The director of the Nationwide Museum of African American Historical past and Tradition (NMAAHC) is at present on depart, in keeping with an inner e-mail obtained by the Washington Put up. The e-mail revealed that Kevin Younger, who has served as director of the museum since 2021, has been on private depart for an “undetermined interval” as of March 14 and that Shanita Brackett, the museum’s affiliate director of operations, has been appointed to serve in his place.
Now, in keeping with the Put up, the inner e-mail circulated almost two weeks earlier than President Donald Trump introduced the signing of yet one more certainly one of his government orders, which he claims promotes unity, however, truly, they solely reinforce white nationalism on the expense of non-white individuals and, actually, on the expense of Black historical past.
Final week, we reported that Trump’s newest bid to rewrite American historical past by taking a metaphorical white-out pen to all references to systemic racism (*gestures towards actually all of American historical past*) focused the Smithsonian Establishment and, particularly, the NMAAHC. Trump claimed his order was geared toward correcting a “concerted and widespread” effort over the previous decade to rewrite American historical past by changing “goal details” with a “distorted narrative pushed by ideology slightly than fact,” including that it casts the “founding rules” of america in a “damaging gentle.”
In different phrases, the president who wouldn’t know an goal reality if it crossed over the Southern border illegally is working actually laborious to drive establishments of studying to faux the Founding Fathers weren’t largely comprised of slave homeowners or slavery advocates who believed “the negro race” was an inferior race, and that the systemic racism they fostered hadn’t endured by two and a half centuries of legalized slavery, 100 years of second-class citizenship for Black individuals, and — so long as we’re counting — one other 60 years of racist elected officers working at making America regress once more.
Trump stated his EO required the elimination of all “improper ideology” — which, to him, simply means something he and his MAGA minions ideologically disagree with — and he claimed the African American Historical past museum, particularly, portrayed American and Western values as inherently “dangerous and oppressive,” which they demonstrably have been to non-white individuals all through recorded historical past.
Though the announcement of Younger’s unexplained departure got here almost two weeks earlier than Trump introduced his newest unilateral resolution to rewrite historical past underneath penalty of defunding, it’s fairly troublesome to imagine one factor had nothing to do with the opposite. Nonetheless, the official phrase seems to be that the 2 occasions are unrelated, and it’s value mentioning that the NMAAHC wasn’t the one focused museum.
From the Put up:
There is no such thing as a proof that the announcement is linked to current pressures positioned on the Smithsonian. (Reached by The Put up, spokesperson Linda St. Thomas declined to remark.) Nonetheless, Younger’s indefinite absence from one of many Smithsonian’s most visited establishments leaves two of the three museums singled out by Trump’s order with out everlasting leaders on the helm. One, the Smithsonian American Artwork Museum, eliminated its director final summer time. The third, the forthcoming American Girls’s Historical past Museum, named a brand new chief final 12 months.
So, Trump needs to MAGAfy Black historical past, ladies’s historical past and the artwork world, which has already been demonstrated by his hostile takeover of the John F. Kennedy Middle for Performing Arts.
Trump’s and MAGA’s “improper ideology” has at all times been all about indoctrination and propaganda whereas they declare the whole lot else is indoctrination and propaganda. They’re not anti-censorship, they usually actually aren’t anti-big authorities as we now have not seen a federal administration wield this a lot energy and compelled affect in fashionable historical past. Sadly, we’re solely starting to see the extent of the fallout.
SEE ALSO:
Cory Booker Breaks Racist Senate Document With 25 Hour Anti-Trump Speech
Trump’s Administration Is Actually Good At This One Factor
African American Historical past Chief On Depart For ‘Undetermined Interval,’ Inner E-mail Reveals
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