No, our museums cannot just 'move on' from slavery

I was not surprised by President Trump’s Truth Social post that the Smithsonian and other American museums are excessively focused on “how bad slavery was.” Trump’s post is consistent with MAGA’s triumphalist insistence on eviscerating critical analyses of America’s problematic race relations and history from the nation’s schools, cultural institutions and mass media.

Without endorsing racial bondage, his call encourages MAGA’s white supremacist elements and discourages efforts to address racial disparities relating to slavery’s long-term constraints on Black progress.

As someone who has long studied, taught and written about the American South and slavery, I am appalled. Trump’s position trivializes the injustices and horrors of enslavement, implying they barely merit mention within Ame