OPINION: Fox News’ meltdown over Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello reminding visitors that an enslaver enslaved people is the latest example of the battle for America’s historical soul.
Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
The latest outrage in the right-wing grievance culture war took place on Fox News this week when a recent visitor to Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s ancestral home in Charlottesville, Va., became upset that the full history of Jefferson’s legacy was being taught at the museum and now includes an exhibit to Sally Hemings, an enslaved woman he owned who bore him children and was also half-sister to his wife.
Jeffrey Tucker, founder of the Brownstone Institute, a conservative group, was offended at what he saw during the touring of the mansion and exhibits and decided to go on a rant on national TV about how unfairly Jefferson was being depicted at his own home.
Tucker said his recent experience at the Virginia landmark was sad and that the museum deflated Jefferson’s reputation. Tucker toured Monticello on July 4 to pay homage to Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, who Tucker said advocated for “emancipation” and the separation of church and state.
“Instead I got exactly the opposite,” Tucker said on Fox & Friends on Monday. “They were just debunking his history, his reputation, putting him down, demoralizing everybody on my tour.”
This is where I would like to weigh in. First, as America celebrated its 246th birthday, we just elevated, for the first time, a Black female jurist to the nation’s Supreme Court. Yet, amid that great success, we are deeply divided. Deeply angry and deeply partisan. This rant about Monticello being “woke” is, of course, ridiculous, because they have been talking about enslaved people at Monticello since the late 1990s today!
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