Trump Administration's '1776 Report' Justifies Slavery, Three-Fifths Compromise
Category: News & Politics
Via: john-russell • 3 years ago • 24 commentsBy: Sarah Ruiz-Grossman (HuffPost)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The report excuses America's founders for owning slaves and defends the racist Three-Fifths Compromise as necessary to form a "durable union." 
By Sarah Ruiz-Grossman
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On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, only two days before President Donald Trump leaves office, the Trump administration released a report from its "1776 Commission" that excuses slavery, justifies the racist Three-fifths Compromise and rails against socialism and "identity politics."
The "1776 Commission" — formed by Trump in September in direct response to The New York Times' 1619 Project on America's deep roots in slavery and racial injustice — released a report Monday that was meant to provide a "definitive chronicle of the American founding."
The 45-page report reads in places like a right-wing manifesto: It makes excuses for slavery and the Three-fifths Compromise that declared slaves counted as less than full humans. It decries socialism and "identity politics," celebrates the right to bear arms and calls the anti-abortion movement one of the nation's "great reforms."
The report notably defends the country's Founding Fathers, who owned slaves , arguing that slavery was not "a uniquely American evil" and urging that "the institution be seen in a much broader perspective."
The report goes on to justify the Three-fifths Compromise — in which white lawmakers from Northern and Southern states in 1787 agreed to count Black people as three-fifths of a person for congressional representation — saying that this was "just that: compromises," and that, "as a question of practical politics, no durable union could have been formed without a compromise among the states on the issue of slavery."
Historian and slavery scholar Daina Ramey Berry said the report "advocates teaching a narrow 'patriotic' history" of America and aims to "muzzle those who seek to teach a full and accurate history of America, including journalists of The New York Times' 1619 Project."
"From a historian's vantage point, the report cannot be taken as a solid piece of historical work: It seeks to justify slavery and its damaging aftermath in order to indoctrinate yet another generation of American students," Ramey Berry, chair of the history department at the University of Texas at Austin, told HuffPost.
"The last four years, underscored by the last few weeks, have demonstrated how fragile our embrace of truth can be and the consequences of purposeful disinformation," she added.
So this Commission releases a report on #MLKDay2021 says that educating us that many of our Founding Fathers enslaved human beings is MORE damaging than THE FACT that many of the Founders enslaved human beings #TrumpLogic#1DAY17HOURS02MINUTES until the most racist POTUS in the https://t.co/ITsvttQ92a — Peter Groff (@petercgroff) January 19, 2021
The Trump commission's report says that the current political divisions among Americans "call to mind" those " between the Confederate and Union forces in the Civil War " — a war that was fought over slavery. It goes on to tout the right to bear arms, saying "an armed people is a people capable of defending their liberty no less than their lives and is the last, desperate check against the worst tyranny."
Earlier this month, Trump incited an armed mob of his supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol , where lawmakers were voting to certify the results of the presidential election, which Trump lost and yet repeatedly lied about it being fraudulent. A week later, the Democratic-led House of Representatives impeached Trump for inciting an insurrection — making him the only president to ever be impeached twice.
Trump's 1776 Commission report, which includes several photos of Martin Luther King Jr., criticizes affirmative action , calling it "preferential treatment," and says today's "identity politics" are "the opposite of King's hope that his children would 'live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin.'"
Just days earlier, Bernice King, the daughter of Martin Luther King Jr., shared a clip of the civil rights icon on Twitter in which King skewers America for freeing Black slaves in 1863, then giving them no land or resources to get started on, all while giving away land to white settlers.
"When white Americans tell the Negro to lift himself by his own bootstraps, they don't look over the legacy of slavery and segregation," King says in the clip. "It's a cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he ought to lift himself by his own bootstraps."
The Trump commission's report also rails against socialism as leading people down a "dangerous path" of wealth redistribution and cites "anti-Communism" and "the Pro-Life Movement" — or anti-abortion movement — as some of the "great reforms" of the country's history.
