In a little-noticed report to the United States’ top librarian, the National Archives’ task force on racism claimed that the Rotunda – which houses the Declaration of Independence, the United States Constitution, and the Bill of Rights – is an example of “structural racism,” and that the Founding Fathers and other White, historically significant Americans are portrayed too positively.
The report was finished in April and released this month, but it has mostly gone unnoticed by the media. The task group asserts that institutional racism “unequivocally affects” how personnel at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) interact with one another, customers, and historical records. “Legacy descriptions that employ racial slurs and abusive terminology to describe BIPOC populations,” which includes genuine racial insults with phrases like “elderly,” “handicapped,” and “illegal alien,” were offered as examples of “structural racism” in the report’s summary.
The National Archives Rotunda was also labelled as an example of “structural racism” since it “honours affluent White men in the nation’s origins while marginalising BIPOC [Black, Indigenous, and Other People of Color], women, and other communities,” according to the research.
The task committee advises hosting “dance or performance art in the space that promotes discourse about the ways that the United States has mythologized the founding era,” as one method to “reimagine the Rotunda.” The committee also recommended putting “trigger warnings” on historical content to “alert audiences of content that may induce intense physiological and psychological symptoms.”
“Providing an advisory notice to users gives us an opportunity to mitigate harm and contextualize the records,” the report reads. “It creates a space to share with the public our ultimate goals for reparative description, demonstrate our commitment to the process, and address any barriers that we may face in achieving these goals (i.e., the size and scope of the Catalog and the ever-evolving knowledge we gain regarding what is harmful).”
The task force’s study also recommends that language on OurDocuments.gov, a website dedicated to “milestone documents” like the Constitution and Declaration of Independence, be changed to be less congratulatory of historically significant Americans like former President Thomas Jefferson.
“OurDocuments.gov features transcripts and historical context of ‘100 milestone documents of American history’ but often uses adulatory and excessive language to document the historical contributions of White, wealthy men,” the report reads before taking aim at Jefferson.
“For example, a search of Thomas Jefferson in OurDocuments.gov brings up 24 results. He is described in this sample lesson plan as a ‘visionary’ who took ‘vigorous action’ to strengthen the ‘will of the nation to expand westward,’” the report continues. “The plan does not mention that his policy of westward expansion forced Native Americans off their ancestral land, encouraged ongoing colonial violence, and laid the groundwork for further atrocities like the Trail of Tears,” it added.
The study also urges NARA to “create safe spaces in every NARA location” and to “revise the policies and practises that lead to racist language in archival descriptions.” “Racial language” is defined by the task force as “not just clearly destructive phrases, such as racial slurs, but also material that implies and perpetuates damaging stereotypes of BIPOC individuals and communities while valorizing and protecting White people,” according to the study. “It’s impossible to separate descriptive terminology from its context.”
The report is “the radical Left’s latest attempt to sow division and rewrite our history,” according to Cassie Smedile, executive director of conservative nonprofit America Rising. “With Democrats controlling every lever of our government, these efforts have only become more flagrant and pervasive. No institution, agency or classroom is off limits,” Smedile told Fox News in an email. “The American people deserve to be made fully aware of the radical Left’s schemes, and we’ll continue to expose them.”
The task committee was established by National Archivist David Ferriero in response to George Floyd’s death last year, according to the report. Ferriero has been in the job since 2009 after former President Barack Obama nominated him and the Senate confirmed him. The position is for an undetermined period of time.
In American society, the white man has become a symbol of hatred and bigotry. The left’s racial politics appear to have no bounds, especially when it comes to demonising an entire race. They’re there for power and to rip the fabric of society apart. Historical figures, documents and the foundations of society are all being judged through the lens of 21st century values. ‘Wokes’ are just removing everyone they believe to be a racist or cultural/racial supremacist based on their faulty and ignorant judgement. The fact that they examine people from various eras through the lens of the twenty-first century demonstrates the mental degeneration that has afflicted the younger generations in the United States.