Beck Responds to Smithsonian Exhibit Depicting Thomas Jefferson as 'Slaveholder'

On Saturday The Blaze reported that the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in our nation's capital is currently featuring an exhibit that classifies Thomas Jefferson as “a slave holder.”

As a precursor to entering the exhibit, museum-goers are presented with a five-minute long video that describes Christopher Columbus as a colonizer and conqueror of others who "talked and acted differently" and refers to Jefferson as simply, a “slave holder."

The narrator of the video says that race “is a powerful idea that was invented by society.” He continues:

“Many of the ideas we now associate with race originated during the European era of exploration. Europeans like Christopher Columbus traveled overseas and encountered and then colonized and conquered peoples in Africa, Asia and the Americas who looked, talked and acted much differently from them.

“In the American colonies, the first laborers were European indentured servants. When African laborers were forcibly brought to Virginia beginning in 1619, status was defined by wealth and religion, not by physical characteristics such as skin color. But this would change.

“By 1776 when “All men are created equal” was written into the Declaration of Independence by a slave holder named Thomas Jefferson, a democratic nation was born with a major contradiction about race at its core. As our new nation asserted its independence from European tyranny, blacks and American Indians were viewed as less than human and not deserving of the same liberties as whites.”

Watch the video for yourself below:

Now when Glenn Beck caught wind of the arguably skewed message being presented by the Smithsonian, he weighed in with his thoughts during his Monday radio program.

“That’s how you are going to describe one of the greatest men in history?” Pat asked.

Glenn noted that while Jefferson may have in fact owned slaves, that was not the sum total of the man who, in the end, actually laid the groundwork for ending slavery in America.

The Smithsonian also made certain to share some rather subjective views on "race science" yet failed to mention that the ideology was spawned by progressives.

“The rise of race science supported the common belief that people who were not white were biologically inferior,” the film explains.

“How come they didn’t mention that that was the progressive movement that did that?” Glenn asked.

Glenn then addressed some of the radical progressive (and racist) actions of the past, including Woodrow Wilson screening KKK lauded “Birth of a Nation” film in the White House, FDR’s Japanese internment camps, and Andrew Jackson’s rounding up of the Indians. For some reason, none of these were mentioned in the Smithsonian film.

Watch Glenn's take on the outrageous new Smithsonian exhibit and the message it is sending: