We could refer to Bread and Circuses.
But the modern generations do not even study the history of the Roman Empire, so they would not get the connotation.
History, as taught today, "started" when slaves were imported to America. Period.
Even though the slave importation started in the 1600s, the kind of history taught today somehow manages to skip over the American Revolution, Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution. It's obvious that it's an ideological selection of what is taught in history and what isn't, not a chronological one.