ABSTRACT
This chapter illustrates the ways in which Black and other identity-related movements were increasingly cast in the late 1980s and 1990s as overplayed political lobbying that twisted the objective ‘truth’ of American history. While those on the political Right were vociferous in their disdain, Americans of diverse political allegiances found fault in the assertion of racially framed experiences. This chapter explores the relationship between the ‘problem’ of identity politics at the Smithsonian Institution and the ongoing production of anti-Black racial ideas. These ideas played out in response to both cultural programming and stand-alone exhibitions and ignited charges of divineness and racism in response to the idea of new culturally focused museums. Contextualising the so-called culture wars with ongoing rights activism, this chapter identifies manifestations of a palpable fear of identity politics in light of their potential to reshape the Smithsonian - and America itself - in powerful ways. It also reveals the ways in which alluring and depoliticising ideas of a ‘post-race’ America were already taking root with the museum profession, long before the popularisation of this discourse in the aftermath of Obama’s presidential election.
