Former President Obama blamed conservative media outlets for perpetuating “fear and resentment” in White Americans over changing demographics in the country. During an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, the former President specifically named critical race theory as a current concern of the Republican party.

Fox News reports:

“I also think that there are certain right-wing media venues, for example, that monetize and capitalize on stoking the fear and resentment of a White population that is witnessing a changing America and seeing demographic changes, and do everything they can to give people a sense that their way of life is threatened and that people are trying to take advantage of them,” Obama told Cooper. “And you’re seeing it right now.

You would think with all the public policy debates that are taking place right now, the Republican Party would be engaged in a significant debate about how are we going to deal with the economy, what are we going to do about climate change, what are we going to do about- lo and behold, the biggest single most important issue to them apparently right now is critical race theory.”

He chuckled, “Who knew that was the threat to our republic?”

Critical race theory is a controversial form of study that teaches that America was founded on the principles of slavery and has since ingrained the institution of racism into the bedrock of the country. It teaches children that one race is inherently more privileged than the other based on nothing but the color of skin. Republican lawmakers have fiercely been fighting against implementing critical race theory ins schools across the country.