MEAWW.COM / NEWS / HUMAN INTEREST

Is '1776 Report' racist? Donald Trump slammed for slavery propaganda on Martin Luther King's Day: 'New low'

'It literally seems to blame the passage of 13th - 15th Amendment for the division of our county and not the evil sin of slavery itself'

The 1776 Commission is an education commission proposed by soon to be former president Donald Trump to not only support education in the patriotic sense but to also celebrate the 250th anniversary of the country in 2026. On Monday, January 18, 2021, also known as Martin Luther King Day, the commission released a "final report" by the White House titled 'The 1776 Report, The President's Advisory 1776 Commission'.

The 45-page report "slams destructive scholarship" as it reads, "States and school districts should reject any curriculum that promotes one-sided partisan opinions, activist propaganda, or factional ideologies that demean America’s heritage, dishonor our heroes, or deny our principles." This report was not only released on MLK day, angering many from the Black Lives Matter movement, but it was also done just two days before Trump is set to leave office after making history as the first US President to be impeached twice.

Speaking of "destructive scholarship", the report reads, “Deliberately destructive scholarship shatters the civic bonds that unite all Americans. It silences the discourse essential to a free society by breeding division, distrust, and hatred among citizens. And it is the intellectual force behind so much of the violence in our cities, suppression of free speech in our universities, and defamation of our treasured national statues and symbols.” The introduction of the report on the White House website was also a tad bit appalling: "1776 Commission — comprised of some of America’s most distinguished scholars and historians — has released a report presenting a definitive chronicle of the American founding, a powerful description of the effect the principles of the Declaration of Independence have had on this Nation’s history, and a dispositive rebuttal of reckless “re-education” attempts that seek to reframe American history around the idea that the United States is not an exceptional country but an evil one."

According to New York Post, "The commission was chaired by Hillsdale College President Larry Arnn. Retired Vanderbilt University political science professor Carol Swain was co-chair of the initiative and the commission’s executive director was Hillsdale College government professor Matthew Spalding." The report essentially was released by the Trump administration in order to instill patriotic pride, as one passage reads, "This includes restoring patriotic education that teaches the truth about America. That doesn’t mean ignoring the faults in our past, but rather viewing our history clearly and wholly, with reverence and love."

Ironically enough, the report also consists of a quote from Martin Luther King, Jr: "When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

On September 17 of last year, Trump had announced this new commission speaking of how systemic racism being taught in schools was "child abuse". He then officially established the commission on November 2, 2020, through an executive order and appointed members on December 18, 2020. The now released commission speaks on many things, some of which, reportedly criticize the civil rights movement. So much so that a part of the report reads, "Universities in the United States are often today hotbeds of anti-Americanism, libel, and censorship that combine to generate in students and in the broader culture at the very least disdain and at worst outright hatred for this country. "

Essentially, in simple terms people are saying this: "The Trump administration is marking Martin Luther King Day by putting out a report that defends the Founding Fathers for owning slaves and attacks the Civil Rights Movement. This is an administration racist to the core."

People are calling the report racist and fascist

"The 1776 Commission in a nutshell: Forget about the Founding Fathers being slave owners and all the horrible things racist powerful white men have done in America to oppress people of color. Indoctrinate your kids with patriotism instead!" wrote one user. Another added, "The level of my can’t evens is biblical with the 1776 Commission Report released today (of all days). It’s nothing but a racist and fascist manifesto. In what world is a report published w/o citations, bibliography, footnotes, etc? Check out the authors - explains everything."

Another user added, "Trump sinks to a new low as only he could with the release of the 1776 Commission on #MLKDay It literally seems to blame the passage of 13th - 15th Amendment for the division of our county and not the evil sin of slavery itself. My students will see this for what it is - Racist," along with an image of multiple parts of the report that were "racist" as they believe. The report adds: “as a question of practical politics, no durable union could have been formed without a compromise among the states on the issue of slavery.” 

The paragraph in question reads, "Constitutional amendments were passed to abolish slavery, grant equal protection under the law, and guarantee the right to vote regardless of race. Yet the damage done by the denial of core American principles and by the attempted substitution of a theory of group rights in their place proved widespread and long-lasting. These, indeed, are the direct ancestors of some of the destructive theories that today divide our people and tear at the fabric of our country."

People were so angered considering The Black Lives Matter movement has been demanding change for a while now. "Whomever authored the worthless 1776 commission report: Let George Floyd tell you about "inviolable rights and inherent dignity" you racist pieces of garbage. This belongs in the trash can, NOT the Archives." The passage this user was talking from the report reads, "It is very hard for people brought up in the comforts of modern America, in a time in which the idea that all human beings have inviolable rights and inherent dignity is almost taken for granted, to imagine the cruelties and enormities that were endemic in earlier times," under the subheading Slavery.

Some weren't surprised that a report so "racist and fascist" would be revealed on Martin Luther King's day. "The 1776 Commission is a mockery of scholarly history and history in general, yet I am not suprised that something so blatantly racist would come out on MLK Day and with only two days left of Trump's whitewashed administration," said another user. Another added, "Let me save you some time. The 1776 Commission Report is straight-up racist garbage that accuses the Civil Rights Movement and education on the topic damaging to America. They released this horseshit on MLK Day because they’re really, really fucking racist."