text: NICOLE HEMMER - HOST, PAST PRESENT: [00:26:28] Last September, Donald Trump announced the creation of the 1776 Commission—the administration's attempt to promote what they called "patriotic education". On Monday, the commission issued its first and final report, which sought to counter the 1619 Project, a New York times initiative that explored the central role of slavery and anti-Black racism in US history. We talked about it on the podcast a little while ago when it first came out in August of 2019. The report argued that there was no internal contradiction to a country founded on the idea of equality but with the reality of slavery. They wrote the John C. Calhoun, who called slavery a positive good, was the father of identity politics. And it argued that anti-racists and anti-fascists were in fact, the real racist and real fascists. Natalia, the 1776 Commission is already on the ash heap of history, why is it still worth talking about?