In 2017, as a member of a civil rights pilgrimage group, I was fortunate enough to tour the National Museum of African American History and Culture with Jarrod Stout, a young Black man who was, at the time, a student at the University of Washington.
Admission tickets were sold out, but Stout, a charming, gregarious guy, was able to talk our way into the museum. Once inside, he was as excited about seeing the people in the crowd of visitors as he was about the exhibits. Having grown up in Redmond, he had never been among so many Black folks.
For me, the museum itself was stunning. Its various levels began at the bottom with displays detailing the dark history of slavery and topped out several floors above with the multifarious contributions African Americans have made to our country’s music, art, literature and sports. On floors between, expositions of Black culture, politics and social life offered a view into a vibrant, resilient aspect of American life of which many, if not most, white people are unaware.
The African American museum is just one of multiple museums and galleries run by the Smithsonian Institution, an independent organization funded by Congress that is entrusted with telling our collective history with credibility, complexity and balance. Now, though, that independence is being threatened by the Trump administration’s intrusive drive to root out “woke” historical narratives and alleged ideological bias.
The White House crew has given the Smithsonian 120 days to review every exhibit and eliminate anything that “seeks to undermine the remarkable achievements of the United States by casting its founding principles and historical milestones in a negative light,” as it was stated in Trump’s executive order, titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.”
Reportedly, there has already been some interference with exhibits at the African American museum that celebrate Black abolitionists Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass. If they could, Trump’s culture warriors would probably be eager to shut down the entire slavery section and replace it with a minstrel show.
This campaign to give a more simplistic, positive spin to the Smithsonian’s version of American history supposedly aims to promote patriotism. In reality, it is an attempted whitewashing of the American story — “white” being the key term. Like authoritarians everywhere, Trump wants to offer up comfortable, feel-good myths instead of the complicated truth because a complacent, ignorant citizenry is easier to control than a free people who understand where we really came from and how far we have yet to go.
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