The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has now determined that founding documents such as the Constitution, Declaration of Independence and other important documents need to have a warning label because of it’s “harmful” and “difficult” content for some people.
The documents we are now told reflect “outdated, biased, offensive, and possibly violent views and opinions.” Before you go to read these documents online, you will receive a “Harmful Language Alert” to warn you about the dangerous content that you are about to read. When you click on this alert, it takes you to a separate page describing the harmful and extreme content for what is in these documents.
NARA notes that the documents may include
- reflect racist, sexist, ableist, misogynistic/misogynoir, and xenophobic opinions and attitudes
- be discriminatory toward or exclude diverse views on sexuality, gender, religion, and more
- include graphic content of historical events such as violent death, medical procedures, crime, wars/terrorist acts, natural disasters and more;
- demonstrate bias and exclusion in institutional collecting and digitization policies.
NARA hasn’t provided any reason for why after more than 200 years we need to be warned about these documents but it likely has to do with the recommendations submitted in June during their racial inequality reviews. If you been following me for the past few months, you know exactly why we now needed warning labels on our founding documents and where we are headed as a nation, and it’s not good.
The task force that met in June recommended that trigger warnings be added to these documents to “forewarn audiences of content that may cause intense physiological and psychological symptoms.” The report states that “”Providing an advisory notice to users gives us an opportunity to mitigate harm and contextualize the records,” and that it creates a ” space to share with the public our ultimate goals for reparative description, demonstrate our commitment to the process, and address any barriers that we may face in achieving these goals.”
The task force also determined that the Capitol Rotunda is also a symbol of “structural racism” because it “lauds wealthy White men in the nation’s founding while marginalizing BIPOC, women, and other communities” and that “racial slurs and harmful language to describe BIPOC communities” is repeatedly used throughout the building.
This is your last chance America. If you are silent now, America is gone for good. You can not remain silent any longer. You need to take the time to learn the truth and to stand for the truth.
Today is National Constitution Day. This day marks the final day that the Founders met to sign the document that these brave men created. A document that didn’t restrict the rights of individual citizens but a document that limited the power of the government. Our Founders believed that our rights don’t come from man but from God. Take the time this week to read the Constitution, Declaration of Independence and other founding documents. Take the time this week to begin to figure out exactly what you believe and then begin to stand for those rights.