Why Trump Erasing Harriet Tubman Is Worse Than You Think

It’s not new, this scrubbing of history to make America look like how Donald Trump imagines it should look. In just the first few months of his second term in office, Trump and his administration have attacked diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at the Pentagon, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Smithsonian museums and across government as a whole. The latest casualty, anti-slavery icon Harriet Tubman, had her image and biography taken down from the U.S. Park Service website where she had proclaimed, “I was conductor of the Underground Railroad for eight years, and I can say what most conductors can’t say—I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger.” Following a predictable outcry from scholars and civil rights organizations, her image and bio were restored Monday night. But has the damage been done?