Trump Calls Howard Zinn's Work "Propaganda." Hear the Legendary Historian in His Own Words.

we end today's show with the words of the late historian howardson on thursday president trump lashed out at educators who teach about the u.s history of slavery and racism announcing a so-called patriotic education plan to combat what he called toxic propaganda in schools trump called the teaching of critical race theory a form of child abuse last out at the 1619 project the pulitzer prize-winning series by the new york times which re-examines the levity of slavery trump also directly criticized howard zinn during his speech at the national archives museum in washington d.c left-wing rioting in mayhem are the direct result of decades of left-wing indoctrination in our schools it's gone on far too long [Music] our children are instructed from propaganda tracks like those of howard zinn that try to make students ashamed of their own history so we're turning back now to 2009 howard's inn appearing on democracy now less than a year before he died he just published young people's history of the united states i asked him to respond to a question he'd frequently been asked about his work is it right to be so critical of the government's policies of the traditional heroes of the country it's true that people have asked that question again and again now should we tell kids that columbus whom they have been told was a great hero that columbus mutilated indians and kidnapped them and killed them in pursuit of gold should we tell people that theodore roosevelt who has held up as one of our great presidents who was really a war monger who loved military exploits and who congratulated an american general who committed a massacre in the philippines should we tell young people that and i think the answer is we should be honest with young people we should not deceive them we should be honest about the history of our country and we should be not only taking down the traditional heroes like andrew jackson theodore roosevelt but we should be giving young people an alternate set of heroes instead of theodore roosevelt tell him about mark twain mark twain well mark twain everybody learns about as the author of tom sawyer and huckleberry finn but when we go to school we don't learn about mark twain as the vice president of the anti-imperialist league we aren't told that mark twain denounced theodore roosevelt for approving this massacre of the philippines no we want to give young people ideal figures like helen keller and i remember learning about helen keller everybody learns about helen keller you know a disabled person who overcame her handicaps and became famous but people don't learn in school and young people don't learn school what we want them to learn when we do books like a young people's history of the united states that helen keller was a socialist she was a labor organizer she refused to cross a picket line that was picketing a theater showing a play about her and so there are these these alternate heroes in american history there's fannie lou hamer and bob moses they're the heroes of the civil rights movement there are a lot of people who are obscure who are not known we have in this young people's history we have a young hero who was sitting on the bus and refu in montgomery alabama refused to leave the front of the bus and it was before rosa parks i mean rosa parks is justifiably famous for refusing to leave her seat and she got arrested and that was the beginning of the montgomery bus boycott and really the beginning of a great movement in the south but we uh this 15 year old girl did it first and so we have a lot of we are trying to bring a lot of these obscure people back into the forefront of our attention and and inspire young people to say this is the way to live that's howard zinn appearing on democracy now in 2009 howard zinn was attacked by president trump on thursday the zen education project criticized trump's call for patriotic education the project tweeted so what explains the rebellions in 1676 1680 1786 and 1831 1859 and more by native americans enslaved americans enslaved africans coal miners and more howard zinn wasn't alive then unquote to see our full interview with howardson you can go to democracynow.org as well as all of our interviews with howard zinn over the years you

Channel: Democracy Now!

Views: 104,669

Keywords: Democracy Now, Amy Goodman, News, Politics, democracynow, Independent Media, Breaking News, World News, howard zinn, howard zinn interview, howard zinn columbus

Id: 8_L7U0R0oSM

Length: 5min 26sec (326 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 18 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/invinciblearmour]

The “numb to it at this point / rage” feeling strikes again

[u/Lamont-Cranston]

His speechwriter did. He's never read it.

[u/elvispunk]

Trump sounds like fucking Hitler.

[u/[deleted]]

America is on a precipice. I am terrified for the world regardless of the presidential election result.

[u/TheAstroChemist]

I doubt he even knew of the book. Someone else wrote that speech for him who felt like taking a jab at a book they themselves never read. But they heard someone mention it in passing as socialist/leftist/anarchist/radicalist/marxist/communist/buzzwordist literature so it has to be attacked without addressing its content.

[u/elvispunk]

That’s just it. I was hesitant to type what I did, given the heinous things that happened under Hitler. I feel there is no low too low for Trump and he would 100 percent install himself permanently, if he felt it would fly/be worth it.

[u/red_it02]

Oh please. As if Trump has read a book to know what he’s talking about.

[u/MJWood]

Trump has heard of Howard Zinn?

[u/donk_squad]

Maybe this will convince a few liberals to read Howard Zinn.