Mark Twain once said of the praise he’d received: “I do love compliments, yet I’m often embarrassed to say what I think to the person when I get a compliment, I so often feel that they somehow, have not gone far enough.”
Twain just may be correct. Earnest Hemingway once said of Twain that “all modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called ‘Huckleberry Finn.’” Twain created the nation’s plainspoken, irreverent, and quintessential voice.
Critics consider “Huckleberry Finn” one of the most resounding antiracist novels by an American, and as such, Twain poses a conundrum for people trying to hide elements of the nation’s racial past and present. Namely, will they have to cancel this archetypal American?
Earlier this month, Lonnie Bunch, who has led the Smithsonian Museum Institution since 2019, announced his retirement. His exit follows White House accusations the National Museum of African American History and Culture was “divisive and race-centered.”
Uh, yeah. It is a Black museum detailing the Black experience. Were they shocked to find Black history there?
Interestingly, the accuracy of the exhibitions wasn’t challenged.
News of Bunch’s departure landed hard on those of us who have met him. He is revered in and beyond the museum world, and he served with honor and warmth.
The Trump administration has argued that museum content should be told “in a way that is inspiring, unifying, and worthy of our great republic,” according to the Associated Press.
The Smithsonian system operates outside the executive branch. A board of regents that included Vice President J.D. Vance and Supreme Court Justice John Roberts, exercised oversight of Bunch.
The Trump administration has scrutinized Smithsonian museums since last year, seemingly pushing a whitewashed version of American history and culture.
President Trump also recently stripped Confederate criticism from a memorial.
Given these encroachments, a classic line from Twain comes to mind: “Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason.”
The question again becomes, what happens to the author of one of the most powerful American antiracist novels? What happens to the man who confronted slavery, brutality and moral hypocrisy in his work?
Really, who is more American than Mark Twain?
Consider how Twain loaded down many of his white characters with horrible character flaws. Huck’s father was a violent alcoholic who beat Huck. Twain describes him as, “a fish-belly white, a tree toad white, a sick white.”
Jim, the lead Black character, served as a kind of moral compass in the novel. He was Huck’s only role model.
