The Trump administration ordered the replacement of Smithsonian exhibits labeled divisive with descriptions framed as historical and constructive and published a list targeting exhibits that present Black, Latino, and LGBTQ+ perspectives. The list included portrayals of Benjamin Franklin as an enslaver, art acknowledging race as a social construct, and displays on racist voter suppression. The action is framed as one element of a wider assault on democracy, including federal occupation of Washington DC, campus speech crackdowns, targeting of political opponents, and gerrymandering. Cultural control and the construction of a mythic past via racial grievance are identified as central mechanisms enabling authoritarian and fascist projects.
In a letter sent to Smithsonian secretary, Lonnie G Bunch III, on 12 August, the Trump administration announced its plan to replace all Smithsonian exhibits deemed as divisive or ideological with descriptions deemed as historical and constructive. On 21 August, just nine days later, the White House published a list of said offending fixtures the majority of which include exhibits, programming and artwork that highlight the Black, Latino and LGBTQ+ perspectives on the American project.
Included in his bill of particulars was an exhibit that rightly depicts Benjamin Franklin as an enslaver, an art installation that acknowledges race as a social construct and a display that highlights racist voter suppression measures, among others. The assault on the Smithsonian comes wrapped, as it were, as part of a broader attack on democracy, scenes of which we see playing out every day.
The federal occupation of Washington DC, the crackdown on free speech on campus, the targeting of Trump's political opponents, the gerrymandering of democracy these are interwoven elements of the same structural assault. So with many fires burning across the nation, concerned citizens who are answering the call to fight the destruction of democracy may regard his attack on history and memory as a mere skirmish, a distraction from the herculean struggle against fascism unfolding in the US.
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