A White House list identified multiple Smithsonian exhibits and texts as objectionable, citing what it described as examples of "wokeness." The list highlighted a National Museum of African American History and Culture text referencing Ibram X. Kendi and his book How to Be an Antiracist. Targeted items included a National Portrait Gallery dance series on political exclusion, Pride flags, the LGBTQ+ History exhibition, an Afrofuturist show by Ayana V. Jackson, programming on Latinos and Latinas with disabilities, and Black Lives Matter references. Artists and scholars named on the list defended their work and denounced the move as censorship.
The list leads with a text from the National Museum of African American History and Culture about defining "white culture" in the US, which used examples from "hardcore woke activist" Ibram X. Kendi, a history professor at Howard University in Washington, DC, whose book How to Be an Antiracist became a bestseller after the murder of George Floyd in 2020.
"It's a way to discredit me and distract from my scholarship and to continuously try to make me into this boogey-person who should not be taken seriously," he said. "Because, frankly, I could see this White House not wanting their supporters to take my work seriously, because I think if they did, they wouldn't take the White House seriously."
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