Digital copies of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, most notably, now feature a “Harmful Language Alert,” which appears at the top of the page, and directs users to a National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) statement on “potentially harmful content.”
The NARA does not specify why the Constitution, Declaration, or Bill of Rights received the warning, but the NARA statement indicates that documents and historical materials are marked as having “harmful language” when they:
The NARA does not specify why the Constitution, Declaration, or Bill of Rights received the warning, but the NARA statement indicates that documents and historical materials are marked as having “harmful language” when they:
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reflect racist, sexist, ableist, misogynistic/misogynoir, and xenophobic opinions and attitudes;
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be discriminatory towards or exclude diverse views on sexuality, gender, religion, and more;
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include graphic content of historical events such as violent death, medical procedures, crime, wars/terrorist acts, natural disasters and more;
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demonstrate bias and exclusion in institutional collecting and digitization policies.