The National Museum of African American History and Culture, part of the Smithsonian, has posted the below inforgraphic on their website here.

https://preview.redd.it/cr31itzgf3b51.png?width=799&format=png&auto=webp&s=eb91b6651d37687a18d7f7f681359c181c44fee3

It has been discussed on twitter here and almost every comment is saying that it is racist or problematic in some way. I don't agree with the criticism, but perhaps I'm missing something.

Below I've paraphrased some of the criticisms and then why I believe they are all attacking a straw man.

- "This means that black people, Asians, etc who share these values are white". However the infographic doesn't say anywhere that these elements are exclusive to white culture.

- "This is racist towards black people, as it says they have the opposite values". However the infographic doesn't say anything about the values of other cultures.

- "This is racist because it says that culture comes from skin colour/ethnicity". However this is not mentioned anywhere in the infographic. It clearly says the culture comes from historical factors rather than racial ones.

- "This is critical of white people". However the infographic makes no value judgements either way, and doesn't present these cultural elements as either good or bad.

- "This suggests that certain values are complicit in white supremacy". However, the infographic doesn't make any causal link between these values and the belief in white supremacy.

- "This suggests that all white people are the same". Howver the infographic clearly limits this to American culture, so wouldn't directly apply to other white cultures.

As a final point, I'll just say that I'm not arguing that the infographic is 100% correct in its definition of white American culture. You may think that timekeeping or emphasis on the scientific method are not aspects of white American culture, and you may be right. But that isn't relevant to this CMV.

Edit: OK, I've changed my view, thanks to the combination of a few posts. What I was missing was that the context can affect the message even if the content is otherwise harmless.

I am not American, so read this from the perspective that it described one culture among thousands. Viewed through that lens, this says nothing particularly critical or racist.

However, under a different context, the message would be different. For example, suppose I was discussing the difference between white and black American culture with a friend and they sent me this infographic. I would expect that they were making negative claims about black culture, and by extension black people. I would think that friend was racist.

Given that this was presented by the National Museum of African American History and Culture, I can see why people have viewed it within a discussion of black American culture. I can now see why this is problematic.