The Smithsonian’s ‘cultural institution’ is supposed to be “devoted exclusively to the documentation of African American life, history, and culture”. But the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) FAILED. They promoted cultural appropriation at NMAAHC. Meanwhile, at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, 10 black employees accused the museum of a ‘culture of racism’.
‘Whiteness’ as Standard
The National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) faced backlash this past week, according to the Washington Examiner. They created the ‘white culture’ or ‘whiteness’ chart. The chart, which was up since 31st May has since been removed from the ‘whiteness’ page, due to the backlash. Even though the museum added verbiage on the page to explain their actions, the damage was already done.
The ‘white culture’ chart represented the worse kind of ‘racial bias.’ Instead of encouraging and ‘lifting’ up the black culture, the museum told blacks why they can’t succeed. They said that whiteness was the standard practise. So blacks needed to appropriate the white culture to ‘fit in’ and to succeed.
This was blatant cultural appropriation at the NMAAHC. The museum wasn’t hiding anything. They had practised ethnocentrism. What they should have promoted was the values of cultural identities that were unique. But instead of celebrating cultural diversity, they squashed it.
Robin DiAngelo
The museum’s unstructured strategy also promoted ‘race-baiting’ ideology. Whilst they told blacks they should be more white, they also perpetuated ‘white privilege’. This is usually when critical thinking should kick in. But no one at the museum was minding their own programmes. They posted a video on their website by Dr. Robin DiAngelo, a polarising figure, who wrote the book “White Fragility”. She blames whites for ‘racism’. But her book suggests that perhaps she is struggling with her own racist tendencies.
The problem with Robin DiAngelo’s premise is that blacks, Asians, Hispanics and other minority groups are not excluded from racism. Many in those “minority groups” have tremendous privilege, Blacks including Oprah Winfrey. Hispanics including Jennifer Lopez. Also Asians including Mindy Kaling. To solely blame ‘whites’ for the world’s racism problem is naive and dangerous. DiAngelo’s video on Youtube (21st Feb 2017), embedded on the museum’s website, had negative ratings almost equal to the positive ones. The comment section provided a scathing rebuke of her ‘white theories’.
Cultural appropriation at NMAAHC confusing talking points
The museum continued to embed a series of ‘racial inequality’ talking points from Youtube. They also continued to promote confusing and conflicting messages. On the one hand, they told blacks that ‘whiteness’ was the standard. Thus, they promoted cultural appropriation at NMAAHC. On the other hand, ‘whiteness’ was responsible for ‘racism’ because they hold most of the wealth and power. Thus the ‘white privilege’ argument. Did the museum EVER bother to read the comment sections of these videos or even watch the videos?
Take for example the video, ‘Race and Racial Identity‘. This video ‘attempted’ to define racism. The video was so badly conceptualised and executed it received 26K negative and only 5.5K positive ratings, at the time of this report. In order to put this in perspective, one has to ACTUALLY read the comment section of the video to understand why the ratings were overwhelmingly negative. We viewed the video only a quarter way through and had to stop. It was that bad. The MTV host did not have a clue and could not articulate the subject matter.
The Whiteness Chart
We have included the ‘infamous whiteness’ chart below. It looks like an outdated chart, judging by the design. A throw back to another era, perhaps but definitely that would not apply in today’s socio-economic world. It was created by Judith Katz who was considered a ‘thought leader’ back in the day. The chart was created in 1990, so that should give you a time perspective. And we have no idea why the museum would even apply it in 2020. A LOT has changed in 30 years!!!
Did the 1990s have a single breadwinner who is male and a ‘subordinate’ house wife? We don’t know. But that’s not the ‘norm’ in 2020. How about the aesthetics of the woman as a ‘thin, blonde, barbie’? Not even close! This “ideal” woman of the 1990s has been replaced with strong, smart, go-getters. The standard of ‘beauty’ has also changed and is not defined by ancient ‘European’ standards. Despite some of the major flaws of this chart, the aspects of status, success and achievement can be applied to ALL races, and not just ‘whites.’
The issue with these type of charts and polarising figures like Dr. Robin DiAngelo is they promote racial division, not unity. When a race of people, i.e. blacks, are constantly told that they are not worthy, they are less than their white counterparts, they begin to believe it. The same is true of programmes designed to shame whites. ‘Interrupting Whiteness‘ is an indoctrination programme for whites only. We wrote an expose about it. But we are not the only one taking note of these Critical Race Theories (CRT). We chucked it to what we call the ‘Illiberal nonsense’.
Change the Conversation
We have discovered that people who tout the book, “White Fragility” can’t tell us what it’s about. And that is the problem with CRT and other race baiting theories. Let’s not forget, these are all theories, conjecture and not proven. Yet, some in the “establishment” take them as truths. Such theories and the cultural appropriation at NMAAHC narrative keeps the whole human race back. If there is ‘white privilege’ there definitely is ‘black privilege’. Don’t let any race dictate who you are. Anyone using race as their central argument is a race-baiter. Let’s also remember that race is a small part of ‘diversity’ training, it’s not the only one.
Cultural Appropriation at NMAAHC
