I was taking a news cycle break but now I’m back and (overwhelmed) catching up with all of the terrible things the administration is doing and saying. One of the most harrowing is this obsession with downplaying slavery and trying to erase history at, specifically, the National Museum of African American History and Culture which I still haven’t made it to and with the current militarized occupation of DC, don’t know when I will.
As I have said in this blog before, one of the most glaring roadblocks to progress is American society’s refusal to wholly acknowledge, accept, and rectify the very real and brutal history of this country due mostly to the feelings of discomfort and guilt these conversations stir. There have been apologies issued by federal and local governments for slavery, even some (very) minimal efforts for reparations in some states. However, a concerted effort to teach honestly and fully in classrooms what happened during this dark time along with its heavy impact on political and social structures is still lost. While we are taught aspects of slavery in school, it is watered down immensely and minimized in ways that are damaging and detrimental to critical thought. A White House official, Lindsey Halligan, literally said recently, during an interview:
“It's not about whitewashing it's about full context, so while slavery is obviously a horrible aspect of our nation's history you can't really talk about slavery honestly unless you also talk about hope and progress and I think we need to be focusing on the progress that we've made then and we need to stop focusing so much on the lack of progress…”
This kind of thinking is exactly what is holding us back. This kind of thinking is contributing to the falsehood that slavery wasn’t that bad if it’s discussed in a certain context. It’s up there with “it happened so long ago.” Dismissive statements like the one Halligan espoused don’t fully grasp the heaviness, violence, pervasiveness of a system that not only eradicated entire cultures, traumatized generations, and normalized the type of brutality that should only live in the dark recesses of the mind, but this disgusting system is how this country was able to be as successful as it was. I say was because my how far we’ve fallen in the last six months.
This country being built on the blood, sweat, and tears of enslaved people is not hyperbole. It is fact. It is a fact that cannot be refuted and continues to be a source of rage for me personally and I know for a lot of people. The rage is especially great when people like Halligan want to focus on this lofty idea of how much progress has been made when the bar was so incredibly low. The reason I get so angry with her wanting to focus on progress in her statement is because it’s disingenuous. We simply cannot focus on progress when the atrocities of that time are not even fully comprehended by most Americans. We cannot focus on progress when people refuse to learn about the ways in which families were torn a part, women were raped, humans beaten within inches of their lives on a daily basis, an entire race of people subjugated, not seen as human, experimented on. There have been accounts where brown human skin was used as leather, little babies fed to alligators, and this one always makes me ill- EATEN. It’s no surprise that many people chose death not just on that middle passage, but upon the realization of inescapable circumstances on plantations. My ancestors despite being born into a system hellbent on destroying their humanity, tearing away their dreams and hopes, telling them they were not worthy and don’t belong, persevered and created community, had loving relationships, and built a culture so strong it’s mimicked all over the world. The thing is slavery didn’t just go away. The ideals adapted and permeated institutions and legislation in ways that the Smithsonian and other scholarly organizations educate the public on. Maybe not explicitly, but the pieces are all there.
A system that continues to benefit so few is something that the establishment certainly doesn’t want the country to learn about. Ignorance and apathy is how fascism takes hold and this administration has not been shy about wanting to rewrite history and destroy independent thought. This is why this particular effort is so alarming. A review of nonpartisan institutions that are meant to education the public without any hidden agendas is just another page in the playbook to force control.
It’s not just the idea that this white house has taken time to “review” the Smithsonian museums and exhibitions, but the combination of all their efforts to silence, manipulate, and terrify the US population into submission. But their plans are failing. They are desperately trying to take control of the narrative and suppress discontentment. News cycles aren’t being bullied into only showing specific stories and social media certainly isn’t taking these sweeping lies laying down. I have seen so many people refusing to fall in line and outwardly calling out fascism and illegalities when they see them, though they are abundant. It can still feel like nothing is giving and it all seems futile, but it’s not. He hasn’t declared his dictatorship yet, and there are elected officials who are still fighting. I continue to hold onto a glimmer of hope, because that’s something they can’t take away and the glimmer shines whenever I see others as angry if not angrier than me speaking out and not backing down. I won’t back down.