While on a recent vacation in Washington D.C., my partner and I went to what felt like a thousand museums. I would say my top two (not including the Gershwin exhibit in the Library of Congress) were the National Museum of Natural History and the National Museum of African American History and Culture. I came out of our trip with a renewed hope for our First Amendment rights and for our nation’s ability to overcome the toughest divisions over time.
Less than two weeks after we returned, POTUS signed an executive order targeting several of the Smithsonian museums we visited. The order specifically calls out the National Museum of African American History and Culture as one that promotes “improper ideology.” I am very distressed by this.
One of my favorite things about the museum was the piece of it that walks you through an honest history of some of the darkest parts of our nation’s history — the slave trade, the Civil War, segregation, etc. — and still manages to leave you feeling hopeful about America. It shows you exactly how the Founding Fathers failed to live up to their own principles, but how, after years of struggle and bloodshed, we have grown closer and closer to living up to the ideal.
This administration claims in the order that, “The National Museum of African American History and Culture has proclaimed that ‘hard work,’ ‘individualism,’ and ‘the nuclear family’ are aspects of ‘White culture.’”
From my experience there last month, I can only conclude this claim is a lie. And to me, it seems like a pretty pernicious one.
Ian McDougal, Tooele
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