Browse Exhibits (1 total)

TRIGGER WARNING: Please be advised this exhibit contains images of blackface, minstrelsy, racist cartoons, and mock slave auctions which are deeply disturbing. To contextualize the images and mitigate the chances for inadvertent harm, each page will open with long form explanatory text that is placed above image thumbnails all of which are labeled with brief descriptions. Clicking on the images will provide full size versions of each image and their information should you choose to view them in greater detail.  

"If you do not deal with a dark past such as ours, effectively look the beast in the eye, that beast is not going to lie down quietly. It is going, sure as anything, to come back and haunt you horrendously." - Archbishop Desmond Tutu (“Desmond Tutu: Not Going Quietly” 24:20)

What has been termed “The Great College Yearbook Reckoning” has been forcing colleges and universities across the country to confront their histories of racism and oppression (Grover 19). In February of 2019, USA Today did a review of 900 yearbooks and publications from 120 colleges and universities across the country and found that racist imagery was the rule rather than the exception well into the 1970s and 80s (Murphy). Given the history of slavery and institutionalized oppression in the United States, this should not come as a surprise and yet, for many, it has.

For too long institutions of higher education have sought to bury or ignore the parts of their pasts that caused harm. To pretend that even ostensibly progressive institutions have not benefited from white supremacy is to participate in this erasure. Westminster College is no different and it is our duty as an anti-racist institution to confront that past, own the harm that has been committed, and work to dismantle white supremacy wherever we encounter it.

This exhibit seeks to begin the work of truth-telling with our community by facing and owning the history of racist actions, imagery, and programs in two Utah schools of higher education (Westminster College and Dixie State University). In addition, the latter exhibit pages look at the work recently undertaken at each institution to address these issues, the success of which are still very much in flux. 

The viewer will note that this exhibit gives primacy to explanatory text, utilizes the same layout on each page, and all images appear only as thumbnails until clicked. As described in the "Trigger Warning" above, we made these decisions in an attempt to balance the need to shine light onto our racist histories with the desire to prevent these images from causing further harm through display.

There are no happy endings here, no perfect solutions. This is just a beginning, our beginning, because as James Baldwin states,"Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced."

~Alicia Cunningham-Bryant 

WORKS CITED

Baldwin, James. I Am Not Your Negro. Directed by Raoul Peck. Magnolia Pictures and Amazon Studios, 2016.

“Desmond Tutu: Not Going Quietly.” The Frost Interview, performance by David Frost, season One, episode Two, Al Jazeera, 16 Nov. 2012.

Grover, MaryAnn. “The First Amendment and The Great College Yearbook Reckoning.” University of Richmond Law Review, vol. 53, no.4, 2019, pp. 19-32.

Murphy, Brett. “Blackface, KKK Hoods and Mock Lynchings: Review of 900 Yearbooks Finds Blatant Racism.” USA Today, 23 Apr. 2020, eu.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/investigations/2019/02/20/blackface-racist-photos-yearbooks-colleges-kkk-lynching-mockery-fraternities-black-70-s-80-s/2858921002.