Sen. Tom Cotton under fire for comments on slavery, attacks on NYT’s 1619 Project

In a Friday Interview with Arkansas Democratic Gazette, Sen. Tom Cotton commented upon slavery as a “necessary evil” as seen by the country’s founding fathers. He received a lot of backlash for the same despite reiterating later that these opinions were of the founding fathers’ and not his individual self’s.

Cotton had been discussing his suggested legislation according to which state funding schools should not move towards teaching in their curriculum The New York Times’ 1619 Project.

According to Cotton, the 1619 Project, which celebrated the fourth century anniversary of the slave tradition in the United States of America would teach students to “hate” the country.

The Conservatives think that the Project is inherently racist and makes the foundation of the nation a racist one.

The Pulitzer Center forwarded a collection of resources regarding the 1619 project, after which Jordan Cohen, the spokesperson of Times said to the Arkansas Gazette that the resources forwarded by the Pulitzer Center denoted the concern from teachers that the slave history should be taught more in an adequate amount and efficient manner.

“We believe it is important for American students to understand the truth about their country’s history. To paraphrase the historian Alfred F. Young, we should not be so protective of the achievements of equality that we are unwilling to come to grips with inequality,” Cohen said.

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