Susan Maricle wrote:
And I thought that Duluth {50 miles away} was the onlyWM: Let's just talk about that image a minute. It's something like 4 ft x 5 ft. Men are hanging from a light post, their shirts pulled down. There is a crowd of people around these hanging men. All the people who are dead are black men, all the people still alive are white. I've seen this image shrunk down to a page. If that same image is 4 ft x 5 ft, it's overwhelming. It makes me want to cry just to contemplate that picture in the court house, let alone go see it.
place that's still squirrelly about the lynchings....
.... What is Opat's reasoning against the image? It makes
him uncomfortable? The fear it will bring upon
depression, or insurrection, among Twin Cities African
Americans? I would venture that the image is already
there, the depth of its subconscious varying depending
upon the person, regardless of the month.
Just seeing the little 4 x 5 inch version made me feel shamed, made me pity those poor men who died so viciously and needlessly. That picture is a glimpse into hell. Churches have people worrying about going to hell after they're dead, and we all of us miss the fact that hell is a place we manufacture ourselves.
It makes me feel afraid. Would people like those white people in the picture do that to me and mine? My loving household? My darling nephews? My beloved brother? My grand niece and nephew? My much loved friends? Good God, how horrible is a view into the mouth of hell on earth.
If Mike Opat were not bothered by a huge version of that picture, something would be truly wrong with him. If every person who walks by is not bothered by that picture, something is hard wired incorrectly in him/her. Indeed, that is the point of making the photo so large and making it a centerpiece of a display of American Black History. And behind the picture are millions of black people in an outpouring of their terrible, terrible pain and grief.
In my estimation, Mike Opat used his power unjustly in forcing the curator(s) of the display to back down. We can say, as I'm sure many are saying, that, 'see, the white man does it again. We can't even show a picture of our history.' And that would appear to be true. What if it also inspires us to act kindly toward one another? Then that opportunity is lost for the moment, and that's sad. Sometimes, when people go to such lengths as to push for a Black History month and a display in the house of government, they want to be heard and now.
Could that picture inspire a revolt? I don't think so. What would inspire a revolt is the millions of laws, customs, practices, fears, and stupidities that are every day heaped upon our countrymen and women for the color of their skin, or religion, or culture, or age or some other immaterial factor to their existence qua human being.
As the screws are tightened on those without the resources by continuing contumely by those who have much more than enough, the pressure builds. It's the continuing 'death of a thousand cuts' that foments revolution.
WizardMarks, Central
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