Forget PCB, I spent spring break at the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia

Spring break: a time to relax, let loose, and spend the whole week too intoxicated to remember that you have exams to study for when you get back. For most college students anyway. What did my brother want to do on his spring break? Why, take a trip to Big Rapids, Michigan, to see the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia, of course. And naturally, I decided to accompany him.

I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect from this experience. Because although the name of the museum seems pretty self-explanatory,  “racist memorabilia” could really mean a number of things, some of them more obvious examples than others. I wasn’t too surprised to walk by display cases full of objects from the Jim Crow era when racism was pretty blatant, even protected by law. We’ve all seen pictures of “colored only” signs in front of establishments, and although a disturbing reminder of our nation’s institutionalized injustices, they should hardly come as a surprise.

I quickly realized, however, that I was mistaken in assuming “memorabilia” indicated memories,  stuff from a distant time of racial inequality that we would all prefer to forget. But how can we truly forget it when reminders of our shameful past are sitting on store shelves or blaring through our televisions, some of them having been there so long that we have never stopped to consider what they might be saying. Take Aunt Jemima, for example, everyone’s favorite woman-shaped syrup bottle.

Harmless, right?

Aunt Jemima dates back to around the late 19th century, when she appeared as a character in minstrel shows. In 1889, she was adopted by the R. T. Davis Milling Company to serve as the face of their pancake mix. Nancy Green, a former slave, was hired to portray her, making appearances at fairs and grocery stores across the country.

The origins of this popular American icon are not exactly innocent. In advertisements she was depicted as rather simple-minded with the stereotypical accent often assigned to representations of African Americans in the time period. Many now consider Aunt Jemima to be an incarnation of the “mammy” archetype, the female slave who is contented in her subservient role, much like the “Uncle Tom” archetype who has appeared in products and other forms of media throughout the years.

Now, these examples might not seem particularly egregious. After all, they were not really ill-intentioned, and the significance has surely changed a great deal since they first emerged, right? Regardless of their original intention or progression, these characters are hardly harmless. In fact, this belief that they are innocuous contributes to a climate where racist items can still be created and not just tolerated, but accepted into our culture.

Social change requires awareness of injustice, above all, and figures like Aunt Jemima and the Cream of Wheat Chef represent a longstanding failure to recognize the problem with the way black people are portrayed in our culture. They are examples of how stereotypes and and prejudices have become so deeply embedded in our collective consciousness that we are almost blind to them. But there are some who have examined our cultural representations more closely and come back with messages like this:

‘NO MORE’

There comes a point when the culture fights back. Although there are still many who perpetuate or are idle participants in our discriminatory culture, there are also those who choose to be aware of how products communicate with those who purchase them and urge others to see what they would rather ignore. Socially-conscious images like this make one question how these stereotypes can persist when the group of people they purport to stand for ought to have eclipsed them by now.

There was an entire section of the museum devoted to the contributions African Americans have made in our society since we have stopped silencing their voices to such a great degree. The words of W.E.B. Du Bois, which stand in stark contrast to the insultingly simple language attributed to the Cream of Wheat Chef, offer a remarkably optimistic take on the ability of his fellowman to advance.

‘Believe in life! Always human beings will live and progress to greater, broader, and fuller life’

As a writer and civil rights activist during a time when he still would have faced an incredible amount of intolerance, such a faith in humanity would seem impossible. But it was the dedication of Du Bois and many others like him that have continued to propel black Americans onward and upward. One, in particular has risen probably as high as an American citizen can rise. In being elected president of the United States, Barack Obama has accomplished what, until very recently, would have been considered implausible, a joke even. And to some it still is.

To those of you who say the Confederate flag is not connected to racism…

This was the part of the museum that was, by far, the biggest shock to me.

I am not that naive. I know that there are people out there who disagree with the President. I know that there are people that do not like him at all. I even suspect that the reasons some people have for disliking the President have something to do with the color of his skin. But I didn’t know there was so much stuff like this floating around out there, that not only openly denounces President Obama on the basis of his race, but does so proudly, as if they’re being somehow brave or clever in their “candor.” And these were among the tamer items in the display. It became quite clear to me after seeing this that there is an entire sect of the population who, in varying degrees, view the advancements that black people have made as a slight against their own race rather than a triumph.

These are obviously not examples of the kind of prejudicial culture we can turn a blind eye to, but we can certainly minimize their implications. We can look at these objects and deem them the exception to the rule, that these people are crazy and not representative of the American people. But there must be something about the way our society functions that makes these people feel justified in creating such hateful products.

It may be subtle, but mainstream culture is more approving of racist culture than it seems at first glance. For one, there is the perpetuation of stereotypes that have managed to survive in an ostensibly more progressive climate. And then there are new products that choose not to be conscious about the kind of messages they’re conveying to the people.

‘Ghettopoly.’ Made in 2003

An example of a ‘Realistic Situation Target.’ These could be purchased online as recently as 2012

As consumers, it is our responsibility to hold companies responsible for the kind of ideas their products convey. If we are a country that ever hopes to elect a black president without having its citizens question his place of birth, we need to pay attention to what we’re doing, what we’re saying beneath all this “stuff.” And what it’s saying about us. Once we do we might see that we are not quite as far from our past mistakes as we thought.

This is where we come from. Let’s not make it where we’re going.