The administration is trying to impose a new portrait of America that is without flaws at the Liberty Bell, the giant redwoods of Muir Woods, and especially in the Smithsonian Institution.
Last month a label that mentioned that President Trump had been impeached twice disappeared from an exhibit on the presidency while the impeachments of Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton are still included at the Smithsonian.
This is an effort to rewrite history in its official museums and cultural artifacts. In this new narrative, there can be no arguments about oppression by race or gender or ethnicity or sexuality or economic class, the administration implies, because no such oppression will be acknowledged in the official history, which can only be uplifting.
In March Trump signed an executive order accusing the institution of coming under the influence of a “divisive, race-centered ideology” that portrays American values as harmful and oppressive.
The Smithsonian said the references to the Trump impeachments were removed as part of a review of the institution’s content for bias. One prominent artist has refused to exhibit her works at the Portrait Gallery after it balked at showing the widely popular official portrait of Michelle Obama.
Also other targets:
A display about Dorothy’s ruby slippers from “The Wizard of Oz” mentioned the Great Depression and the coming world war;
A label on two “Star Wars” droids noted the nation needed “new hope” after the Vietnam War and Watergate;
Mickey Mouse’s original blackface appearance.
Already, dutiful Park Service employees have flagged signs at the Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia depicting the abuse of fugitive slaves. The Park Service is restoring a statue of a Confederate general in Washington that was torn down and burned during the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020.
And unsurprisingly, the administration removed references to transgender people from the Park Service’s website for the Stonewall National Monument in Greenwich Village. It feels like only a matter of time until the government’s Wite-Out is applied nationwide.
These museums finally told the truth about American history — who benefited and who suffered — in an unsparing way. More of it might help new generations confront the reality of their past and prevent further injustices. American shame is precisely what the government is trying to prevent, particularly over racial issues,
For now, the White House has no direct leverage over private museums. Two in New York are presenting exhibitions that repudiate the Trumpian notion that art must uphold an officially approved narrative. “Blacklisted: An American Story” at the New York Historical is a sharp reminder of the cost to society when the government decides to crack down on a disfavored ideology and winds up undermining the freedom to speak, as it did during the Red Scare beginning in 1947.
Remember when most Hollywood studios and television networks, complied with the demands of the Red baiters and refused to push back, just as the Smithsonian appears to be doing now.
Art can only be effective at illuminating and healing if it is unconstrained by authority. Nonconformity is the basic precondition of art, as it is the precondition of good thinking and therefore of growth and greatness in a people.
The degree of nonconformity present — and tolerated — in a society might be looked upon as a symptom of its state of health.
Source: David Firestone NYT
