As I walked the brick paved sidewalks of Berlin, Germany, this summer, it was impossible to ignore the persistent reminders of the Jewish genocide during World War II. Bullet holes still brand the pillars at Museum Island, and “stumbling stones” have been hammered into the ground below the last known residences of holocaust victims.
Given the atrocities that took place for nearly twelve years of Adolf Hitler’s leadership, I had assumed Germany would desire to bury the past and separate themselves from a less-than flattering history. However, as I walked past ruins like the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church and explored numerous museums, I was proven wrong.
Germany has intentionally left behind ruins of a lost war as a reminder to future generations of a path once taken that should never be followed again.
President Donald J. Trump wants the U.S. to remember its own history in a different way – in a positive way. On Aug. 21, The White House website published a list of 20 Smithsonian exhibits that the Trump administration viewed as too “woke.”
The Hill opinion reporter Anthony J. Constantini agreed with Trump’s stance against the institution. He wrote in an opinion article on Sept. 10 of the Smithsonian Board of Regents, “The people in charge have a view of America as a fundamentally flawed country, one which is improved with progressivism and diversity. They then alter old exhibits or create new ones around this view.”
I would like to argue this point and pose a question.
I believe retelling history through the lens of all parties who experienced it, rather than through the eyes of a white “victor,” is not creating a new history, but rather expanding on it. Does “progressivism” and “diversity” not contribute significant value to our understanding of a country built by immigrants?
First on the list published by the Trump administration is a series displayed at the The National Museum of African American History and Culture that exhibits “dominant white culture” in the U.S. – it should be pointed out that the diagram attached to this White House release is from a chart that was removed from the museum in 2020.
But ignoring this oversight, I don’t find anything about the chart to be inaccurate. It breaks down America’s history of conformity:
Husband must be breadwinner
Wife must be subordinate
No deviation from the one true (Christian) God
Nuclear family is supreme
Wealth equals worth
Are these concepts not rooted in America’s history? It is certainly prevalent in every 1960’s television show I’ve watched, wrapped in a neat package with a shiny bow.
Even more disturbing, Trump took to Truth Social to vent about how the Smithsonian was “OUT OF CONTROL,” stating it dwelled too heavily on “how bad Slavery was.”
Slavery was bad. Very bad. Insurmountably bad and one of the worst exhibits of human rights violations in this nation’s history in my opinion.
The list published by the Trump administration continues on, including exhibits that highlight LGBTQ+ history, art that paints Mexican immigrants in a positive light and multiple sections that describe white Americans as colonizers.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe the definition of the word accurately depicts what I was taught in 3rd grade American History, plus a few violent details – yet another example of human rights violations in our great land.
Now, it cannot be ignored that Germany is having its own rise of conservatism, with Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party receiving 20.8% of the votes, earning them second place in the election earlier this year. “I find it quite disturbing when the Holocaust is politically instrumentalized,” AfD leader Alice Weidel said during an appearance on ARD, a German broadcasting station. She later used the term “guilt cult” to justify her stance.
I believe these comments practically mirror Trump’s own initiatives to remove progressive, and in my perspective, honest tellings of American history from the Smithsonian Institution.
However, I’m a person who likes to visit all angles of an argument, and I see why there is a desire to bury American history, focusing instead on the future. But there can be no better future without reflecting on the past.
The Bear River Massacre of 1863 should remind us all to never again needlessly slaughter and extinguish a culture for arbitrary land. The U.S. eugenics movement – yeah, Hitler got that from us – serves as a reminder to preserve the right of bodily autonomy for all. The murder of Emmit Till should forever be burned into our brains to cease senseless and racially driven violence.
History serves as a roadmap for how to be better as a country and as a human. This is a truth I believe the city of Berlin understands.
The choices the U.S. and Germany make in the coming years will echo for generations. They will ripple into the lives of my children, and theirs after them. I hope we leave them with an honest record of what we did, so that they may have the courage to fight for a future that is safer for everyone.
