I was fortunate enough to recently take a tour of the International African American Museum in Charleston, S.C.
I was in the city for the annual AAN Publishers conference, which had wrapped up the night before with an amazing Charleston Harbor cruise. Andy Brack, the publisher of the Charleston City Paper, the host publication, had set up a museum tour for conference attendees.
Tonya M. Matthews, the museum’s president and CEO, started the tour in the museum’s African Ancestors Memorial Garden. The museum is located on the site of Gadsden’s Wharf—where 40 percent of all Africans enslaved in North America arrived after being taken from their homes, imprisoned and shipped across the Atlantic Ocean in conditions that were beyond inhumane. Much of the garden sits below the museum, which is lifted by 18 columns into the air so the building does not touch the hallowed ground.
Afterward, we walked upstairs into the museum, where Malika N. Pryor, the museum’s chief learning and engagement officer, took us through the various exhibits that tell—via art, films, interactive elements and artifacts—”unvarnished stories of the African American experience across generations, the trauma and triumph that gave rise to a resilient people,” as the museum’s website says.
The museum visit was powerful and moving. As the hubby and I walked back to the hotel, I dealt with a flood of emotions—one of which was frustration over the current state of affairs in the United States.
Andy Brack had asked conference attendees to email him with their favorite experience in Charleston, so he could compile them into a story for the Charleston City Paper. When we returned to the hotel, I sat down at my computer and wrote this: “I had an amazing time in Charleston. The food has been stellar, and everyone has been welcoming and incredibly polite. The thing I most loved was the International African American Museum. Our visit was sobering and wonderful at the same time. I wish all Americans HAD TO visit this museum at this time when so many white politicians are trying to sweep portions of this history under the figurative rug.”
We see this denial of our country’s cruel, racist past—and present—when politicians deny that the Civil War was, in large part, about slavery. We see it when people shouting about “parental rights” fight to have books dealing with racism removed from schools and libraries. We see it when states like Florida put jaw-droppingly heinous instructions to teach “how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit” into school curricula. We see it when diversity, equity and inclusion departments and initiatives are banished from universities, businesses and organizations—and such initiatives are cited, without any evidence whatsoever, as doing harm. For example, some right-wingers blamed DEI efforts for the Secret Service’s failures to protect Donald Trump during the July 13 assassination attempt.
I could go on, but I only have so much space.
Facts are facts: Racial inequities still exist in our society today. Black adults are imprisoned at five times the rate of white adults. Far more Black people, per capita, are killed by police officers. Repeated studies show that redlining—blocking people of color from getting mortgages for homes in certain areas—continues to perpetuate disparities, even though it’s been illegal since 1968.
Now that the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee is Kamala Harris—an African American and South Asian American woman—I am afraid that the country’s racist present will be on full, inescapable display. Remember all the insane claims made about Barack Obama’s birth certificate, especially by Donald Trump? I fear those claims will pale in comparison to what Vice President Harris will face over the next three-plus months.
If you watched any of the Republican National Convention, you likely saw multiple references to a crime wave being perpetrated by migrants—even though there’s no evidence whatsoever that there is such a thing. For one thing, crime rates are generally decreasing; for another, “the research does not support the view that immigrants commit crime or are incarcerated at higher rates than native-born Americans,” according to a study by the Brennan Center for Justice. “In fact, immigrants might have less law enforcement contact compared to nonimmigrants.”
While I do wish all Americans could visit International African American Museum, we don’t need it, or other wonderful institutions, to witness proof of the United States’ racist past and president. All we need to do is look around.