Tag: disparaging history

By DORANY PINEDA

The Trump administration is reviewing material about slavery, the destruction of Native American culture, climate change and more at federal parks after employees flagged information that could be “disparaging” to Americans, according to screenshots shared with The Associated Press.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order in March directing the Interior Department — which manages parks, monuments and other designated land — to ensure public property doesn’t contain elements that “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living.” Instead, it said to “focus on the greatness of the achievements and progress of the American people” and “the beauty, abundance, and grandeur of the American landscape.”

The National Park Service had until July 18 to flag “inappropriate” signs, exhibits and other material, according to a document shared with the AP by the National Parks Conservation Association, which obtained internal information from an anonymous source within the Interior Department. The public was also encouraged to participate.

“As we carry out this directive, we’ll be evaluating all signage in the park along with the public feedback we’ve received,” said Elizabeth Peace, spokesperson for the Interior Department. “This effort reinforces our commitment to telling the full and accurate story of our nation’s past.” The department said any signage inconsistent with the executive order will be removed or covered and reinstated once edits are made. The administration said it would remove all “inappropriate” material by Sept. 17, according to The New York Times, citing internal agency documents.

The directive has raised concerns about sanitizing and erasing dark sides of American history.

“Pretending that the bad stuff never happened is not going to make it go away,” said Alan Spears, a senior director with the National Parks Conservation Association, a nonpartisan group separate from the national parks system that advocates for it. “We need to be able to talk about these things if we’re going to have any hope of bringing people together.”

A look at some of the material that was flagged for review:

North Carolina: Climate change, pollution

WHAT’S IN DISPUTE: A sign titled “The Air We Breathe” was flagged because it discusses the importance of clean air. Pollution from human-caused ozone, it explains, threatens people’s health and vegetation, and power plants, cars and industries that burn fossil fuels are the pollutant’s primary sources.

In North Carolina’s Cape Hatteras National Seashore, there are signs about sea level rise due to climate change. “We do not believe it to be in violation, but would like someone to review if messaging of climate change and sea level rise reduces the focus on the grandeur, beauty and abundance,” one employee wrote.

THE BACK STORY: Emissions from burning fossil fuels are heating the planet, causing ice sheets and glaciers to melt and seawater to expand. Rising seas threaten the people and ecosystems that live by the coast.

THE REACTION: Carlos Martinez, climate scientist for the Union of Concerned Scientists, thinks the agency should be educating the public about the threats national parks face.

These public parks are places to learn about pollution, climate change and environmental degradation, he said, and eliminating this information “limits the ability for our population, especially for the younger generation, to understand these issues that allow them to then take action.”

South Carolina and Pennsylvania: Enslavement of Black people

WHAT’S IN DISPUTE: At a gift shop in Charles Pinckney National Historic Site in South Carolina, marked for review were books for sale, including “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” by Harriet Jacobs. Similar books were flagged elsewhere, including at the Washington Monument, where someone identified a book discussing George Washington as a slave owner.

In Pennsylvania’s Independence National Historical Park, flagged were descriptions of the whipping, kidnapping, rape and other brutality slaveholders inflicted on Black people. At another, an employee identified an exhibit about Black Americans escaping to freedom that names slave owners.

THE BACK STORY: The legacy of slavery and racism has laid the foundation for the inequalities Black people face in the U.S., including greater rates of poverty, disease and illness, and incarceration at more than five times the rate of white people.

THE REACTION: “Slavery is not a side story. It’s the engine of American economic growth for more than two centuries,” said Cedric Haynes, vice president of policy and legislative affairs with the NAACP. “And there are individuals who played a part in this.”

It’s important to name the people who perpetuated slavery’s atrocities, he said, because that legacy is embedded in American laws, institutions and the nation’s wealth.

Alaska and Florida: A complex history with Native Americans

WHAT’S IN DISPUTE: At Sitka National Historical Park in Alaska, an employee flagged a panel about missionaries who sought to destroy the language and culture of Alaska Natives and forcefully remove them from their lands. The “concerning text” says: “The history of this land includes a series of actions that attempted to remove the Sheet’ka Kwaan from their land, culture, and language which includes forced relocations under both Russian and American governance.”