Critics see Trump attacks on the 'Black Smithsonian' as an effort to sanitize racism in US history

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: AP

Updated 2:13 PM EDT, March 29, 2025


ATLANTA (AP) — President Donald Trump’s order accusing the Smithsonian Institution of not reflecting American history notes correctly that the country’s Founding Fathers declared that “all men are created equal.” But it doesn’t mention that the founders enshrined slavery into the U.S. Constitution and declared enslaved persons as three-fifths of a person for the purpose of the Census.

Civil rights advocates, historians and Black political leaders sharply rebuked Trump on Friday for his order, entitled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” They argued that his executive order targeting the Smithsonian Institution is his administration’s latest move to downplay how race, racism and Black Americans themselves have shaped the nation’s story.

“It seems like we’re headed in the direction where there’s even an attempt to deny that the institution of slavery even existed, or that Jim Crow laws and segregation and racial violence against Black communities, Black families, Black individuals even occurred,” said historian Clarissa Myrick-Harris, a professor at Morehouse College, the historically Black campus in Atlanta. The Thursday executive order cites the National Museum of African American History and Culture by name and argues that the Smithsonian as a whole is engaging in a “concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our Nation’s history.”

Instead of celebrating an “unparalleled legacy of advancing liberty, individual rights, and human happiness,” the order argues that a “corrosive … divisive, race-centered ideology” has “reconstructed” the nation “as inherently racist, sexist, oppressive, or otherwise irredeemably flawed.” It empowers Vice President JD Vance to review all properties, programs and presentations to prohibit programs that “degrade shared American values” or “divide Americans based on race.”

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/trump-black-history-smithsonian-dei-687fd306dc9c6d7611300d74fe49b8aa

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the order argues that a “corrosive … divisive, race-centered ideology” has “reconstructed” the nation “as inherently racist, sexist, oppressive, or otherwise irredeemably flawed.”

Projection. This is what 45 IS doing. And it's no longer "words" but actual deeds. And not just nationally, but now internationally, by threatening other countries to enshrine white supremacy or else.

[kimbutgar]

1. People need to block the entrances of those museums and not let the orange hitlers thugs in!

The employees should also lock them out!

[electric_blue68]

2. It's a disgusting back to literal "white washing" effort to hide our true history.

Last edited Sun Mar 30, 2025, 07:35 PM - Edit history (1)

I remember (since I was visiting DC for fun, and at other times protests) hearing about the Museum of American History obtaining the Woolworth's lunch counter where the sit-ins occurred.

So on one of my fun visits I went see it. It was, like, standing there and feeling the currents of *History* wafting around me. Very moving!

[malaise]

3. Duh

Rec

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. Worse than that; it also wants to stop anyone saying race is a social construct

Once widely respected as a symbol of American excellence and a global icon of cultural achievement, the Smithsonian Institution has, in recent years, come under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology. This shift has promoted narratives that portray American and Western values as inherently harmful and oppressive. For example, the Smithsonian American Art Museum today features “The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture,” an exhibit representing that “[s]ocieties including the United States have used race to establish and maintain systems of power, privilege, and disenfranchisement.” The exhibit further claims that “sculpture has been a powerful tool in promoting scientific racism” and promotes the view that race is not a biological reality but a social construct, stating “Race is a human invention.”

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/03/restoring-truth-and-sanity-to-american-history/

This is going back to racial classification - "it's a biological reality that races are different, and don't you forget it". Combine that with the claim that American history has not been racist, and you're back with segregation - "separate but equal, but you're forbidden to question whether 'equal' is true".

[TheJillMill]

5. My "Good" Niece (Nephew's Wife) Has Been...

... working there since its founding, working mostly from home during and since the pandemic. I've been quietly predicting this move for a long time, and this attack on the National Museum of African American History and Culture came even sooner than I thought it would. Someone needs to film all the exhibits and preserve them.