“History is the fruit of power, but power itself is never so transparent that its analysis becomes superfluous. The ultimate mark of power may be its invisibility; the ultimate challenge, the exposition of its roots” (Michel-Rolph Trouillot, Silencing the Past: Power and the Production, Beacon Press, 2015, pg xxiii)
Hi! My name is Isabelle Johnsen, and I wanted to create this blog post to foster a safe, inclusive environment where we can openly discuss white-washing in high academia. Please feel free to provide links to educational resources or suggest reading materials for those looking to further explore dialogue and stories of POC academics.
This short piece takes on the question of "racial health disparities" and asks us to consider how such ideas are constructed and the importance of what they call "contextualization". —> Chowkwanyun and Reed, "Racial Health Disparities and Covid-19" The New England Journal Of Medicine
Before stay-at-home and quarantine orders were the norm, I was lucky enough to attend the MFA’s newest exhibit: “Ancient Nubia Now.” Dubbed as an exhibit that was “as politically charged as it [was] aesthetically stunning,” the exhibit faces white-washing in academia head on.
“Ancient Nubia Now” displays the enormous excavation effort led by George A. Reisner from 1913 to 1932, which took place in southern Egypt and northern Sudan. Not insignificantly, this excavation effort as well as many others during the 19th and 20th centuries were done under the duress of colonialism. Like many other archeologists of that time, Reisner, an undoubtedly talented Harvard archeologist, was also undeniably racist:
“The [Nubian] native negroid race had never developed either its trade…
At the liberal arts college I attended in the North East, there was approximately 3,000 students and only about a dozen people of color. One student, a friend of mine, was constantly put into a box because he was black. People asked him about growing up in the “ghetto” and he was even once accused of shoplifting at a local convenience store. This young man was the hardest working student in any class I shared with him. He went to this particular college for the same reasons most students did (location, scholastics & activity). We entered similar fields upon graduation and I work with him to this day. He never felt at home in a city that he loved and…
Hi everyone! Just wanted to post about an amazing organization I just found called ‘Association of Black Women Historians: Black Women Making History.’ They have some amazing resources and inspirational stories on their site. They also have a blog which I 10/10 recommend looking at... this photo is from a blog post titled “Michaela Coel’s “I May Destroy You” and a History of Black Women and Sexual Consent.” The blog post feature an interview with Coel which the blog describes the new HBO show: “In I May Destroy You, Coel is clear that there is no such thing as “a bit rapey” – a phrase familiar among British millennials. As the show depicts: a …