{"id":2655,"date":"2026-07-08T15:09:37","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T15:09:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/interstatelogisticshubs.com\/?p=2655"},"modified":"2026-07-08T15:09:37","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T15:09:37","slug":"smithsonian-natural-history-museum-has-gone-woke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/interstatelogisticshubs.com\/?p=2655","title":{"rendered":"Smithsonian natural history museum has gone woke"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Seeking to counter what it called a decade-long \u201crevisionist movement\u201d to \u201crewrite our Nation\u2019s history,\u201d the Trump administration issued , directing federal officials to review Smithsonian exhibits and programs for ideological content.\u00a0\u00a0Pursuant to that order, the , \u201cSaving America\u2019s Story,\u201d on America\u2019s 250th anniversary of Independence Day arguing that the Smithsonian Institution\u2019s National Museum of American History has strayed from its core public mission: telling America\u2019s story with honesty, seriousness, and civic pride.<\/p>

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Its core claim is that the Smithsonian\u2019s flagship history museum has been ideologically captured by leadership that treats history not as a record of national inheritance, but as a vehicle for activism.\u00a0\u00a0Central to the report\u2019s findings is its assertion that NMAH<\/p>\n

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fails in the basic task of illuminating our heritage. Our central finding is not that the Museum has simply added overlooked stories, corrected perceived errors, or broadened its historical scope. Rather, it is that Museum leadership has explicitly adopted an ideological framework that no longer treats the American story as a shared national inheritance to be taught or celebrated, but as a political instrument to divide, dispirit, and discourage our citizens.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The report points to current director Anthea Hartig, the first woman to hold the position since the museum opened in 1964, as central to the problem.\u00a0\u00a0Hartig was appointed in 2019, and the report notes that she \u201chas explicitly stated that she sees history as a \u2018prime tool of social justice,\u2019\u201d and that one of her roles is to connect \u201cresearch and scholarship to activism and advocacy.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0In a November 2020 speech at U.C. Riverside, Hartig said she \u201cwill always be in a state of becoming a historian, propped up as I was and I am by the cushions of whiteness and the pillows of the bourgeoisie.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0According to the report, under Hartig, the museum even removed explicit references to American history from in its mission statement as part of an effort to \u2014 in Hartig\u2019s words \u2014 \u201cget out of the America First mentality.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the same 2020 UC Riverside discussion, Hartig spoke about the upcoming 250th anniversary of Independence Day in terms of \u201ccommemorating\u201d or \u201cproblematizing\u201d the history surrounding the signing of the Declaration of Independence.\u00a0\u00a0Arguably, problematization is at the heart of Critical Theory and generally means challenging or \u201cdeconstructing\u201d accepted historical narratives by questioning assumptions and \u201ccritiqu[ing] power structures.\u201d<\/p>\n

Examples of politicization of the museum\u2019s content cited in the report include:<\/p>\n