History matters, and for the dominant white supremacist, history is dangerous because it reveals the depravity of racism and exactly how saturated white culture is with racism. In 2022, the US Republican Party began a public assault on US history that they deemed too critical of the actions of white people. White supremacists are demanding, and being accommodated by Republicans, that no teachers (from kindergarten to graduate school) be allowed to talk about history that portrays the horrific behaviour of their ancestors.

Teachers have been instructed by state boards and legislatures to teach fairly by presenting both sides of the Holocaust. So that even though Hitler directed the mass extinction of millions, you must also explain how he did some good things too. White supremacists claim this will make white children feel bad about themselves and sad, so they must be protected. The white supremacists’ attempts to silence Black history centres white feelings over the recognition of the torture and death of Black people. The reality is that teaching critical history undermines the external arguments that justify racism.

While this book is not about Critical Race Theory, it explores Black African and Black US history. The figures in this chapter have been described by journalists, critics, and academics, in their time and current literature, as liberal heroes who saw Black people as human and tried to help them. Nevertheless, these heroes harbour racist ideas. The history of Black African objects in the US shows how historical attitudes towards Black Africans have changed little since the beginning of England’s colonisation of the US. It is necessary to provide a complex examination of white supremacist sentiments that permeate the work of white scholars, collectors, and critics when they address Black African objects.

Looking through the letters and writings of prominent collectors, who were praised as racial liberals, it becomes evident that most people involved in the fields of aesthetics and fine art were firm in their beliefs of white superiority. There are differences in the reasons for white superiority.