It doesn’t matter when your personal genetic ancestors–or you–arrived. Or in what section they settled. The nation itself was built on a foundation of which slavery was an indispensable part. Slavery is part of the heritage of all Americans.
I hope they make it clear there will be lecturers and exhibits on slavery.
Someone that wants to see a historic antebellum home and architecture should have that option. They need to know ahead of time what the museum has planned for the tour. Then the visitor can make an informed decision if they want to go. Many will want to learn more about the history and lives of slaves.
But grude’s point is that people just use the royal we/us as a matter of habit. I think you’re proving monstro’s point–that it is about identifying with the enslavers, not the enslaved.
All righty then. The source of our proud anti-intellectual tradition!
By the same token,
The American-citizen descendants of slaves, and of latter-day immigrants, should feel as entitled to such constructions as anyone else.
I can do the “we” and “our” with some things. But not others.
I’ve always had a time with “our” Forefathers, for instance. I know that as an American, I am entitled to act as if I’m descended from those gentlemen. But it just feels wrong.
Go ahead and claim whatever “we” you want. I hear people say “we” won the Cold War, while ironically, I who was in uniform at some of its uglier episodes feel like I was an unwilling spectator. Must have worked like the Ludovico Technique.
But it’s the “you” that worries me. I hope we can agree that hereditary blame is a Nazi concept.
ETA
No, thank you
I can’t see the point of using a museum tour to deliver a harsh lesson.
Slavery was covered quite thoroughly in school. How it caused tensions during the drafting of the Constitutions. Then severe political tensions as new states entered the Union (some free and some slave). Culminating with succession and the Civil War. I recall studying portions of Uncle Toms Cabin. Discussing the underground railroad and how escaped slaves found freedom in the North.
Movie and tv have covered slavery. *Roots *is a miniseries that every parent should watch with their teenage children. Slavery isn’t a shameful event being hid from anybody. It happened. People died fighting a Civil War over it. The South paid a terrible, punitive price during the Reconstruction Era.
We don’t need a tour guide at a museum to remind us of that terrible period in history.
To clarify, certainly include a balanced story at these antebellum museums. Include information about all aspects of plantation life. Exhibits from the slavery period are appropriate.
The former guide in the quoted article sounds like they went far beyond that. It sounded like a really drawn out lecture meant to shock and upset tourists. There’s no need to do that. A balanced story can be told without upsetting people.
A lot of people haven’t been properly educated.
Or maybe they have and their ignorance is 100% willful.
Can you quote to me the parts where she lectured people to shock and upset them? Because I don’t see anything like that there.
It sounds to me like people asked her questions betraying their ignorance and that she sought to address that, politely but without sugarcoating it.
Also, if we’re talking about history, why is the end goal “Dear god, let’s not upset the white folks!”? Seriously–terrible things happen and are still happening, but your takeaway is let’s not upset the white people?
I said don’t upset the tourists. There are tourists from all races and all countries. They are there on vacation to have fun and to see local culture. Give them a balanced historical perspective but keep in mind why they are there.
Now I’m curious to go to one of these museums and listen for myself what they are teaching. I may have gotten the wrong impression from that article.
Considering the aftermath (lynchings, Jim Crow, segregation, voting suppression, etc.), perhaps it wasn’t harsh enough (or perhaps it was the wrong strategy). I think there should have been a de-Confederization, just like the post WWII de-Nazification in Europe.
If your main goal is to have a good time without thinking too much, maybe don’t go to a Southern plantation for your vacation? Plenty of folks vacation in Washington DC–do you think they should lighten up the Holocaust Museum?
What would a balanced historical perspective look like? Ladies and gentlemen, look at the beautiful proportions of this room, it’s refined furniture, the serenity of its color scheme–all of which the owners could afford to buy and maintain because of slave labor!
Actually, there are former plantations where you can get married while pretending to be a southern belle if you’re vapid enough to think it appropriate.
Goddammit, no it didn’t. Wealthy Southern ex-slaveowners paid a punitive price of sorts during Reconstruction. Southern ex-slaves did not, unless you’re considering the formation of the Klan to be part of Reconstruction.
When will Ghana realize the money it’s losing as a destination wedding spot?
Or Jamaica, where interracial couples getting married can dress up like slaves and reenact the forced blending of the Irish into the African slave population.
Not enough was done in Reconstruction. The KKK popped up and terrorized certain people, the Feds left, and everything except slavery went back to status quo, with Jim Crow and the discriminatory laws and lack of representation for black people. Of course, there’s the entire issue of Lincoln’s handling, Johnson’s, and then the backlash to that and then how after that was over most accomplishments were rolled back. Just look at the number of black people elected to office in states with high numbers of black people (former Confederacy) in the 1865-1867- period v. 1870 to 1878.
Irish slaves were sent to the British colonies in the Caribbean. You see, while most of us would agree the Irish are white, the ruling class of Great Britain at that time considered them inhuman enough to enslave. They worked on some of the same plantations and under the same horrid conditions as slaves originating in Africa. They were definitely a group of white people that could complain about white people oppressing them. Enjoy your hat.
A mind is a terrible thing to waste. And so is reading comprehension.
You really and truly are one of the dumbest people on this message board.
You’re right, historical museums should never mention anything bad. Museums should teach people that only good things happened in the past! The 9/11 museum should close, that’s about a bad thing that happened. There is no use for any Holocaust museums, after all, people learn about that in school, and having museums about it just reminds people of that terrible period in history.