Trevor Noah Takes Down Tom Cotton’s ‘Possibly Stupidest’ Slavery Argument

Trevor Noah on Monday took aim at Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) for his “possibly stupidest” argument against teaching about America’s history of slavery in schools.

Cotton has been the subject of fierce criticism over his attempts to prevent schools from teaching the 1619 Project, a New York Times-based curriculum that seeks to reframe American history around 1619 ― the year slaves first arrived on America’s shores.

In an interview published by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on Sunday, Cotton called the project a “racially divisive” account of history and described the institution of slavery as the “necessary evil upon which the union was built.” Instead of portraying America as “an irredeemably corrupt, rotten and racist country,” Cotton said the nation should be viewed “as an imperfect and flawed land, but the greatest and noblest country in the history of mankind.”

“Sen. Cotton thinks this curriculum is racially divisive?” “The Daily Show” host asked. ”You know what’s really racially divisive? Slavery.”

Watch below for “The Daily Show” take on how Cotton’s “less racially divisive version of slavery” would go down as a lesson plan: