Does American history deserve a ‘content warning?’
To the Editor:
My first impression was that the letter writer’s claim (SMN, Oct. 6) was just the latest bit of alarmist fake news spinning off the internet: that the National Archives was now attaching a “warning” to our treasured foundational documents that are entrusted to their care. As it turns out, even though the letter writer got almost nothing right, my favorite go-to debunking source snopes.com, labels the basic story as “Mostly true.” The problem is (as usual) that this item bounced around as a meme on social media, in the process getting twisted, almost beyond recognition, into some nefarious attack on our basic freedoms.
So, let’s be perfectly clear what we’re talking about. Yes, since early September, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has added a “Potentially Harmful Content Alert” as a banner appearing on their online catalog pages and some of their online digital content, which of course encompasses a dizzying array of documents and media reflecting the entire gamut of the American experience, warts and all.
But, Archive employees have not, as the writer claimed, erected a physical sign over our founding documents on display in the nation’s capital! Nor have they called the U.S. Constitution “outdated, offensive and insensitive.” That exact phrase, in fact, is part of a disclaimer referring to NARA’s own activities, specifically some of the terminology used by their archivists of less enlightened eras, in their work of cataloging and describing the Archive’s holdings. (To me, this represents a refreshing effort at self-policing and addressing past wrongs). Finally, there is no language in the NARA statement about “physiological and psychological symptoms’ — that was someone’s fanciful elaboration as, again, the story got twisted via the internet.
In any event, you can read the NARA statement for yourself here: https://www.archives.gov/research/reparative-description/harmful-content.
We can debate whether the raw materials of American history held in the National Archives deserve a content warning. In my view, some of them surely do. (Pardon me if I wince when I hear our founders, in the Declaration, describe America’s Indigenous Peoples as “merciless Indian Savages.”) Still, some among us will only be comfortable embracing a cherry-picked, romanticized and sanitized version of our national experience. Please acknowledge, though, that the folks at NARA, given their mandate, simply don’t have that luxury.
Oh, yes: the quote the writer attributes to Thomas Jefferson about “a government big enough to give you everything ....” is totally bogus. No such thing is found among Jefferson’s writings or quoted words. It actually first appeared in print in 1952 and, not surprisingly, became popular in conservative Republican circles.
Tom Powers
Haywood County
