SerpApi.Org
On Tuesday, the House Oversight Committee held a hearing to get some answers on the Smithsonian Museum's approach and views of race.
Entitled "Rewriting American History: Examining the Smithsonian’s Efforts to Reshape the Past," the hearing was based on some alarming White House reports that claimed the museum was engaging in "extreme political activism."
"During the hearing, members examined efforts of the National Museum of American History (NMAH) and the broader Smithsonian Institution to promote divisive, inappropriate, and factually inaccurate programming on U.S. history," the committee stated. "Members criticized the use of the taxpayer-funded NMAH as a tool to promote a politicized agenda concerning issues of race, class, gender and sexuality."
One of the main witnesses at this hearing was Smithsonian director Anthea Hartig.
The hearing largely went as these hearings typically do, with whichever political party that sympathizes with the witness lobbing softball questions, and the party against the witness asking significantly harder ones.
Hartig's critics have characterized her as a far leftist, so it should come as little surprise that her time with Republican lawmakers was decidedly more tense than her time with the Democrats.
But even expecting that... Texas Republican firebrand Rep. Brandon Gill's time with Hartig produced one of the more unique lines of questioning one would encounter at such a hearing.
It was unique enough that Gill shared the entire exchange on X:
"Is Mickey Mouse racist?" Gill flatly asked Hartig.
"Mickey Mouse is not racist," Hartig responded.
"It's not racist..." Gill said. "According to the Smithsonian Institution, one of your exhibits referenced Mickey Mouse as representing 'vestiges of long-standing traditions of blackface minstrelsy.’"
"Would you describe that as racist?"
Hartig then tried to explain that Mickey Mouse's "historical trajectory" connects the iconic children's mascot to...
"So Mickey Mouse is rooted in racism, is that your testimony?" Gill interjected.
"No, sir, it's rooted in minstrelsy," Hartig said.
Gill then prodded a bit further, trying to figure out how minstrelsy -- which can involve blackface -- was not racist.
According to Fox News, Walt Disney's most enduring creation wasn't the only topic Gill wanted to hit during his allotted time with Hartig.
The outlet reported, "Gill also cited the MASS Action Toolkit, a mid-2010s anthology for museums that references the 2014 Ferguson, Missouri, police shooting and subsequent Black Lives Matter protests, and asked Hartig whether it was important to be 'polite.’"
After Hartig's affirmative answer, Gill immediately twisted it on her, as he cited past toolkits that described concepts like "objectivity" and "politeness" as features of white supremacy.
Hartig claimed that those toolkits were not the Smithsonian's, despite the fact that her museum's own toolkit effectively brands concepts like self-reliance and scientific or objective thinking as hallmarks of white supremacy.
