What do these two historically oppressed groups, Holocaust Museum Houston and the Kinsey Collection of African American Art, have in common?
Editor’s note: We have made the difficult decision to reduce the frequency of our blogs and Reflections. We may occasionally repost updated older columns and always welcome your current thoughts. |
I grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, where civil rights and the fight for social justice have deep roots. My brother, who still lives in Memphis, recently visited for an extended weekend. With my husband, we spent a memorable time visiting other relatives, sharing stories of our lives and childhood, and laying flowers on the gravesites of family members we miss dearly.
Together we also had a remarkable experience visiting Holocaust Museum Houston. I have visited the museum several times before. But this time was different.
As a feature, Holocaust Museum Houston showcased the Kinsey African American Art & History Collection. This exhibit took us back to the African slave trade and forward to today’s expressive art of remembrance and hope.
Now why would the Holocaust Museum Houston have an exhibit of African American art and history? I anticipated this was a deliberate act of reaching out across one’s own borders to form partnerships in overcoming oppression.
I was not far off. The answer, revealed in the museum’s framed text exhibits, both delighted and inspired me:
|
…Using the lessons of the Holocaust and other genocides, we teach the dangers of hatred, prejudice, and apathy. In order to create a better future, we must first learn from the past. The Kinsey Collection, paired with the Holocaust Gallery, helps us understand the dangers of hatred, prejudice, and apathy to any society. If we understand these important lessons, we can move forward together and create a better world for everyone. |
As the exhibit explained, the connection between the Holocaust and American racism and Jim Crow was not a coincidence. Hitler and his followers honed their thoughts by studying American racism and Jim Crow. Nazi lawyers drew inspiration from America’s segregation and disenfranchisement laws. In the US, they found a ready-made model for how to oppress Jews.
What are examples of these “important lessons” for hatred and oppression to brew, lurk, and accelerate?
Start with social isolation. Groups must be singled out in some way, whether it is because they have a different religion, culture, or language. Maybe they even look different, although that’s not necessary.
Blame and scapegoating then fuel hatred and oppression with moral justification. The targeted groups are blamed for whatever ails the main society: “The Blacks [or Jews or other stigmatized group] are stopping our progress and stealing our livelihood! We have to keep them in their place!”
Intergroup oppression: One stigmatized group may absorb mainstream hatred for other targeted groups, further splintering what could be a mutual support movement. When people can't see the common elements in their oppression (all are hated because deep fears are being manipulated), they think theirs are unique and worse. The term “oppression Olympics” is used to describe this self-defeating phenomenon. The marginalized groups literally cannot see each other.
Fear messaging: Oppression and prejudice stem from fear, and an authoritarian leader will ignite and fan the fear through carefully crafted messaging. Once a target group has been reframed as an object of fear and disgust, the next step is to promise their subjugation or elimination to bring back the former glory days.
At the time Hitler rose to power, Germany had undergone the Great Depression and had been soundly defeated in World War I. It faced an uncertain future, leading many to fear the country would eventually be destroyed. Hitler promised to restore national pride and power. As a master manipulator, he offered Nazism as the path to reviving a strong, unified German identity.
Institutionalization. The last step is to embed the oppression into mainstream culture and laws so it becomes difficult to eradicate. Hitler’s “scientists” adapted theories of Eugenics and Scientific Racism from the US to describe how the lowly “Jewish Race” was impeding the greatness of the Aryan Nation. His legal supporters adapted the US’s Jim Crow laws to form the 400 Nuremberg Laws that segregated and isolated the Jewish people.
As composer Richard Rodgers and librettist Oscar Hammerstein II explained in the long-running musical South Pacific:
|
You've got to be taught to hate and fear You've got to be taught before it's too late |
As a young girl in Memphis, my parents and teachers worked hard for me to know that the history I was taught in my segregated classrooms was not all there was to know. This is why visiting the Kinsey Collection at Holocaust Museum Houston was so impactful.
During my childhood in the segregated south, social justice meant liberation for African Americans. I was an avid reader and learned about other oppressed groups through my books, yet each target and form of oppression seemed disconnected from the others. I didn’t connect the dots.
By the time I became a community organizer, I saw commonalities and actively sought opportunities for partnerships across cultures and social justice struggles – and delighted whenever it happened.
In my life, I have partnered, marched, and worked with people from many walks of life, cultures, and backgrounds in the quest for our common human and civil rights.
One section of the exhibit exemplified just how challenging it is to forge these partnerships. In an especially captivating display, Mikel Alatza’s series of portraits illustrates how we see each other and ourselves through prisms. We can’t really even accurately see ourselves, let alone each other.
Yet still, we must try. Beyond words, hosting the Kinsey exhibit of African American art and history in a museum dedicated to Holocaust remembrance proclaims we are in this together. We will reach out to others. I was – and still am – super impressed and inspired by seeing it.
What the exhibit said to me is encapsulated in this deceptively simple creed: We see you and your traumatic past and we are here for you to see us. We know we view one another through prisms, yet let us partner together however we can. Let us partner with as many others as we can.
Injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere.1
Questions to ask yourself
|
Carole Marmell contributed to this post
We are a leadership development firm that helps people and organizations create resilient, sustainable, multicultural, and inclusive settings. The ability to lead consciously can help you gain true awareness and earn the respect and trust of others.
It’s the assumptions we have about people’s lives that are the biggest obstacles to growth, awareness, and success. We help you understand how those assumptions are preventing you from becoming the best you can be as an organization, an inclusive leader, and a person.
