"The View" co-host Sara Haines said history should "make you feel bad" while discussing the state of the country's education on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
As the ABC talk show bemoaned that teaching Black history in the country was under attack in an opening segment, co-host Ana Navarro said the issue had been "weaponized."
"To drive people to the polls based on outrage, because my poor little White kid is feeling bad because he's learning about slavery. That's ridiculous," she said. "Learning about history should not make anybody feel bad."
Haines cut in, saying, "Well, it should make you feel bad, but it's important that it makes you feel bad."
OPINION: MARTIN LUTHER KING JR DAY MUST BE FOR ALL OF US
Navarro retorted, "I don't think a White child that's had nothing to do with slavery should feel bad about slavery. I think we need to learn history so we don't repeat the same mistakes about history."
Haines agreed as the crowd applauded.
On MLK Day, the annual federal holiday that honors the life and legacy of the civil rights leader, "The View" took a fairly grim view of the country. Co-host Sunny Hostin said there's been a "long game" played by Americans to "erase the bad stuff" from the history books.
"I think people in America have been playing a long game, and I often say it’s conservatives, but it’s a lot of Americans, and I think what they do is they not only erase the bad stuff that may make people feel bad like slavery which is responsible for the very foundation of this country. What concerns me even more is that they erase the contributions of people that don’t look like them," she said.
She accused history books of erasing minority achievements as a way to justify demeaning other cultures.
"I think that is so sad because what is supposed to be the very foundation of this country is that we are all equal, but what happens is when you’ve had privilege for so long, equality feels a lot like oppression," she said.
