unRedact the Facts to Tell the Full American Story — a Call to Action
Hi, hello,
Since June 6, 2020, I have asked the National Trust for Historic Preservation to use the active voice when they interpret sites related to slavery. I have done so, with active voice revisions. So far, I have received three replies, all stating that they are reviewing my concerns, yet no timeline on: (1) when they will change their language/grammar and/or (2) revise their captions per my revisions. The last revision I sent to the National Trust (Feb. 20, 2021) included cited sources and an offer to collaborate with them on the revisions.
The goal for this Call to Action is to illustrate that there is support in historic preservation and beyond for using the active voice in the way we interpret sites, to move away from replacing White people, etc. with euphemisms like the “wealthy elite”, and to affect change in the historical narrative about uncomfortable history for racial equity and healing.
The Call:
As preservationists, architects, designers, educators, historians, tradespeople, students, and citizen advocates we call on the National Trust for Historic Preservation and other institutions and publications to use the active voice, directly state “White people” or “White enslavers” instead of euphemisms for White people, and use language and grammar of truth when writing about slavery or other violent aspects of slavery, Jim Crow, lynching, and other forms of apartheid in the US.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation (NTHP) encourages historians and historic preservationists to #TellTheFullStory about US History, and rightly so. It is important for us to face history, the accomplishments of all people in the US, and the uncomfortable history in order to repair our nation.
However, while NTHP advocates for the preservation community to #TellTheFullStory, the not-for-profit institution fails to do so in their print and online publications. For examples see the @unRedacTheFacts Instagram account or website.
In spite of the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s statement in August 2020 that they are “evaluating our language choices and editorial framing organization-wide” (see Aug. 14, 2020 Instagram post on www.instagram.com/unredacthefacts), they continued to use redacted language that supports a white supremacist narrative of history. Because of this, the founder of unRedacTheFacts, a Black woman who practices preservation architecture, sent another request to the organization in February 2021, requesting that they unRedact the facts of history to tell the full story (see the letter in the link on the unRedact the Facts website). In response, the institution reiterated their comment from August 2020, adding concern about moving too fast in the eyes of some of their (financial) supporters. Thus, this Call to Action is not just about language and grammar, but about a prevalent issue in history, historic preservation, and museums that the people who hold the purse strings control our history.
And, it’s not just the National Trust who continue to use language that supports a white supremacist narrative of history. While the National Center for Preservation Technology and Training (NCPTT) does great work in 3-D documentation of the cabins where enslaved people lived (“slave cabins”), they use language such as “slaves” to describe the skilled people, the majority of whom were Black, instead of “enslaved people”, “enslaved Black people,” “enslaved Black craftspeople.” Our role in re-telling history and in the practice of historic preservation is to not only restore places that matter to people, but to also restore the humanity of the people associated with these places in our interpretation of their history. What’s more, our professional role is to not only evolve the professional practice of preservation, but to also advance the language we use to interpret sites. Places matter and people matter, too.
Using the passive voice, in other words, omitting/redacting White people from sentences and phrases about slavery and other forms of domestic terrorism, affirms the humanity of White people and supports white supremacy. The passive voice accomplishes this affirmation of humanity by creating a disconnect between White people and these inhumane acts, while affirming the inferiority of Black people as a people with a US origin story of slavery. And, this is the history that remains pervasive today, affirmed by NTHP and others. Even in the name of “telling the full story,” NTHP tells a redacted story.
Furthermore, the US is in dire need of healing from racial trauma caused by white supremacy delusion — our own trauma, and our intergenerational trauma. One of many ways to heal from any addiction or disease is to be honest about the condition before seeking treatment. Applying this approach to our collective racial equity and healing, we will accomplish this goal by unredacting the facts of history — accountability, then reconciliation.
Trauma is a continuum. White people arrived to the US as traumatized Europeans who either witnessed or experienced torture methods like lynchings, who, after their arrival in Indigenous land, not only traumatized each other, but also traumatized Indigenous Peoples and Nations and Black people through genocide, chattel slavery, and beyond. White supremacy is a virus/addiction, and to heal/recover from it, we have to unredact the facts of history for racial equity.
MANIFESTATION №1
In the name of telling the full story, we call on all members of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and all supporters to refrain from supporting the National Trust for Historic Preservation until they use the active voice and directly state “White people” or “White enslavers” instead of euphemisms for White people, and use language and grammar of truth when writing about slavery or other violence of history such as slavery, Jim Crow, lynching, and other forms of apartheid in the US. This same call applies to the National Center for Preservation Technology and Training. We call on members and supporters to refrain from supporting the organization until they provide a timeline with milestones on when they will change the language. This restraint of support includes not liking social media posts, not reposting their content, not engaging in their social media platforms, especially posts that claim to #TellTheFullStory.
