History is not considered comfortable. It is considered honest. Right now, we are looking at a dangerous trend: a cleaner, sanitizing the US past to sell the preter story. But no amount of bleach can wash blood, scars and chains from the foundation of this country.
Washington Post Recently reported Exhibitions and signals about slavery are being removed from several national parks under the orders of the Trump administration. Internal email reviewed by The New York Times Expose That the park service has been asked to remove materials understood for “unfairly dislike Americans”.
Translation? If this white America feels bad, it has to go.
In Fort Pulseski, Georgia, authorities have already taken a “The Scord Back” photo, in 1863, a famous photo of a famous person, with horrific marks on his back. In Harpers Ferry, the east has been slated to remove more than 30 signals documenting racism faced by slaves. This order is being widely interpreted – slavery, racism, genderism, LGBTQ rights, or anything that addresses indigenous oppression is now a proper game for ereizure.
This is not happening in a vacuum. Since assuming office, President Trump has consistently pushed policies and rhetoric that reduces the experiences of the marginalized communities less or lump sum.
In a mural picture, from painting on a black lives to the temporary rubbing of Nawajo Code from federal websites, his administration has considered black and indigenous history as disposables. Even on Junenth – the day that remembers the end of slavery – Trump complains “A lot of non-working holidays in America.”
Let’s call it what it is: Whitewashing. Excessive intention.
Government sites have been described about words like “injustice” and “oppression”. School libraries have purified writing by black writers such as Maya Angelo. Demonstrations have been sidelined to honor Harriot Tubman and Tuskegi Airman. Critics say that “is part of a pattern of words and tasks designed to promote more positive attitude of the nation’s history, but in fact it is just erasing parts that do not fit the fairy tale.
Stating that this country did not shape this country, which would not bring us closer to the ideals of freedom, equality and justice. In fact, it draws us far away. The past explains the present. If you erase the mark, you erase the story – and without the story, you erase the roadmap for progress.
Just saying things like “slavery is bad” and trying to end the conversation seriously reduces the damage caused by an institution that forcibly uprooted millions of Africans and condemned the lifetime of bondage. Until you siding with slave owners, it was not just “bad” – it was pure evil.
So let’s be clear. The removal of evidence of slavery and indigenous oppression was not strengthened by America, it makes America dishonest. History is not a brand campaign. And no matter what you try to write the story again, those marks – such as crosses behind Gordon, will always be a slave man in the picture of that civil war.
Because the truth is this: America only becomes a nation that promises that when he stops hiding from his past, and starts facing it.
Lindsay Granger is a news nation contributor and co-mausoleum of Hill’s commentary show “Rising”. This column is an edited transcription of its on-air commentary.
