Defund Teaching About Slavery? Sen. Tom Cotton Proposes Legislation Attacking The 1619 Project

[mahatmakanejeeves]

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an attempt by the government to prevent the reading in schools of a New York Times project because the government dislikes it. Is this cancel culture? A threat to speech? Potential to have chilling effect on speech that centers the enduring impact of slavery on American society?

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12,344 views | Jul 23, 2020,05:42pm EDT
Defund Teaching About Slavery? Sen. Tom Cotton Proposes Legislation Attacking The 1619 Project

Seth Cohen Contributor
Leadership Strategy
I write about leadership, politics, inclusion and social change.

On Thursday, Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) introduced new federal legislation that would prohibit public schools from the use of federal funds to teach the 1619 Project, a popular journalism initiative produced by The New York Times exploring the history of American slavery. In doing so, the conservative senator, who has been an outspoken critic of “cancel culture,” appears to be escalating his own efforts to cancel a prize-winning retelling of one of the darkest chapters in American history.

The legislation, titled the “Saving American History Act of 2020,” was introduced by Cotton on Thursday with the stated purpose of “preventing federal funds from being made available to teach the 1619 Project curriculum in elementary schools and secondary schools.” The proposed bill states that “an activist movement is now gaining momentum to deny or obfuscate this history by claiming that America was not founded on the ideals of the Declaration [of Independence] but rather on slavery and oppression.” The proposed legislation further goes on to state that “the 1619 Project is a racially divisive and revisionist account of history that threatens the integrity of the Union by denying the true principles on which it was founded.”

If passed, the proposed law would direct the Secretaries of the Departments of Education, Health and Human Services, and Agriculture to hold back funds to schools teaching the 1619 Project based on the calculation of costs and teaching time related to the project. The legislation also would prohibit the allocation of federal professional development funds to schools that teach the 1619 Project curriculum. In a statement he released along with the introduction of the legislation, Cotton explained his rationale.

{snip}

The question then is why is Senator Tom Cotton attacking the 1619 Project and who, exactly, does he want to save American history from? From those who want to challenge Americans to understand and own their shameful history of slavery? From people who might leverage that newly found knowledge to make claims for reparations? Or from activists who seek to leverage history to prevent future racial injustices?

In his cynical new legislation that would defund schools teaching the 1619 Project, the Senator from Arkansas isn’t saving American history, he’s trying to bury it. That isn’t education…

It’s ignorance.

Enrichment > Education
Sen. Tom Cotton introduces bill withholding federal funding for schools teaching the 1619 Project
These schools would be ineligible for federal professional-development grants.

By Anagha Srikanth | July 23, 2020

Story at a glance

• The 1619 Project is an ongoing initiative from The New York Times Magazine that examines the legacy of slavery in the United States.
• Some of the assertions made in the project have been controversial among historians and politicians.
• Sen. Tom Cotton proposed a bill to prohibit the use of federal funds to teach the 1619 Project in schools.

Senator Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) has introduced a bill to prohibit the use of federal funds to teach the 1619 Project in public schools.

“The New York Times’s 1619 Project is a racially divisive, revisionist account of history that denies the noble principles of freedom and equality on which our nation was founded. Not a single cent of federal funding should go to indoctrinate young Americans with this left-wing garbage,” said Cotton in a release.

Published last year, the 1619 Project is an ongoing initiative from The New York Times Magazine that honors the year the first African slaves were brought to an English colony.

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[underpants]

1. Can't think of anyone better to propose this than a guy named Cotton

[sinkingfeeling]

2. Cotton is an embarrassment to every thinking person in America