American Greatness Was Never That Great

On Thursday, March 27th, President Trump signed an executive order aimed at prohibiting anything that “degrade[s] shared American values, divide[s] Americans based on race, or promote[s] programs or ideologies inconsistent with Federal law and policy” in the Smithsonian Institution. It followed that Trump would call on Vice President JD Vance, a member of the Smithsonian’s board, to restore “truth and sanity to American history,” and “promote American greatness.” Under the guise of patriotism, this executive order aims to control how museums and national parks portray American history. Just weeks after the elimination of the Department of Education that helps students learn said history, whether or not it’s right to ensure an accurate retelling of American history is now up for debate.

In recent years, many national parks, who often work alongside the Smithsonian museums, have updated their resources to take into account slavery, to acknowledge Native American lands, to honor sites of Civil Rights demonstrations, and to tell less rose-tinted views of the founders and other American leaders. These are not great aspects of our history, but knowing about them is critical so we can learn from past mistakes.

Trump’s newest order specifically targets the Museum of African American History and Culture, one of the top five most popular Smithsonian museums in Washington, arguing that it divides Americans based on race. The order states that the Smithsonian Institution has “come under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology,” and that the museum has proclaimed that “hard work,” “individualism,” and “the nuclear family” are aspects of “white culture.” However, the President is referring to a publication called “Talking About Race,” taken off the museum’s website in 2020 after drawing criticism—not an exhibit. Historian Lonnie Bunch, founding director and current secretary of the Museum of African American History and Culture, said it’s “important for the Smithsonian to help the country grapple with the question of race,” but agreed that the document was inappropriate and not something that should be at the Smithsonian.

In a response to the executive order, CNN journalist Anderson Cooper said, “Bringing some light to the harshest parts of our history isn’t degrading American values or dividing Americans based on race, it doesn’t make us weaker, it’s what actually gives this country its strength. Weak countries rewrite their histories, erase their brutal pasts, and repeat that brutality.”

American history has never been “great.” It is not a “positive view” of American history if we’re ignoring the genocides, the atrocities, and the oppression that America is responsible for. America is not innocent, and the Smithsonian Institution doesn’t shy away from that. Owning up to one’s past and finding a way to move forward is not propagandist—rather, we have a collective responsibility to do so. Retelling history as it happened is not insane or indoctrinating. America was founded on the right to knowledge and the right to education, and now those rights are up for debate. And in an age of frightening amounts of executive overreach, it’s hard to write about much else. 

President John Adams so poetically said, “I must study politics and war so that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain.” Now, the right to study what one wishes is slowly being taken away, and the pressure to follow one ideology is higher than ever. This risks undermining the very intellectual freedom that Adams hoped future generations would enjoy.

Trump’s condemnation of the pursuit of knowledge is particularly harrowing given his recent attacks on the Department of Education and universities. The Department of Education’s job is to ensure a federal commitment to equal educational opportunity and civil rights protections for all students and to close education gaps for lower-income communities and students with disabilities. Now, it can no longer ensure equal access to education. Education teaches people to think for themselves, which is more important than ever. Public education is a cornerstone of democracy, and keeping the masses uneducated and silent in fear that they’ll rise up against you is the move of a dictator.

The Smithsonian—just like universities and public schools—is meant to teach, not to shy away from what makes us uncomfortable. If America cannot handle all aspects of its past and present, it will never truly be as great as it professes.

The opinions expressed within this piece represent the views of the author alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Jefferson Independent.