Smithsonian pushed ‘revolting’ social action training after ‘whiteness’ chart apology: expert
Smithsonian staff played a pivotal role in developing what one expert referred to as a "revolting" DEI training guide despite the taxpayer-funded institution previously walking back and apologizing for a...
By Fox News · Fox News
Smithsonian staff played a pivotal role in developing what one expert referred to as a "revolting" DEI training guide despite the taxpayer-funded institution previously walking back and apologizing for a similar chart on "whiteness," a series of House hearings this week revealed. Mike Gonzalez, a DEI and identity politics expert at the Heritage Foundation, testified that years after the Smithsonian apologized for its controversial "whiteness" chart, the National Museum of American History continued advancing similar concepts through a training guide known as the "Museums as Sites for Social Action" (MASS) toolkit. Similar to the chart, Gonzalez said the toolkit describes objectivity, individualism, perfectionism and several other concepts as characteristics of white supremacy. In addition to staff members co-authoring the toolkit, Gonzalez said that for years museum leadership kept "indoctrinating staff" by holding staff reading groups to study its materials. "[The] museum kept surreptitiously indoctrinating staff with this trash for three years after the museum apologized for using it, which shows the promises of reform are written in sand," he said in one of the hearings this week. "This is their own words, the leadership of the Smithsonian says constantly that it wants to use the museum to transform America, for societal transformation. They see history itself as a tool, an instrument to change society." WATCH: ‘SHOCKING’ BEN FRANKLIN SMEAR LEAVES SMITHSONIAN CHIEF WITH ‘NO REGRETS’ In 2020, the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture removed and apologized for a chart that described "objective, rational linear thinking" as an aspect of "whiteness" or "white dominant culture," saying, "We erred in including the chart. We have removed it, and we apologize," the Miami Herald reported. In a viral moment from one of the hearings this week, Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, confronted Smithsonian National Museum of American History Director An…