It concludes that universities are "hotbeds of anti-Americanism, libel and censorship," and warns against any teaching that "shames Americans by highlighting only the sins of their ancestors and teaches claims of systemic racism." It also recommends K-12 schools "reject any curriculum" that demeans "America's heritage."
The administration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, who take office on Wednesday — when Harris becomes the first Black, first Asian American and first female vice president — will likely do nothing with the report. The incoming administration has repeatedly committed to "root out systemic racism."
Sarah Ruiz-Grossman Reporter, HuffPost Suggest a correction
The cherry on top of Trump's years long cake of racism and white nationalism.
Are you surprised at the timing?
/s
No
Here is a link to the report
I haven't had time to do more than skim through it but I would best describe it, from what I have seen, as a highbrow whitewashing of American history and a presentation of American principles bias towards small government and individual "responsibility". It minimizes the responsibility of the slaveholding founding fathers and asserts that America was always on a sure path to eliminate slavery. Those assertions are highly in dispute among historians.
Another big part of the report is to speak of the evil of fascism , communism and socialism , which they seem to be saying go hand in hand with "progressive" ideas.
The report flat out says affirmative action has been wrong.
It is history and political philosophy as written by conservative or "right wing" interpreters of US history. No more, no less.
Surprising?
Why would he do this, and why would he ever think it was ok? One can only assume he did it to cause further pain and division, especially today.
I imagine they set this as the release date after Trump lost the election. If he had won the commission creating this report would probably still be meeting and discussing. Events probably led to an accelerated timetable.
By the way Sister, I read that Trump's pardons tomorrow are going to be centered on white collar criminals and rappers that are in prison. He wants to line up the rap fan vote for 2024.
Revenge for "the black vote" and Georgia?
I dont know. I know Snoop Dogg is pitching Trump to let one of his rapper buddies out of jail. There will be multiple rappers pardoned tomorrow.
Pretty sure Snoop Dogg can pay the $2-mil tab.
There is a section in this report that leads up to asserting the damage done by the "identity politics" born by the civil rights legislation of the mid 1960's. The report says that after the civil war until the Civil Rights laws there was a lot of racism in the country and black people were not treated equally by law. What it fails to mention, even in passing, is that this was a period of 100 YEARS. 100 years of legally enforced racism and oppression. This "1776 Report" does not even offer a guess of what that did to a people. According to the report there should be no "group" remedies, everyone must be treated as individuals. Were they treated as individuals during those 100 years? Why not , if treating everyone as individuals is what America is based on ?
Jeez. Will the tanned hair fluff ever just...........blow away?
A far left huffpo contributor doesn't like it? Looking forward to reading it. I'm sure the people criticizing it here haven't.
I spent about 10 minutes looking at it. Its 45 pages long and just came out a couple hours ago.
One thing that stood out to me is that it claims that America has always been based on individualism and not group identity.
In the report it mentions that blacks were mistreated by the law from the end of the Civil War until the Civil Rights laws of the 60's. Thats 100 years. If America was founded on everyone being treated as an individual and not a group, what was the basis for treating (in a negative way) non whites as a group for 100 years? In 1965 that was more than half of the life span of the nation.
The founders certainly seemed to think it was necessary. I'd be curious to hear the argument that the Constitution could have been ratified and a union of 13 states held together without it. And then subsequently how without such a compromise, the new USA could have held back England or any other country.
It's not surprising at all.
From the reports introduction:
The added emphasis (mine) is what we should be striving for, but the latter three can only come from the first two if the agreement is made with those learning that their experience of this nation will, in fact, be taken into account and changes made to the system all of us together to learn from our past mistakes.
From Page 13 of the 1776 report comes a little tid-bit that could be used against anyone who says, "Show me where in the constitution it says that you have the right to..." with a nod to the Ninth Amendment (The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people):
Now, on page 14 they start to deviate from the course. To wit the anti-Communism just is not there, nor is the Pro-life movement. The rest actually have amendments related directly to them.