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73rd Annual Tony Awards, Press Room, Radio City Music Hall, New York, USA - 09 Jun 2019

Source: Variety / Getty

Actor Bryan Cranston blasted the slogan that former President Donald Trump heavily used as racism while defending the need for critical race theory recently.

In an interview with CNN’s Chris Wallace on Sunday (February 26th), the Emmy Award-winning actor talked about why he felt that critical race theory was necessary for American society and spoke on how the slogan “Make America Great Again” used by Donald Trump during his 2016 presidential campaign can be seen as a

racist sentiment.

“When I see ‘Make America Great Again,’ my comment is, ‘Do you accept that that could possibly be construed as a racist remark?'” the Breaking Bad actor said to Wallace. “A lot of people go, ‘How could that be racist, to make America great again?’ I said, ‘So just ask yourself from an African-American experience: When was it ever great in America for the African-American? So if you’re making it great again, it’s not including them.'”

He would continue: “It’s to teach us, in the ‘woke’ world, to open up and accept the possibilities that our privilege has created blind spots for us. Maybe I haven’t seen what’s really happening, in all my years.” 

Cranston has been vocal about critical race theory and the need for it to be taught in schools dating back to his appearance on Bill Maher’s Club Random podcast in January. There, the discussion turned to slavery. Maher expressed his view that texts like The 1619 Project spearheaded by journalist & researcher Nikole Hannah-Jones covering the impact of African slavery on American history carry a cynical tone, saying “if you mean more what the 1619 book says, which is that it’s just the essence of America and that we are irredeemable, that’s just wrong.”

Cranston fired back, “It’s 400 f–king years that we’ve dealt with this, and our country still has not taken responsibility or accountability. He continued: “I mean, teaching how the race trade and racism is systemic in everything we’ve done in government, in social activities,” he said.