Re: [Mpls] County Board censors Black Historty Exhibit

[WizardMarks]

Jordan S. Kushner wrote:

http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/3631791.html

Opat's [Chair, County Commisioners]compromise was to allow a much smaller picture of the event,
apparently so that it would not draw people's attention.  "We're not an art
museum, so we don't get into provocation," asserts Opat.  The article states
that even the compromise did not completely satisfy Opat, indicating that he
would have preferred that the public not observe this atrocity at all.

WM: This has to be the most bogus explanation put forth recently. At the time of the lynchings in Duluth, people brought their families and a picnic lunch to watch a lynching. There is a book of post cards from lynchings all over the country available at the public library. It's very gruesome, but important to see. Chilling.

I would be willing to put $5.00 of my slender money to pool with others for a billboard with the 1920 lynchings on it.

While Opat did not want the public, and especially juries, to see evidence
of Minnesota's atrocious racial history, I believe that it is most pertinent
in the building that houses one of the most racist institutions - the
Hennepin County criminal courts, which are most responsible for Minnesota
having the highest racial disparity of Black prisoners of any state in the
country.

WM: I think that the curators may have had that in mind when the show was mounted.

This is a typical Minnesota "Nice" response to racism - hide and minimize it
as much as possible, and definitely do not deal with it.

WM: Yep.

WizardMarks, Central

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