your race, because of your color of your skin, or your gender or anything like that, you are less of a person or in or are inherently racist. That doesn’t mean you don’t judge the actions of individuals. Oh, you can, absolutely, historically, you should. This was right. This was wrong. They did this for this reason. But…

Although it wasn’t very articulate, that’s not a bad response for a right-wing political edge lord. He basically dodged the question and muttered his right-wing talking points. I’d give him a B- in Politics 101.

Unfortunately, Ryan’s inner dunce took over after he said the word “But.” For some reason, he decided to say the quiet part out loud, and honestly and perhaps inadvertently reveal the racist-inspired absurdity of our state’s anti-CRT law…

But to say it was inherent in that because of their skin is where I say that is critical race theory, you’re saying that race defines a person. I reject that. So I would say you be judgmental of the issue, of the action, of the content of the character of the individual. Absolutely. But let’s not tie it to the skin color instead of the skin color determine it.

Yep, that’s right.

Ryan Langston-Walters claims the Tulsa Race Massacre – a historical event that’s literally called a race massacre, where mobs of people with white skin destroyed a thriving part of Tulsa populated by people with black skin, simply because those people had black skin – shouldn’t be tied to skin color, and to say that it was, is critical race theory and therefore violates Oklahoma law.

As I said, it’s the dumbest thing he’s said yet.

The Frontier’s Brianna “Even Flow” Bailey was at the meeting and tweeted out Ryan’s paraphrased response on the fly. Although she didn’t nail the quote verbatim, it went viral on Twitter.

Ryan’s response quickly became international news, with media outlets all across the globe covering his inherently racist “pretend racism doesn’t exist” statement so little white boys and girls with racist parents don’t feel bad. I think The Onion covered it the best…

It even got the attention of beloved "woke" celebrities:

Although Ryan and his evangelical pals like Kevin Stitt, James Lankford and others commonly use culture war boogieman topics like Critical Race Theory to pander to the party’s white supremacy base, they also want to come across as cool, compassionate, and accepting to the more open-minded, less-racist churchy block of youth voters they also court.

You know, the conservative Gen Z types who attend Oral Roberts, go on missionary trips to Africa and attend non-denominational super churches, and in general, frown upon blatant racism.

As a result, Ryan quickly shifted into damage control mode. He lined up interviews with just about every local media outlet that would have him and blamed the one conservative boogieman more terrifying than CRT – the mainstream media – for taking him out of context.

Via KOKH 25:

"It's unfortunate," Supt. Walters said. "We had some folks in the media that took out of context what I said. The Tulsa Race Massacre was a terrible, evil event perpetrated by folks that chose to act in a way that was evil and racist."

Yeah, that’s right. It’s the media’s fault. They reported what he said verbatim. They also let him do a bunch of interviews after the fact, giving him a platform to try to explain away his honest statement while also somehow doubling down on it, so they’re the bad guys here.

Here’s the response his handler Matt Langston crafted up to try to explain it all away.

The media is twisting two separate answers. They misrepresented my statements about the Tulsa Race Massacre in an attempt to create a fake controversy. Let me be crystal clear that history should be accurately taught:

1. The Tulsa Race Massacre is a terrible mark on our history. The events on that day were racist, evil, and it is inexcusable. Individuals are responsible for their actions and should be held accountable.

2. Kids should never be made to feel bad or told they are inferior based on the color of their skin.”

Ryan can try to twist things around all he wants, but I’m hoping these comments stick to him like a coffee stain on the white t-shirt of a barista from the Harbor Mountain Coffee Shop.

Sure, you could make an argument that controversies like this only make him stronger with the Derplahoman base that decides Oklahoma elections, but they're also pissing off sane Republicans with money, and could mark the precipitous fall of his political career.

For example:

Hey Mr. Holmes. Don't forget that people don't read newspapers anymore, and if you really want to reach people, you should advertise on local websites.

For what it's worth, I don’t think there’s been one conservative Oklahoma politician to speak out in support of Ryan during this “fake controversy,” which is telling.

Plus, his statements have given a little steam to the growing movement to impeach him. Although Ryan’s more likely to be indicted than impeached, I guess that’s something worth watching over the next year or two.

Anyway, I guess we’ll do our best to follow all this fun stuff, and can’t wait to see what Ryan says and does when we go on vacation at the end of the year. Stay with The Lost Ogle. We’ll keep you advised.