“That the Smithsonian had become dominated by curators, scholars and ideologues who genuinely don’t like their nation very much and who wanted to use the museum exhibits to promote an “America is racist, sexist and a blight on civilization” narrative is, I believe, beyond reasonable debate: smoking guns include the original signage for the Enola Gay (portraying the bombing of Hiroshima as a war crime) and the deliberate omission of Clarence Thomas in the National Museum of African American History & Culture. The problem is real, and President Trump’s understanding that the museums are a significant battlefield in the culture wars should be welcome. However, I question whether there is any way to avoid over-correction, with the Smithsonian swinging from being an agent of cultural self-hate furthering the agenda of victim-hustlers, to being a purveyor of jingoism, God Bless America revisionism and “My country, right or wrong” historical air-brushing. I also question…oh, heck, I know that Donald Trump does not possess the broadness of mind, the historical sophistication, or the objectivity necessary to avoid botching what is a very important mission.
“I pride myself on having at least a substantial amount of those qualities, but I’m not sure about how much to emphasize slavery and racial discrimination in our history between the disparate poles of “The 1619 Project” and the “America courageously expiated the curse of slavery in blood” position. Was Western expansion a saga of heroism and American exceptionalism or “genocide,” as today’s Left would have it?
“I wish I believed that there was an achievable, non-political, societally beneficial middle ground, but try as a I may, I don’t. All I know is that the Smithsonian’s orientation has become anti-American, and that this is destructive, foolish, unfair and wrong. Trump’s targeting of the museums is as justified as his assault on colleges and universities, but whether the cure here will be worse or at least as bad as the disease is a troubling question.”
I stand behind that position still, but boy oh boy it was wonderful to see Rep. Gill, who is building a deserved name for himself as “The Gotcha! King,” brutally expose the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History director, Anthea Hartig, for what she is, and, by extension, what the Smithsonian has become.
Watch the entire first clip, where Hartig is forced to defend the indefensible, her institution stating that “objectivity” and “politeness” were markers of white supremacy. (Her defense is to deny what is in black and white.) The second clip is funnier, true: that’s the one where the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History director, after agreeing that Mickey Mouse is not “racist,” is asked why the Smithsonian informs visitors that Mickey’s design was based on black-face minstrels, the epitome of Jim Crow era racism. She defaults to the claim that the assertion is just fact, but it is not fact: academics committed to the narrative that American culture is soaked in racism concocted that theory out of pure confirmation bias. Neither Ubi Iwerks nor Walt Disney, the two primary creators of Mickey, ever hinted in any correspondence or written notes that the mouse was meant to denigrate blacks, because, you see, he wasn’t.
The major “tell” according to these scholarly race-baiters is that Mickey (eventually) had gloves on his hands. “White gloves helped animators make grand, expressive gestures visible on early black-and-white film, but they also directly mirrored the costuming of minstrel performers,” one source says. Oh. Well that settles it then. Mickey also wore shoes, which directly mirrored the costuming of…well, everybody. And when Mickey first appeared, in “Steamboat Willie,” he didn’t wear gloves…see?
Never mind. I’m sure Walt and Ubi were being very careful to s-l-o-w-l-y turn Mickey Mouse into Al Jolson in “The Jazz Singer.” But wait—Al wore “blackface,” right? Here’s Mickey:
Isn’t his face white? Well, never mind, let’s not be picky. After all, “The character’s large white eyes, wide mouth, and silhouette echoed the caricatures of live minstrel shows,” says another “scholarly” source obviously regarded as gospel by Ms. Hartig. Hmmm…his silhouette is that of…a mouse.
Well, never mind: “Early Mickey Mouse cartoons frequently relied on music, dance, and a mischievous “trickster” persona reminiscent of minstrel archetypes.” Would it be unduly cruel to point out that the “trickster” persona is a staple of comedy across centuries and cultures, including, just as a sample, Hermes, Dionysus, Odyseus (!), Loki, Till Eulenspiegel and Puss ‘n Boots long before Mickey, and Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Bart Simpson, Jerry Lewis and this guy…
…long after Ubi drew Mickey?
But…but…Mickey relied on “music and dance”! Right. I’m not going to even bother dealing with that.
In short, the “Mickey is a Jim Crow relic” smear is crap, like so much of the race-baiting, anti-American narratives inflicted on the U.S. by Smithsonian indoctrination agents like Anthea Hartig. Our national museum shouldn’t be promoting crap. Can we agree on that?
