Aspects of whiteness
A federal museum put it on a chart. Then it took the chart down and left the page up.
Hard work, rational thinking and the nuclear family are aspects of whiteness.
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture put a chart on its Talking About Race site for educators: “Aspects and Assumptions of Whiteness in the United States.” Newsweek, 17 July 2020: the list included “objective, rational, linear thinking,” “hard work before play,” delayed gratification, the nuclear family, individualism. “White dominant culture, or whiteness,” the page said, has been “normalized” as the American standard.
This card files that chart. It does not file “the museum never documented racism.”
What did have a receipt:
- The museum removed the graphic within days. Statement: it did “not contribute to the productive discussion we had intended.” The Whiteness page stayed. Robin DiAngelo stayed on it.
- The chart was adapted from Judith Katz’s 1978 anti-racism training handbook — the same pipeline that put White Fragility into staff days and Racism. No Way!’s white-privilege lesson into Australian Years 9–10.
- Hard work and the scientific method are not a race. A federal museum listed them as one.
Grammar: aspects of whiteness. Logic: a virtue with a colour code is a slogan. Rhetoric: talking about race.