Welcome to Pushback. I'm Erin Mate. Joining me is Dr. Gerald Horn, Morris Professor of History

in African American Studies at the University of Houston, author of more than three dozen books,

including his latest, The Donning of the Apocalypse. Welcome Dr. Horn to Pushback.

Thank you for inviting me. President Trump, speaking out against the teaching of the history of slavery and racism in U.S. schools,

announcing a proposal for what he called a 1776 commission.

Today I'm also pleased to announce that I will soon sign an executive order establishing a national commission to promote patriotic education.

It will be called the 1776 Commission.

What is your response to his remarks?

Well, I think it's a very dangerous turn of events.

I didn't know that amongst Mr. Trump's alleged skills was as a curriculum planner.

It will be difficult to implement since rather notoriously U.S. school districts are decentralized,

unlike in other countries. In any event, it's an attempt to pander to the basis instincts

of the Trump base, 63 million of whom turned out for him in November 2016, that is to say that there is growing discomfort,

as his remarks indicated, about the tearing down of statues, not only of so-called Confederate

war heroes, but also to slave-owning founding fathers as well. At the same time,

the situation in the United States is becoming more polarized because you not only have the 1619

project spearheaded by black journalists at the New York Times, such as Nicole Hannah-Jones,

who won a Pulitzer Prize for

commentary. You also have the recent play and book by one of the leading black intellectuals,

speaking of Ishma Reed of Oakland, California, who has just written a spoof of Hamilton,

the Broadway musical that's taken the country and Disney by storm,

making a small fortune for himself, that is to say the author, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Miranda, and a large fortune for Disney while receiving a full-throated praise from everyone from Dick Cheney, former U.S. Vice President, to Barack Obama, the 44th president.

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