An Informed Unknown
Never having travelled beyond North Carolina nor been in any museums in the south I am prepared to encounter the intentional neglect or skewed Black and African American perspective from museums. My reasons for believing in the intentional removal of these perspectives and thus, stopping the remembrance of a dark and controversial history comes from a visual thinking class that I took during my first year at TCNJ; it prepared me to analyze pieces of artwork and the institutions that choose the “important” pieces that will come to represent and influence what and who should be a part of a larger canon. I will remember to keep in mind what George Orwell wrote: “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”
During the brief time in Richmond I expect to see exhibits, souvenirs, landmarks, sculptures, and other traces of the Civil War and its Confederate heroes; however, the objective is to see what is missing from the museums and from landmarks in Richmond. Many perspectives will be omitted to present the civil war in a light that seeks to ignore the lasting effects on the generations of slaves and millions of Black Americans. The reality and repercussions of these events on the communities of color and working class is what I seek to learn about but will have to dig deep for in a space that is dominated by individuals who would rather obscure and forget a dark past.
Blog 2:
Rated PG for You*
So far the trip aligns with the expectations of seeing an edited “PG” version of history. This PG imagery and information was played out in the African American Civil War Museum and the American Civil War Center. Although the African American Civil War Museum was aesthetically very alluring it did not do enough to promote a conversation that carries over into the next day or stays with me. With the second museum, the language, images, and events resemble a history book that gives you an overview of the perspective that the South remembers it as “the war of Northern aggression”. Unfortunately, there was also a lack of thorough and diverse viewpoints in the American Civil War Center. The lack of black voices and perspectives is a disservice to the community as a whole for obscuring the controversial sides of history. Without acknowledgement or the inclusion of such diverse perspectives, history will contribute to the inequality and injustice that minoritized communities face. To see their side of history presented and taught in a museum setting is a way to inform future generations of how racial injustice transforms over time.
In the American Civil War Center I was intrigued by the presentation of the children’s center. The descriptions gave an overview of the changes that occurred to white families and affected white children in the South but glazed over how Black Americans and their children were enslaved and killed systemically; unfortunately, these descriptions once again focused on how the lives of white children were changed drastically but did not expand upon how “life continued as before the war”. This part of the museum did not seize the opportunity to expose to children in present day about the injustices, brutality, or unearned advantages and privileges based on skin color. Ultimately, museums play an important role in educating children and adults in society about the various perspectives and lives that were affected by policies, ideologies, and inequalities both in the past and in the future.
Blog 3:
Still at the Planning Table
Public schools face criticism that it reproduces inequality. From the various observations made on the Richmond trip I have concluded that museums are at fault for reproducing the type of information that benefits a specific group in society and taking part in the acceptance of skewed or watered down history. Of course, this is intentional. The dominant groups in society can choose how they can be seen and what will be reproduced in the future and its past. Part of having white privilege is seeing yourself represented in history but the double consciousness that is developed from not belonging to the dominant group leads to the questioning of when and where one will be represented. The representation of the minoritized groups commonly rests in the hands of the dominant group. With this being said, our representation is not our own but one that is changed and presented through a white lense in larger and institutional settings.
Always having wondered what women, people of color, and other minoritized groups have done to be pushed to the sidelines of history has created a heightened awareness of the consequences of only seeing a specific group represented on a group and individual level. The consequences of downplaying the severity of the oppression that many groups face is a consequence that is not solely gauged quantitatively. If you look around, you will see individuals in those groups declining and doubting their abilities. If you turn on the television you will see the majority of the stories reflecting your own but not intertwining ours. You will see actors and even problems reflecting your own but criticizing ours for failure to be competent and independent. I have seen with my own eyes the continuous cycle of the blackout and silence from the dominant group and how its effects span from the East to the South.
*People who belong to the dominant group
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