NEWS
National Archives’ task force cites Rotunda as example of ‘structural racism’
By Houston Keene, Fox News
June 27, 2021 | 1:46pm | Updated
Enlarge ImageThe National Archives Rotunda Rotunda houses the Declaration of Independence, the US Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.
AP
The report was completed in April and released this month but has so far flown under the media radar. The task force claims that structural racism “unequivocally impacts” how National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) employees interact with each other, customers and the historical records themselves.
Some examples of “structural racism” were provided in the summary of the report, including “legacy descriptions that use racial slurs and harmful language to describe BIPOC communities,” which includes actual racial slurs alongside terms such as “elderly,” “handicapped” and “illegal alien.”
Additionally, the report categorized the National Archives’ Rotunda as another example of “structural racism” as it “lauds wealthy White men in the nation’s founding while marginalizing BIPOC [Black, Indigenous and other People of Color], women, and other communities.”
The task force suggests ways to “reimagine the Rotunda,” including staging “dance or performance art in the space that invites dialogue about the ways that the United States has mythologized the founding era.”
The task force suggested staging “dance or performance art in the [Rotunda] that invites dialogue.”
Alamy Stock Photo
The report also called for “trigger warnings” to be put in place with historical content to “forewarn audiences of content that may cause intense physiological and psychological symptoms.”
“Providing an advisory notice to users gives us an opportunity to mitigate harm and contextualize the records,” the report reads. “It creates a space to share with the public our ultimate goals for reparative description, demonstrate our commitment to the process, and address any barriers that we may face in achieving these goals (i.e., the size and scope of the Catalog and the ever-evolving knowledge we gain regarding what is harmful).”
The task force’s report also calls for a change to language on OurDocuments.gov — a website on American “milestone documents” such as the Constitution and Declaration of Independence — to be less celebratory of historically impactful Americans, such as former President Thomas Jefferson.
The National Archives’ task force suggested a website on American “milestone documents” be less celebratory of historically impactful Americans like Thomas Jefferson.
Getty Images
“OurDocuments.gov features transcripts and historical context of ‘100 milestone documents of American history’ but often uses adulatory and excessive language to document the historical contributions of White, wealthy men,” the report reads before taking aim at Jefferson.
“For example, a search of Thomas Jefferson in OurDocuments.gov brings up 24 results. He is described in this sample lesson plan as a ‘visionary’ who took ‘vigorous action’ to strengthen the ‘will of the nation to expand westward,’” the report continues.
“The plan does not mention that his policy of westward expansion forced Native Americans off their ancestral land, encouraged ongoing colonial violence, and laid the groundwork for further atrocities like the Trail of Tears,” it added.
The task force’s reports stated the Rotunda “lauds wealthy White men in the nation’s founding while marginalizing BIPOC [Black, Indigenous and other People of Color], women, and other communities.”
Alamy Stock Photo
Additionally, the report calls for “the creation of safe spaces in every NARA facility” and says NARA has “a responsibility to eliminate racist language in archival descriptions and revise the policies and practices that led to it.”
The task force said that “racist language” includes “not only explicitly harmful terms, such as racial slurs, but also information that implies and reinforces damaging stereotypes of BIPOC individuals and communities while valorizing and protecting White people,” the report reads. “Descriptive terminology cannot be divorced from its context.