Thanks, Rep. Gill.
Now do CNN.
Ethics Alarms 
You know, I don’t think she’s all that uncomfortable during that exchange with the Congressman. I think she’s quite comfortable having the Smithsonian propagate all that “anti-racist” “scholarship” without having any compunction whatsoever to stand by any of it. She’s just performing. She doesn’t even read anything her outfit puts out. It’s just all the current thinking so she lets it go out. I think this is a standard issue lefty pose. I’m sure she will gladly pose as an Ibrahem X. Kendi fan at work or at a cocktail party, but I’m pretty sure she’s never read anything he’s written or even cares a whit about anything he’s written. She’s just going with the flow. If she’s read any of this “scholarship,” she’s doubtless just said, “Yeah, sure. Whatever.” I suspect after the hearing, she went out for drinks with her staff and said, “Well that was ridiculous. What is that guy thinking?”
You’re trying to depress me.
“You’re trying to depress me.”
It gets worse; to wit:
When A Black Professor Was Branded A ‘WHITE SUPREMACIST‘, I knew our Universities Had Lost The Plot
MONEY QUOTE: “ ‘WHITE SUPREMACY CULTURE‘ no longer referred to neo-Nazis but, in some academic circles, now included traits such as perfectionism, individualism and a belief in objectivity, BECAUSE, SO THE THEORY WENT, THESE WERE ‘WHITE’ VALUES.” (bolds/caps/italics mine)
FTR, my now estranged, Trump deranged Sister has an advanced degree from Evergreen State College.
PWS
Just saw Althouse’s post about the Gill exchange with that dolt. It was interesting, and commented upon, that in 90 comments none of Althouse’s diminishing left-of-center commenters uttered a peep. Of course, I have witnessed this phenomenon on EA many times. Even when I directly ask “please defend this!”…To be fair, I don’t know who the left-of-center commenters are here any more. The few we get seem to be set on trolling and getting banned, like “Jude” and ‘Marissa.” I assume “Here’s Johnny” is self-banned: he isn’t really left-of-center, but was insulted when I told him to “bite me.” I was hoping Jerry would return, but he’s a principled liberal and may have thrown himself into a shredder over the way his party has been behaving.
Althouse: “Hartig’s defense is almost entirely restricted to long silences and diligent note-taking“
Priceless!
“(Here’s Johnny) isn’t really left-of-center, but was insulted when I told him to ‘bite me.’ “
The color of one’s skin will always be subordinate to its thickness.
PWS
It’s complicated. There’s a good chance Walt Disney definitely modeled the early cartoons on, if not black stereotypes, certainly a mockery of poor southerner stereotypes (of which there is a great deal of crossover*). And some of the earlier cartoons I think should leave the objective observer scratching their chin and thinking “oh man, that’s…interesting…”.
However, that “era”, if you want to call it that, was short lived enough to be overshadowed by what Mickey and the gang became. So much so that exactly zero people (outside the American academic bubble and dunderheaded morons it bestows post-graduate degrees upon) will be “racially oppressed” by Mickey Mouse. And because of that, it is stupid for the Smithsonian to highlight what early Mickey Mouse *could have* been.
*Growing up, I’d always heard people talk about “black food” or “soul food” as this unique ethnic cuisine. Eventually, in college, someone “treated” me to Soul Food hoping to reveal to me this unknown aspect of American culture….except that I’d eaten all that food my entire life because it’s just southern cuisine – more specifically it was southern vernacular cuisine affordable to poor folk, which my *white* ancestors across the south all qualified as.
Given the complexities of historic development that we’re all aware of and that white people had far more avenues of material advancement after the civil war that were more denied to black people – “poor person food” which was equally poor white food as much as it was poor black food ultimately became tied more to the black experience in the south.
MW: I put this fake controversy in the same category with NPR calling Good Humor trucks racist because they played “Turkey in the Straw.”
You’re going to enjoy the latest from Rep. Gill. Here is a sample of him questioning the ABA President about transgender representation on the Supreme Court: https://x.com/realBrandonGill/status/2080030805053599899?s=20
Comedy gold!
I would think that the Claudine Gay methodology of just repeating the same evasive answer over and over again would have been discredited by now. Guess not!