“Race: Are we so different?” will be a must-see.
Coming to Missouri History Museum Jan. 16.
This is a heads-up to community leaders, school superintendents and principals, corporate bosses and small-business owners, college and graduate students, teachers, parents and grandparents and conscientious citizens from all walks of life in the St. Louis region:
On Jan. 16, the Missouri History Museum will open a special exhibition on that long-vexing, still-unresolved source of division in community life. We refer to matters of race.
“Race: Are we so different?” promises to be different from anything we’ve seen presented in St. Louis.
The program is so inventive in its approach and compelling in its practicality that it rises to “must see” status. Everyone with an interest in the subject — and that should include all of us — should see it. Some advanced planning and added resources will help.
The exhibit is not a political history of race presented through the unsettling but familiar prism of slavery, Jim Crow and the civil rights struggle.
Indeed, it’s not a history of racism at all, or even the work of historians.
Rather, it’s a project of the American Anthropological Association and the Science Museum of Minnesota. Since 2008, it has been on national tour. Its purpose is “to help individuals of all ages better understand the origins and manifestations of race and racism in everyday life by investigating race and human variation through the framework of science.”
Think of a gifted science teacher focusing students’ powers of inquiry on the “idea of race.” Through testimony of real people and the immediacy of scientific method, myths break down under the microscope of scientific understanding. A vivid picture emerges of the “often invisible ways race and racism have infiltrated customs and institutions.”
Missouri History Museum Director Robert Archibald organized a preview of the program last week focusing on how museum partners and staff have added powerful local elements to the national exhibit — including special two-hour tours for student groups, workshops for educators, and multiple opportunities for participation by museum visitors.
A parent sitting through the presentation would leave convinced that every child in this community should be attending the exhibition. A principal would conclude that every teacher should have the chance to attend a workshop. Employers who understand how racial division is an impediment to business, and to the progress of this community, would be making similar plans for their managers and employees.
The program runs through May 2. Students tours are free, and St. Louis and St. Louis County residents (who support the museum through the Zoo-Museum tax) may attend without charge each Thursday. The admission price at other times and for those who live outside the city or county is $5.
It would benefit the community as a whole if admission were free but, with an exhibition of this scale, the museum can’t afford it without underwriting help of about $200,000. The corporate and philanthropic communities could close that gap.
“Race: Are we so different?” is one of those rare opportunities to make a real difference in St. Louis.
I could swear there was a Michael Jackson music video that settled this question long ago.
We are not so different but our environments are. According to recent figures some 50% of black males between the ages of 18 and 21 are either on parole, serving time for a felony, or are a former felon. These figures were presented to me before Bush took office. Recently during Clinton but in past. There is no doubt that Bush continued the assault on young black males. One might say environment does not matter others have risen from humble circumstances. Others might say they have earned the debt they owe society. Still others seeking safety through vengeance state they should be locked up for life. The case may be made against the public school system, public transportation, public hospitals, and the like as producing social ills. If all these arguments are accepted it still does not change the fact the most young black males are raised in a different environment under constant supervision from the government than whites. They have police at school, in the neighborhood and in the stores waiting for them to do anything contrary to good public order. These males are charged with the maximum charge allowed at law not the least. They are given stiff sentences at a young age. They are also not afforded legal representation. Young whites come into the system with similar evidence against them and live in decent county jails not burdened with overcrowding while young blacks are kept in indecent conditions in overcrowed human warehouses. Granted some of their crimes are gang related but gangs are prevelant in their neighborhoods some of these gangs have thousands of members in and out of prison. Jobs are not forthcoming for these men and most likely will not be. The jobs that are available are menial labor at low pay often tedious mind numbing industrial assembly work a truly dead end job. So like it or not environment does play a role in crime and race affects how the system treats people.
It don’t matter if you’re black or white! hehehe
There was a Michael Jackson vid that settled this. You can see it on the “Ones” video.
Are we so different? Our DNA, no…we are not different at all. But as long as people don’t assimilate to the “American Culture” and continue to try to live within their own “sub-culture” category, there will never be equality and there will never be any kumbaya singing around the fire. When people grow up believing that they are special because of his or her race/culture and that it’s wrong to assimilate into the American society, those children have a major disadvantage from the start as a minority, because the majority will never act like or become like the minority of this country. I’m not saying that certain aspects of culture can’t be brought into American society, but you can’t expect the majority to accept you if you don’t speak the language, and if you don’t follow the laws.
America is a melting pot - if you put cheddar, swiss, sharp, goat, fetta, and colby cheese into a melting pot, they become part of the existing cheese that was simmering in the pot. They may add a bit of flavor or color, but for the most part…they become part of the overall melted cheese in the pot. You don’t see a multi-cheese pot with many different cheeses residing in their own sector - they all are supposed to melt into one cheese “culture”.
Hence lies the problem with America - the minority wants the majority to change to accomodate them, but it will never work because American’s love America for what it is, not what others want it to be.