By Lafe Tolliver, Esq
Guest Column
“When an autocrat attempts to rewrite a historical narrative to their own liking or image,
facts and truths become mere electives and are disposable at a moment’s notice.”
Efal Revillot, 19th Century Ivory Coast philosopher.
Where is Ralph Ellison, the late author of the timely book, The Invisible Man, when you need him?
America is about to enter a redux version of Alice In Wonderland, complete with scatter brained rabbits and erratic characters fit for an asylum. President Trump and his coterie of
half-wits, have decided that it is time for a revisit to American museums to review their collections so as to ensure their “whiteness” is not impinged upon by Black History’s telling of the whole American experience.
And why not go for the grand dame of the museums…the fabled Smithsonian Museum
(really a collection of various museums under their moniker and roof).
Trump and his gaggle of historical revisionists have taken up the task of making sure that
The Smithsonian tells the story but only as guided by the benevolent hand of Trump, who
stylizes himself as a “stable genius.”
This genius, of course led by other white reactionaries whom he has surrounded himself with, wants to excise, like a bad wound, any story, display, narrative, pictures, sound tracks and collections that do not comport with his vision of American exceptionalism.
Without giving away the ending of the story, this simply translates into Trump being the
“decider in chief” (an awkward phrase borrowed from President George W. Bush), who wants to restate, by commission or omission, how you should view the American Experience.
That American Experience will be bleached so that White America will not have to experience any angst or shame or embarrassment about how their ancestors conducted themselves in their interactions and confrontations with people of color including the “American Indian.”
Issues of manifest destiny and divine rights of conquests will be polished and shined so that
they will appear majestic and noble and with those “pesky” issues of genocide and theft of
land and resources of the indigenous Americans will be politely excused to footnotes and not put on the big screen for all to read and see.
No sir! Gone With The Wind and the powerful and racist film, The Birth of a Nation will
be upfront and center and will be eulogized and lauded for the great benefits that the
slave received for being in slavery; the refinements he or she received simply by being in the presence of the magnanimous slaveholder, who was always willing to lend a helping hand or at least a whipping or two, to help out when and where needed.
Imagine the memoirs of Frederick Douglass and tributes and stories about Harriet Tubman
being deemed not appropriate to American exceptionalism and thus being excised or excluded from the Smithsonian exhibits.
What is in store for the 1963 March on Washington as led by the late Martin Luther King Jr?
Will it be truncated to a walk in the park along the Potomac Basin? Will that famous speech be reduced to simply the old chestnut of character v. skin color that White Americans love to
talk about?
The National African American Museum (part of the Smithsonian collection) will probably get a re-boot from some right wing historian who contends that it does not, “take all of that” to tell the story of Black people in these United States.
Thankfully, there are other museums across this country that are out of reach of Trump’s
re-do executive order of American history.
The fabled Schomburg Collection in Harlem will be a needed buttress against this craven
attack on the preservation of the history of people of color.
Trump continues to show his true race antagonisms against Black people even in spite of some
high profile “Negroes” who still gush and are in awe of Trump when his shadow crosses their
history deficient lives.
I can image revisionists furiously attempting to rewrite history books for educational curriculums across this country that will dilute or obfuscate the contributions of people of color.
I remember in high school while in Rome, NY., that our “Black History” consisted of a page or two about Booker T. Washington, George Washington Carver and Martin Luther King Jr. Thin pickings to say the least!
Trump has a constant burr in his saddle about Black people. He quietly took the picture of President Obama out of the Oval Office and placed in a hidden stairwell, out of sight…out of mind. The bust of Martin Luther King Jr., has already been taken out of the Oval Office. Really!
Trump & Company are determined that they will remake America in the image of the
50s and 60s, the time when Amos and Andy were television favorites and Rochester was
always bucking his eyes at the antics of his boss, Jack Benny.
A time when America was severely segregated and a “good job” for a Black man was a postal worker or a bus driver and civil rights workers could be murdered for trying to register
Mississippi Black folks to vote.
That is what “Make America Great Again!” means to Trump. A return to the subjugation of
people of color and a retrenchment of costly gained civil right victories.
This senseless plundering of a museum to dilute or eradicate Black accomplishments is
part and parcel of this historical revisionist campaign.
Contact Lafe Tolliver at tolliver@juno.com