The National Museum of African-American History is a part of the vast Smithsonian Institution, a group of museums and research centers that taxpayers fund.  That's why it was especially shocking to learn that the museum is promoting the worst kind of racial claptrap at its website.

The museum's website simultaneously encourages the pernicious notion that there's systemic racism in America, accuses all whites of being racists, and argues that behaviors that are a predicate to American prosperity are inherently white — implying both that blacks lack these laudable behaviors and that blacks are betraying their race if they embrace them.

The deeply offensive, taxpayer-supported web page is entitled "Whiteness: Since white people in America hold most of the political, institutional, and economic power, they receive advantages that nonwhite groups do not."  By translating the mixture of simplistic, condescending language and academic gobbledygook found at the page, we see the museum making the following assertions:

America's dominant culture is normalized whiteness, which makes all other races "inferior or abnormal."  Because white people are the only "normal" people in America, everyone else is at a disadvantage.  Normalized whiteness ensures that all others in America are victims of constant microaggressions that "communicate  hostile, derogatory, or harmful messages."

All of the above creates an insurmountable white privilege.  No matter how marginalized whites are, they're still white, which is not, and never can be, fair.

After the above introduction, there are bullet points about all the unconsciously held advantages white people have, such as choosing to be with their own race, having people listen to them, or seeing their own white faces on TV as if we were still living in 1955 America.  This retrograde fantasy screed is followed by the inevitable video showcasing that arch racial huckster, Robin DiAngelo, who manages to be offensive to both blacks and whites.

Naturally, the web page has an attack on America's history.  Several paragraphs assert that white supremacy has been interwoven in America since the first Europeans arrived, resulting in Native American slaughters and slavery.  This monomaniacal focus on race ignores everything else about America's unique story and successes and makes America sound uniquely evil rather than acknowledge that America's values about "the other" were entirely consistent with views held around the world, including in Africa and Asia.

And then we get to an amazing and revolting chart entitled "Aspects & Assumptions of Whiteness & White Culture in the United States":

The National Museum of African American History & Culture wants to make you aware of certain signs of whiteness: Individualism, hard work, objectivity, the nuclear family, progress, respect for authority, delayed gratification, more. (via @RpwWilliams)https://t.co/k9X3u4Suas pic.twitter.com/gWYOeEh4vu

— Byron York (@ByronYork) July 15, 2020

When you scan through the chart (click on the above images to enlarge them), you'll see values or behaviors — all allegedly tied only to whiteness — that have nothing to do with race but that are closely related to economic success in the modern era:

• Self-reliance
• The nuclear family
• Objection, rational linear thinking
• Hard work as the key to success
• Respect authority
• Plan for future
• Delayed gratification
• Protect property & entitlements
• Intent counts
• Be #1
• Action orientation
• Decision-making
• Be polite

Those are just a handful of these bizarre "whiteness" assertions.  You'll see that many others are extremely racist against whites.

The chart is instantly ridiculous because it imagines a monolithic white culture.  It ignores that, in 21st-century America, there is no dominant WASP culture.  American whites include people with ancestry that traces back to England, Germany, Ireland, Poland, Scotland, France, Italy, Spain, Russia, and a hundred other places where people have less melanin than blacks but otherwise have extremely different cultures and values.  In their homelands, these people were often bitter enemies, engaged in endless wars.  In America, they became a melting pot of races that the museum foolishly describes collectively as "White." 

The poster is also insanely racist.  It contends that behaviors that, in a sane world, are unanchored to race are instead the unique preserve of whites.  According to the poster, blacks don't engage in those behaviors, nor should they, lest they lose their unique culture.  Perhaps that assertion would have merit if the actions described were negative, but they're not.  Instead, the traits listed above are consistently associated with social and financial success in modern America.

What's funniest about this steaming pile of horse excrement is that it comes from an institution that employees allege is entirely white-run and very racist, or so the Washington Post reported on Wednesday:

A group of former employees and board members of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art have written a letter charging the museum with promoting a culture of racism and saying formal reports about racial bias and attacks have been ignored.

In a letter sent last week to Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III, the unidentified individuals say that more than 10 former and current black employees of the museum dedicated to African art and culture have experienced "incidents of racial bias, hostile verbal attacks, retaliation, terminations, microaggressions and degrading comments" that date back at least five years.

The museum's staff is predominantly white, with no curators of color, and complaints by black employees about their treatment have been systematically disregarded, according to the letter, first reported by HuffPost.

In sum, when it comes to the National Museum of African-American History and Culture, white leftists are assuring blacks that they are permanent victims. Indeed, says the museum, whatever they do, they should not engage in behaviors that could make them successful. With the nation's premier black-centric museum advancing these ideas, every dead slaver, KKK member, and Jim Crow supporter is smiling in Hell because modern leftists have achieved the ultimate racist dream, which is to keep blacks forever subordinate, marginalized, and impoverished.

Thomas Lifson adds:

Have any of these people at the Smithsonian ever been to Japan? How about South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore? In those nations, most of the values attributed to "whiteness" are more strongly embraced than they are in this country.

This is insanity.  Does the Smithsonian follow the practice of Apartheid era South Africa and consider Chinese and japanese people "honorary whites"?

Image: Frank Schulenburg at Wikimedia.

UPDATE: The museum has removed the chart -- but the rest of the nonsense at the museum's "whiteness" page remains unchanged.