As the institutions revise their existing documents or make future historical narratives with the active voice, please be sure to practice racial and gender equity and cite Black women by citing K. Kennedy Whiters, Architect and Founder of unRedact the Facts, as the source of the edit. For an example, see “20 subtle ways white supremacy manifests in nonprofit and philanthropy,” published June 1, 2021, by Vu Le, author of the blog NonProfitAF.com.
MANIFESTATION №2
In the name of telling the full story, we call on allies to promote themselves to co-conspirators to not only say “dismantle history”, “dismantle historic preservation”, “dismantle white supremacy”, but to take action. Organize, spread the word, further the impact. It is important to dismantle preservation, and dismantle white supremacy in general, which is pervasive in history and preservation as an invisible practice. This call to action is an opportunity to dismantle one of the most powerful tools of white supremacy because it is so subtle — language and grammar — and now is the time to do it.
MANIFESTATION №3
In the name of telling the full story, we call on donors to the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund to demand integrity in the institution they support, that they practice telling the full story about slavery and all aspects of the Black experience.
MANIFESTATION №4
In the name of telling the full story, we call on all keepers of history — from the journalist to the history teacher — to replace the passive voice with the active voice when retelling the violence that all people have experienced throughout time.
Change takes time and research, slavery was complicated, understood. White-Black-Indigenous peoples owned people during the period of enslavement. However, the powerful majority of owners were White, in a system that benefited and continues to benefit whiteness and white supremacy. Therefore, slavery in the US is a complicated topic, with residual complicated race relations because the passive voice and other language prevent us, the US, from seeing the full story.
Thank you,
K. Kennedy Whiters, Architect | Founder, unRedact the Facts
#theActiveVoiceisOurLoveLanguage
30 + Signatures, including Design As Protest Collective
cc:
:: Paul Edmondson, President & CEO, National Trust for Historic Preservation
:: Katherine Malone-France, Chief Preservation Officer, National Trust for Historic Preservation
:: Alison D. Hinchman, Director of Digital Engagement & Acquisition, National Trust for Historic Preservation
:: Brent Leggs, Executive Director, African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, National Trust for Historic Preservation
:: Kirk Cordell, Executive Director of the National Park Service’s National Center for Preservation Technology and Training
African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund — National Advisory Council Members:
:: Darren Walker | President of the Ford Foundation, Co-Chair of Advisory Council
:: Phylicia Rashad | Actor and director, Co-Chair of Advisory Council
:: Dana Bourland | Vice President of the Environment Program at The JPB Foundation
:: Randy Bryant | President & CEO, Ten Chimneys Foundation
:: Dr. Lonnie Bunch | Secretary of the Smithsonian
:: Susan Chapman-Hughes | Senior Vice President, Global Digital Capabilities, Transformation, and Operations, Global Commercial Services division, American Express
:: Congressman James Enos Clyburn | elected in 1993 as the U.S. Representative for South Carolina’s 6th
:: Congressional District, Assistant Democratic Leader since 2011
:: Ava DuVernay | Award-winning Producer, Director, and Screenwriter
:: Dr. William Ferris | Joel R. Williamson Eminent Professor of History Emeritus, Senior Associate Director Emeritus, Center for Study of the American South, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
:: Dr. Henry Louis Gates | Director of the Hutchins Center for African American Studies, Harvard University
:: Irvin Henderson | President of Irvin M. Henderson & Co.
:: Dr. Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham | Chairwoman of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, Harvard University Professor
:: Cathy Hughes | Founder and Chairperson of Radio One, Inc. (Urban One, Inc.)
:: Sherrilyn Ifill | President and Director-Counsel, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund
:: Congresswoman Terrycina Andrea “Terri” Sewell, elected in 2010 as the U.S. Representative for Alabama’s 7th Congressional District
:: Robert Stanton | Former Director, National Park Service
:: Bryan Stevenson | Director, Equal Justice Initiative
:: Marita Rivero | President and CEO, Museum of African American History, Boston & Nantucket
:: Alice Rosenwald | Principal and Former Co-Chair of the Board, American Holdings Securities Corporation; and President, Alice Rosenwald Fund
:: Mtamanika Youngblood | President & CEO of Sweet Auburn Works