Mastodawn

Maude Nificent Aug 22, 2025

#USpol #Auspol #NationalNarrative #Trumpism #Curriculum #Smithsonian
CW mention of a deceased Aboriginal person
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From the Democracy Now newsletter:

“Trump wrote on his social media platform, “The Smithsonian is OUT OF CONTROL, where everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was.” “

the newsletter links to an article with video/ (and yay, a transcript)

when it comes to shaping the national character, i can’t help laughing at past attempts, in australia, to make the national narrative even whiter, when former PM john howard changed citizenship tests to include questions about don bradman (cricket hero). i mean, you mention sport to me and i’m instantly looking for the yawn emoji. fraffly unorstrayan, i know. i even remember some bloke in a busy workplace asking me once if i was gay, cos i had no idea who was in the running for the brownlow (football) medal. not just unorstrayan, but barely human, i am.
howard never made a mention of Eddie Gilbert, of course, who was hounded out of cricket and sent back to Cherbourg (formerly Barambah Aboriginal Reserve. — the man who bowled howard’s hero don bradman for a duck 🦆

but, i digress… continuing from transcript about US narratives;

“AMY GOODMAN: I want to go to an issue of curriculum in this country that also will affect the Smithsonian museums. Starting this school year in Oklahoma, teachers must earn a teaching certificate to be able to teach in the public schools of Oklahoma this school year, in what an Oklahoma school official says will “[keep] away woke indoctrinators.” The assessment was designed by PragerU, a conservative media company, the talk show host Dennis Prager’s company, whose educational materials have been approved for use in public schools already in 10 states, including Arizona, Florida, Texas, New Hampshire and Louisiana. One of their recent videos, which kids are shown, which has gone viral, features a cartoon of Christopher Columbus downplaying and justifying the practice of slavery.

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS: Slavery is as old as time and has taken place in every corner of the world, even amongst the people I just left. Being taken as a slave is better than being killed, no?”

Author ANNETTE GORDON-REED comments about the motives for whitewashing history;

“This is a way of trying to prove that nothing bad happened to African American people, that there’s no reason for any kind of redress, that there’s no reason to pay any attention to the legacies of slavery. So, this is something that they’ve long wanted to achieve. And because they are in political ascendency at this moment, that they can do it…”
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and there we have it; what drives the anti-woke movement both here in australia, and abroad, is the need to ignore the LEGACIES of our histories, by pretending today is not just yesterday 2 point 0… pretending what happened yesterday did not shape and influence outcomes today.

anyway, it’s an interesting interview

https://www.democracynow.org/2025/8/18/smithsonian_american_history

“Whitewashing of History”: Harvard Historian on Trump’s Targeting of School Curricula, Smithsonian

The White House has called for a far-reaching review of Smithsonian museum exhibitions in order to ensure they align with President Trump’s interpretation of U.S. history. “The idea that the Smithsonian — which was created as an independent entity — should reflect any administration’s vision of history, and not the vision of the historians and the researchers and the other people who devote their lives to studying these things, is more than problematic,” says Annette Gordon-Reed, professor of history at Harvard University, president of the Organization of American Historians and an award-winning author. The Trump administration and the Department of Education are also currently partnering with PragerU, a controversial conservative media company, to make educational materials. “This is a whitewashing of history under the guise of making white children feel better about themselves,” says Gordon-Reed. PragerU content has already been approved for use in public schools in 10 states across the country.

Democracy Now!