Bryan Cranston said in an interview with CNN’s Chris Wallace that Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan could be received as a “racist remark,” and he asked both Wallace and viewers at home if they’ve ever taken time to consider why that is the case.
“The ‘Make America Great Again’ – my comment is: Do you accept that that could possibly be construed as a racist remark?” Cranston said. “And most people, a lot of people go, ‘How could that be racist? Make America Great Again?’ I said, ‘So just ask yourself from, from an African American experience, when was it ever great in America for the African American? When was it great?’”
Cranston added: “If you’re making it great again, it’s not including them.”
The “Breaking Bad” Emmy winner is an outspoken supporter of teaching critical race theory in schools across the country. Critical race theory examines how social and political movements are shaped by social conceptions of race and ethnicity. For Cranston, America can’t act like its racist past does not exist.
“I think it’s imperative that it’s taught,” Cranston said. “We [must] look at our history — much the same I think that Germany has looked at their history [and] involvement in [WWI and WWII] and embrace it and say, ‘This is where we went wrong. This is how it went wrong. This is why it can’t go wrong again.’”
Cranston said Germany has “done a very commendable job” when it comes to confronting and speaking about its history of racism. “But the United States really hasn’t,” Cranston added.
Watch Cranston’s interview with Chris Wallace in the video below.