The Smithsonian Museum of the Sack Dance
(located on African Avenue in Barryville)

(Note, further down in this entry, James N.’s description of the Smithsonian Museum’s exhibits on “American” history.)

James N. writes:

I’m in the Smithsonian “American” History Museum with my children. The museum has been completely redone, and the sack dance is in full swing. I’ll put together some details when I get home.

James N. continues:

Smithsonian cafeteria Saturday afternoon 2/21 2pm. 200 faces counted. 196 white, 4 Asian. 21 workers counted. 19 black 1 hispanic 1 white.

LA replies:

White consumers of the Sack Dance Version of American history!

LA writes:

Speaking of how blacks in power in a formerly white country change the history of the country to put themselves at its center (which is Eric Holder’s explicit goal as laid out at great length in his recent speech), see this 2008 VFR entry about the changes in place name going on in South Africa, and how the contemptible Wall Street Journal responds.

James N. writes:

1. The Star Spangled Banner Exhibit. The seamstress who made it was helped by an African-American woman who got her the materials. The color photos at the end of the exhibit show Jimi Hendrix playing it, Whitney Houston singing it, and some guys in turbans holding it up.

2. Rail travel and the steam engine: Plessy vs. Ferguson. Segregated streetcars. Chinese coolies.

3. Roads, the automobile, opening up the countryside: Back of the bus. Segregated motels. Jim Crow.

Every exhibit has at least one African-American and one woman featured, including those regarding inventions and creations which are the fruits of European-American civilization.

Now, as my non-scientific study in the cafeteria indicates, history museums, at least this one, are an example of Stuff White People Like. So, presuming the curators understand that they are making exhibits for a 99.7 percent white audience, the emphasis on AAs and the wrongs done to them, even a l’outrance, suggests the REAL purpose of the museum—not to celebrate our history, but to disparage it and the people who made it.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at February 21, 2009 01:39 PM | Send