Screening requests challenged the Smithsonian’s purported “viewpoint diversity” as a black filmmaker’s documentary appeared to take “direct shots” at the museum’s “liberal intelligentsia.”
(Video Credit: Fox News Digital)
Under the leadership of President Donald Trump, a concerted effort has been made to rid the federal government and beyond of the Marxist influence of diversity, equity and inclusion. In the wake of congressional hearings and the resignation of Smithsonian Institution Secretary Lonnie Bunch III, filmmaker Eli Steele raised “big questions” on whether his project, “White Guilt,” has been denied a public screening because he isn’t “the right kind of black.”
Having called on the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) to explain why the film version of his father Shelby Steele’s book of the same name was allegedly receiving disparate treatment, Steele told Fox News Digital, ‘The film is professionally shot, the quality is there. A comparable film that they’ve shown is ’13th,’ which itself is a very controversial film.”
“So that’s the big question we have here: Do we have viewpoint diversity or do we not? Do you have to be the right kind of black to be shown at the Smithsonian?” he wondered. “That’s the big question that we have to address in this room. But I hope that it’s not about any of that.”
Detailing his efforts to get the story about institutions prioritizing racial identity over merit played at the museum, it was explained that he was offered the option to rent a space for a private screening to the tune of $35,000 as opposed to the museum sponsoring a public screening.
Meanwhile, other films publicly screened at NMAACH include “Hidden Figures,” “I Am Not Your Negro,” “Faith in Blackness: An Exploration of AfroLatine Spirituality,” and the Steele-cited “13th,” which argues that permission of forced labor as a criminal punishment via the 13th Amendment enabled ongoing persecution of black people after abolition.
Weighing in on the perceived bias of the museum deemed “out of control” and “woke” by Trump, retired professor and commentator Carol Swain told Fox News Digital, “Academia is not what it was years ago when I went to graduate school, when it touted itself as a marketplace for ideas.”
“There would always be a token conservative included. And I have found over the years that conservatives were tolerated less and less. And if they were black, at some point they were not tolerated at all,” she said. “When you look at an institution like the Smithsonian, that’s supposed to belong to all of us, to all Americans, you would think that it would be open to divergent views.”
“That is not what we find,” contended Swain.
Likewise, Manhattan Institute senior fellow Jason Riley asserted, “I think the type of people who run the Smithsonian Institute are part of the broader liberal intelligentsia in this country that prevails in academia, prevails in the media. And this is not a point of view that they take kindly to. In fact, this film takes some rather direct shots at that group of people.”
“It might cut a little too close to these folks,” he went on.
To that point, following hearings on Capitol Hill where officials from the Smithsonian were questioned about its MASS (Museums as a Site for Social) Action Toolkit that included objectivity and politeness as defining characteristics of white supremacy, along with branding Mickey Mouse “racist,” Bunch went on to announce his retirement, maintaining that he was “extraordinarily proud of what we have accomplished together.”
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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