On this edition of Your Call, we continue our series, The Authoritarian Playbook, by discussing the Trump Administration's attacks on museums and cultural institutions.
Shortly after taking office, Trump issued an executive order accusing the Smithsonian's museums of promoting "divisive, race-centered ideology."
On August 19 on Truth Social, Trump wrote: "The Smithsonian is out of control, where everything discussed is how terrible our country is, how bad slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been. Nothing about success, nothing about brightness, nothing about the future. I have instructed my attorneys to go through the museums and start the exact same process that has been done with colleges and universities, where tremendous progress has been made."
CNN reports that museum leaders have largely remained silent and some are self-censoring exhibits and programs that could "provoke federal ire." Citizen Historians for the Smithsonian are taking photos and videos of exhibits before they are changed or removed.
What precedent does this set and how is the public responding?
Guests:
Dr. Peniel E. Joseph, Professor in the Lyndon B Johnson School of Public Affairs and Department of History, Barbara Jordan Chair in Ethics and Political Values, Founding Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy at the University of Texas at Austin, and author of Freedom Season: How 1963 Transformed the Civil Rights Revolution
Dr. Saida Grundy, feminist sociologist of race and ethnicity studies, Associate Professor of Sociology and African American Black Diasporic Studies at Boston University, and author of Respectable: Politics and Paradox in Making the Morehouse Man
Resources:
The White House: Letter to the Smithsonian: Internal Review of Smithsonian Exhibitions and Materials
The Guardian by Sara Grundy: Trump’s attacks on the ‘Blacksonian’ have a history in a century-old myth
PBS with Dr Penial Joseph: Scholar responds to Trump's efforts to reframe U.S. history
