I am a Smithsonian Institution nerd. I have been for as long as I can remember.
I can’t say I’m surprised that President Trump is attacking the Smithsonian. He is following the authoritarian playbook, rewriting history and taking control of cultural institutions to try to make his distorted version of our national story the official version.
It makes me sad and angry on behalf of the millions of Americans who enjoy and learn from the Smithsonian every year.
I was a curious kid. My grandmother honored that curiosity by giving me a subscription to Cricket magazine, a children’s magazine whose publisher collaborates with the Smithsonian. When I got a little older, I upgraded to Muse, which is designed for young teens.
And then, on that glorious day I turned 15, I graduated to the official “adult” version, Smithsonian magazine itself. Why did this excite me? Because I wanted to read about our country and the world, history and science, art and music.
I also loved going in person — and still do. Because the Smithsonian’s museums are free, they are accessible to everyone. My family was able to visit even when we had little or no money to spare.
It’s cherry blossom season in Washington, D.C., and families from all over the country and world, representing every shade of skin color humanity has to offer, have been flying kites, having picnics, posing for pictures under the cherry trees and visiting Smithsonian museums.
After Trump issued his recent edict targeting the Smithsonian, I took a walk to the National Museum of African American History and Culture, which he singled out for criticism.
The museum, the newest on the National Mall, has moved millions of people with its honest, humane storytelling about the complex history of Black people in this country — an essential part of the American story.
Chief Justice John Roberts, who serves by law as chancellor of the Smithsonian, spoke at the museum’s opening in 2016.
“Supreme Court decisions such as Dred Scott v. Sanford, Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board of Education document shame and hope along the road to equal justice under law,” Roberts said. “This museum provides a place for us to learn what life was like for the brave individuals who brought those cases to the Supreme Court.”
I have no illusions about Roberts, who has overseen the weakening of the Voting Rights Act and led the court’s majority in essentially declaring the president a king beyond the reach of the law. But I hope that he would not like to add the destruction of the Smithsonian to his legacy.
I have even fewer illusions about Vice President JD Vance, who also serves on the Smithsonian’s board of regents by virtue of his position.
Vance has pushed for aggressive attacks on American universities and seems to have contempt for public institutions in general. I am sure he would eagerly carry out Trump’s order to “eliminate” what the president chillingly calls “improper ideology” from the Smithsonian’s museums and research centers.
We cannot let that happen. We cannot let Trump turn this American treasure into one more arm of the right-wing propaganda machine.
The Smithsonian has committed itself to sharing knowledge and insights that will help us build “Our Shared Future.”
“Our Shared Future.” Is that what set off alarm bells for the narrow-minded minions scouring and censoring government and university websites that show any sign of what they call “wokeness”?
It’s both silly and arrogant, both stupid and dangerous, to threaten this great American institution because our president can’t accept the reality of racism or the existence of transgender people.
Lonnie Bunch is a prominent historian who shepherded the National Museum of African American History and Culture into being. Now he leads the entire Smithsonian. He has pledged to continue helping the American people “better understand our nation’s history, challenges and triumphs.”
We should all support that mission.
The Smithsonian is a public-private partnership built and sustained over the decades with support from Americans of every political persuasion. It is not part of the executive branch, so the president cannot simply fire its leaders and install his puppets, as he has done elsewhere.
That is comforting, but not as comforting as it should be, given Trump’s track record of lawlessness, abuse of power, and willingness to deploy every form of coercion and intimidation imaginable.
The Smithsonian’s board of regents and members of Congress must energetically protect it from Trump’s dictatorial demand to censor history, science, and art to fit his regime’s approved ideology. We, the people, must rally to its defense.
Do it for all our curious kids — and adults — and our shared future.
