Carol Swain Suspects Her New Book on Critical Race Theory Prompted Backlash from American Express

 

Former Nashville mayoral candidate Carol Swain said Thursday she suspects her new book that tackles Critical Race Theory (CRT) has attracted the notice of the credit card company American Express, which reportedly leans left.

Swain said it’s possible that company officials penalized her because of Black Eye for America: How Critical Race Theory is Burning Down the House, which she co-authored. Amazon made the book available this month.

Swain said American Express officials emailed her Wednesday. The email said she had an American Express account that “was adversely impacting my accounts.” Company officials told her they would suspend her charging privileges.

“I immediately logged in and saw that all my cards were suspended, and then I clicked the cards because I have several related to my businesses that were all either paid in full or had zero balance. Then I called, and there was another card that I had signed up for in June that was not paid. It was one of those new card deals that I never paid the first payment on it. They were saying that it was four days past due. I was pretty upset because I have been an American Express customer since 2007. I always paid my bills on time and never had a problem,” Swain told The Tennessee Star.

“If they tried to call me I didn’t pick up the phone because it was an unknown number, but by the time I received the email yesterday morning they had already suspended all of my cards. I spend more than $100,000 a year with American Express. Never had a problem. But they had suspended cards that even had a zero balance. Everything was shut down. When I called they said ‘Well, you have this new card that was part of an introductory offer. The payment was not paid on it. I paid it, and they said this is fine but my question was ‘Why did they handle it that way? Why would they shut down all of my cards and just send me the warning when the cards were shut down because I was traveling yesterday?’ I could have been in a situation where if that was the only card I had I would have been in trouble.”

The New York Post reported Wednesday that American Express invited the great-grandson of the Nation of Islam’s founder to preach to employees that capitalism is evil.

“It was part of the credit card giant’s Critical Race Theory training program, which asks workers to deconstruct their racial and sexual identities, then rank themselves on a hierarchy of ‘privilege,’” according to The New York Post.

Swain, who has promoted her book on FOX News and also on Huckabee, said it’s not hard to believe that American Express officials might target her.

“That book was holding steady and getting a lot of attention,” Swain said.

“I think what happened had something to do with the book, which came out a week ago.”

– – –

Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Carol Swain” by Carol Miller Swain.