Off Topic: Trump’s war on the arts

Afro-American Museum: Nowhere else is the history of black Americans told as completely as at the Smithsonian in Washington. But Donald…

Off Topic: Trump’s war on the arts

On March 27, President Donald Trump signed yet another executive order with a deceptively benign title: “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” What this order actually does is  outline an attack on the Smithsonian Institution, particularly critiquing recent historical and art exhibitions in an effort to reshape public memory.  The Smithsonian — opened in 1846 with the mission to create an “establishment for the increase and diffusion …

Letter to the Editor

The Museum of African American History | Boston & Nantucket needs you Dear Editor, On March 27, the White House issued an executive order titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity in American History.” On its surface, this directive may appear to target the Smithsonian Institution and the National Park Service, institutions under direct executive control. However, as with previous executive actions on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and the Departmen…

Trump Targets African American History Museum in Executive Order; Director Resigns

According to USA TODAY, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture—opened nine years ago to national acclaim—is now facing criticism from President Donald Trump. In a recent executive order, Trump accused the museum of promoting “ideological indoctrination” and distorting American history. The museum, visited by 1.6 million people in 2024, highlights both the struggles and triumphs of the Black experience, from sla…

Trump Smithsonian Executive Order attempts to erase racism from U.S. history

By Mel Wilson, NASW Senior Policy Adviser President Donald Trump’s recent Executive Order(EO) targeting the Smithsonian Institution has sparked significant controversy by aiming to eliminate what he describes as “improper ideology” from its programs and exhibits. This order represents the administration’s continuing comprehensive  campaign against diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).   Using the pretext that the Smithsonian Institution has bee

Trump Wants to Erase the History He Doesn’t Like, But Historians Are Pushing Back

Petula Dvorak of the Washington Post wrote about the efforts by the Trump administration to rewrite American history. Trump wants “patriotic history,” in which evil things never happened and non-white people and women were seldom noticed. In other words, he wants to control historical memory, sanitize it, and restore history as it was taught when he was in school about 65 years ago (1960), before the civil rights movement, the women’s movement, …