Today in History: Today is Constitution Day. The US Constitution has been considered one of the greatest documents ever written, alongside the Magna Carta and the Gutenberg Bible.
The US Constitution is the oldest working constitution in the world. It was a model for the concept of constitutionalism, which has been almost universally accepted. It is one of the most difficult constitutions to amend. The result is that it usually changes by interpretation rather than by amendment. It is revered in a way that is unknown in other countries.
This is what British Prime Minister William Gladstone had to say about the United States Constitution:
“As the British Constitution is the most subtile organism which has proceeded from the womb and the long gestation of progressive history, so the American Constitution is, so far as I can see, the most wonderful work ever struck off by the brain and purpose of man.”
— William Ewart Gladstone, Kin Beyond Sea, North American Review (1878)
In the words of Fredrick Douglas, “Take the Constitution according to its plain reading, and I defy the presentation of a single pro-slavery clause in it. On the other hand it will be found to contain principles and purposes, entirely hostile to the existence of slavery.”
However, despite all this, if you view the Constitution online at the National Archives, the NARA has a "Harmful Language Alert" trigger warning above it. It has attached this warning to all the founding documents.
The agency added in a statement that “some items may … reflect racist, sexist, ableist, misogynistic/misogynoir, and xenophobic opinions and attitudes; be discriminatory towards 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; [and] demonstrate bias and exclusion in institutional collecting and digitization policies.”
Earlier this year, the National Archives released a task force report on racism. "The report determined that the National Archives Rotunda in Washington, D.C., which houses the founding documents of the U.S., reflects 'structural racism' because it 'lauds wealthy White men in the nation’s founding while marginalizing BIPOC, women, and other communities.'" Source
I don't know who could be offended by historical documents, but I imagine it is probably the same people who need MPAA warnings before movies alerting people that the film has scenes with "historical smoking."
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