Trevor Noah trolls Sen. Tom Cotton with a 'less racially divisive' slavery curriculum for students

Sen. Tom Cotton objects to slavery depictions

(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/The Daily Show)

published 28 July 2020

Some school districts are planning to teach U.S. history using a curriculum from the Pulitzer Center and The New York Times based on the 1619 Project, which views U.S. history through the lens of slavery. "But now there's one U.S. senator who is objecting in the strongest — and also, possibly, stupidest — terms," Trevor Noah said on Monday's Daily Show. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) "thinks that this curriculum is racially divisive? Really? This curriculum? Yo, you know what's really racially divisive? Slavery."

"People are upset because when Cotton says that slavery was 'a necessary evil on which the union was built,' it sounds like he's defending slavery," Noah said. "And that's not something a U.S. senator should do, even if his name is Cotton." Still, he added, "if you dig deeper and you take Cotton at his word, he believes that the United States could not have become the country that it is without slavery. Well, that's the same thing that the 1619 Project says. So why is he fighting them?"

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.