“Like a boil that can never be cured as long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its pus-flowing ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must likewise be exposed, with all of the tension its exposing creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured.” Letter from Birmingham Jail Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. April 16, 1963 US civil rights leader and clergyman (1929 - 1968)

Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion Ferris State University Us Versus Them Some of these images are vulgar; most will offend members of the audience. The presenter did not create the images. The images are not meant to shock, but to stimulate honest discussion. Many of these images are found on objects in the Jim Crow Museum. David Pilgrim Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion Ferris State University 231-591-3946

We are a learning lab—using objects of intolerance to teach tolerance We are a learning lab—using objects of intolerance to teach tolerance. See, www.ferris.edu/jimcrow.

Thank you, DTE Energy Foundation I do not have the words to express my gratitude to the DTE Energy Foundation for partnering with Ferris to relocate and expand the Jim Crow Museum.

That’s Not All, Folks Our goal is to get people to talk openly and honestly about race, race relations, racism, and other isms.

What do you see in this picture? What do you see that makes you say that? What more can we find?

Racial Propaganda During the Jim Crow Era (1870s through mid-1960s) racial attitudes, values, norms, laws, and etiquette were supported by millions of everyday objects that portrayed blacks as intellectually, morally, and culturally inferior “Others.”

Everyday Objects Reflected and Shaped Ideas About African Americans

Racial hatred was reflected in objects that mocked and belittled African Americans.

Coon Chicken Inn

Everything Old is New Again

Safe White Space 2007 1937

I Ain’t Yo’ Momma

Racial Imagery Allows Us To Summarily Dismiss Others

The Other As Threat

Hate is, and always has been, a primary organizing force.

One Result of Hatred is Violence Michael Donald, Mobile, Alabama, 1983 Emmanuel Winston, Austin, Texas, 2010

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Letter from Birmingham Jail

Not (only) a Black Thing

Early 1900s Anti-Suffrage Postcards

Violating the Script http://www.scpronet.com/wordpress/wpcontent/uploads/2007/11/hillary20urinal.jpg May 29, 2008 http://www.fadingad.com/blog/hillary_spy.jpg

Killing as Gaming

They are… Ugly, stupid, dirty, unpatriotic, inferior, sexually promiscuous, disease-ridden, violent, un-Christian, weak, irresponsible, surly, rude, clannish, arrogant, needy, culturally parasitic aliens. We are… Beautiful, smart, clean, patriotic, superior, modest, healthy, peaceful, Christian, modest, strong, responsible, good-natured, civil, selfless, humble, self-sufficient, proud contributors to society.

Keep Them Out Mike Narducci, from Omaha, Nebraska, speaks into a microphone as members of the Nebraska Minuteman Civil Defense Corps stand along Dakota Avenue in South Sioux City to protest illegal aliens on August 25, 2007. (Jim Lee/Sioux City Journal). http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/blogs/camera_angles/?m=200708

That African Is Not One of Us

There is a cultural war going on in America, and during times of war, Us-versus-Them thinking becomes normative, even respectable.

Images matter. There are images that are cemented in our minds Images matter. There are images that are cemented in our minds. Here are some images that I can neither ignore not forget.

I will conclude by reading an excerpt from the speech “Civility I will conclude by reading an excerpt from the speech “Civility.” The entire address can be found at, http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/essays/civility/.

“I will permit no man to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him.”  ~Booker T. Washington