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I had not heard about it. But yes you remember correctly. I was conscripted into the "Wilson" exhibit in 2016 and proposed that it focus specifically on his racism and its lingering impacts. That didn't happen. Here's why (thread). https://twitter.com/chaseinsf/status/1275244828993806336
So let's run it back to 2015. At the time I was an archivist at Pton. I suppose a lot of yall here know this. I suppose some of yous don't.
I remember vividly the day I was at work in the university archives and received an email that students were doing a sit-in at the president's office. Because it was within my job description to document the life and culture of the institution, I felt like that applied here too.
But, as it was, there wasn't much in my iSchool curriculum that prepared me to do so responsibly. I did what I tend to do when I feel unprepared. I asked people I trusted to talk about it. Lots of archivists from across the country got on a call to discuss #/StudentBlackOut
I wrote a book chapter about all of this if you're interested. I tell only a portion here because it's important context for the Wilson exhibit. I wanted to put that story in the chapter but I couldn't. So I'm telling it here now. Because fuck that.
Fast forward a few months after the sit-in and list if published demands. Early 2016. I get asked by a Person In Power at the library if I wanna work an exhibit about Woodrow Wilson. I really didn't want to, but it also wasnt really being asked so much as required.
I said 'yes.' Now before I talk about it anymore, there's something important to note here. The Black Justice League specifically demanded Princeton acknowledge Wilson's racist policies as university and US president. I know what their demands said because I preserved them.
If you are so curious, look through some of those files. In particular look at the back and forth dialogue between the courageous student protestors (one of whom has been such a valued part of @HarvardPDC) and the university president.
In the exchange documented above, the university president *clearly* stated that he would coordinate with the university archives to commission some sort of exhibit or plaque or the other that SPECIFICALLY focuses on Wilson's racism.
So, color me confused, then, that the university president appoints the "head" of this exhibit. Not the University Archivist. Not a historian of race and empire at Princeton (of which there are plenty). Nope.
He appointed the Dean of the School, an...economist. Who is Black.
He appointed the Dean of the School, an...economist. Who is Black.
I didn't realize until much later, but that was the first indication that the Wilson exhibit was gonna be some bullshit. Anytime an ECONOMIST is asked to lead an exhibition team (or a library...) just know that shenanigans are in the works.
I suspected as much, though. So I volunteered to write the first draft of the exhibition overview. That succinct 200 word summary for why people should come see whatever it is you're doing.
I wrote the summary with fury and fire of the ancestors. Hellfire and brimstone fell on Wilson's head in hell, I just know it. But I ain't do nothing beyond...propose the exhibition that the BJL demanded and the president agreed to!
Well let's say that the final exhibit that went up was a country mile from the summary I drafted. The reason for that is because the Black ECONOMIST who was IN CHARGE OF THE EXHIBITION called me to her office and told me there wasnt a chance in hell the exhibit would go like that
She stressed that instead of focusing only on Wilson's racism, that we should tell 'all sides' of him. Now, I tried my damnedest to mobilize several people in the archives against this. I really did.
Eventually they all abandoned me in this fight and let that exhibit become the propaganda machine that the university brass always hoped it would be.
The day after the exhibit opened, I promised myself I was gonna quit archives. And that, more than anything, is the IMMEDIATE reason why I left the archival profession.
I determined it was time to go because straight up the university archives sat there and spit out the bullshit that the administration wanted us to. We ain't work for that motherfucker. We was in the Library. My degree is in information science, not public administration.
I was livid about the Black ECONOMIST who highkey intimidated me with that call to the principal's office. But I was most ashamed of my co workers in the university archives. Because I told them this at the time:
This university, and the larger White public, wants to hide from the ugliness of racism. By doing this bullshit ass exhibit, we are helping them hide. The impacts will be more dead Black people.
They did not care.
They did not care.
Looking back four years later, I was more correct than I ever wanted to be.
In case you are wondering, YES I kept a copy of every single piece of information about this exhibit. Yes I also accessioned parts of it so the shenanigans could be preserved for future use. https://catalog.princeton.edu/catalog/4732646
All that say, I hope the current Princeton students raise hell on them White folks. But be weary of the Black faces in high places who have more allegiance to their high places than your Black faces.
I am very privileged to be able to speak my truth so openly. I don't need any of these fuckin people for nothin. I got the dirt on them and they know it. What they don't know is that so do the archival records. 
