Natalia ’28 expresses how visiting the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture visually, this helped me understand how we are not oppressed by America, we are America.
Our visit to the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture helped me understand what it means to be American as someone historically undervalued in this country. We started at the bottom of the museum. In the very dark rooms in the basement, the only light illuminated cases or portraits that displayed what pre- versus post-1400s life was like and the cruelty of slavery. This made me question why I should feel patriotic toward a country that had not treated me as a human being.
As we advanced up floors more light was in the rooms and we began to see Black resistance during slavery and Reconstruction, then Black invention during Jim Crow, and finally Black excellence from the 1980s to modern day. Through all of this I saw how crucial African Americans and other groups are to America. Ranging from soldiers in the Revolutionary, Civil, and cold wars, to Presidents and Olympians.
Visually, this helped me understand how we are not oppressed by America, we are America. The White House, constructed with enslaved labor, was—centuries later—run by an African American man. That is the America I am patriotic to: a country of diversity, resilience, and freedom, regardless of setbacks. I hope and am inspired to push the United States closer to these ideals and further from the hypocrisy that allowed our past mistakes.
