Milwaukee City Wire

An independent agency of the United States government charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records recently announced they were looking at putting warning stickers on some of its content.

The National Archives have stated they would attach a “harmful content warning” saying that “some of the materials presented here may reflect outdated, biased, offensive and possibly violent views and opinions,” and explained that, “Some items may: reflect racist, sexist, ableist, misogynistic/misogynoir and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.”

A racism task force concluded that America’s founding documents "laud wealthy white men in the nation's founding while marginalizing BIPOC [black, Indigenous, people of color], women and other communities." The report added that the rotunda’s “reverential, quasi-religious treatment of the Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights does not adequately reflect a full history of the founding of the United States."

In May, the organization held a meeting with 800 of its employees where a member "told a story about a black congressional staffer who objected to the 'charters of freedom' label assigned to the historical documents" displayed in the NARA Rotunda in Washington D.C., saying that he felt “alienated” because they were not his charters of freedom.

Members of Congress have addressed the organization in a letter saying they are  “deeply concerned” with the new harmful content warning on American historical documents, “including on seminal documents such as the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights and the U.S. Constitution.” 

Republican Scott Fitzgerald was the only Wisconsin representative to sign the letter.

The Archives includes the warning on all documents across its collection of records of the U.S. federal government with the founding documents not singled out, according to Politifact.

The warning automatically appears on every page of the online catalog, according to the National Archives communication staff, with the documents fully intact.  

"NARA's records span the history of the United States, and it is our charge to preserve and make available these historical records," the Archives said. "As a result, some of the materials presented here may reflect outdated, biased, offensive and possibly violent views and opinions."