'Hateful Things' visits SVSU

Traveling exhibit of racist imagery accompanied by lecture

November 20, 2006 —

Racism was the theme of a lecture given by Dr. David Pilgrim as part of the "Hateful Things" traveling exhibition on Tuesday.

The exhibition is comprised of racist images of the past and present. Some of the images on display were blatantly racist, while others were more subtle. In addition to being the curator of the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia, Pilgrim is also a professor at Ferris State University.

"Jim Crow was more than segregation and signs, it was a way of looking at race," he said. "It was a racial hierarchy, and everyday material objects were used to justify that racial hierarchy."

"I think a lot of the insight this exhibit gives is that racism is something of the past," said English major Tacarra Ford. "The images he presented, about the pimps and hoes, and the Halloween mask, and the ghetto video games, it reminded us that this still goes on."

Among the racist memorabilia on display were older signs that said "No dogs, no Negroes, no Mexicans" and contemporary images from today, whether from the Internet or in Saginaw.

"I think the exhibit shows the modernization of racism today, even amongst black people thinking it's a joke, because I didn't think it was that serious," said Heather Price, a computer information systems major.

Pilgrim quoted former presidential candidate Ross Perot, saying, "the activist is not the man who says the river is dirty. The activist is the man who cleans up the river."

"There are a lot of people in this country that travel around and talk about the problems of this nation, and that's all they do is talk," Pilgrim said. "They don't do anything, they don't offer constructive work, and there are a lot of people that don't like the way I fight racism, but I'm doing something, and this is my attempt to clean the river."

Most of the items displayed were offensive to all types of cultures, and not just blacks.

Pilgrim continued, saying "The first thing we have to do in the museum is get people to stop censoring because so much of America now tells us if you're white American, you better not talk about race, because you may say the wrong thing. If you're African-American, you better not talk about race because you'll get angry, so people are afraid to talk."

"People say to me the problem in this country is that we just keep talking about it, and if we just quit, racism would go away, that doesn't even make stupid sense," he said. "We talk about race all the time, in hallways, at our kitchen tables, we talk about it in all the places where our ideas are not challenged."

Pilgrim went on to give two examples of his own experience with students.

"I talk with classes of mine, and I show them a picture of Michael Chang, a second-generation English speaking American tennis player," he said.

"Some say [he's] Chinese, some Chinese-American. I show them Andre Agassi, parents from Iran, and I say, 'what is he'? Everyone says, 'Well, he's an American.' Yeah, but he's second generation just like Michael Chang. Why did you call Agassi an American, and Chang Chinese?" Pilgrim asked.

"Then I ask about another tennis player, Pete Sampras. Sampras wasn't even born here. He's Greek. That makes it look like whiteness is a synonym for being an American, and as long as that's the case race matters."

Pilgrim concluded his lecture by arguing, "My folks and some of you black folks here, your folks have been here six, seven, eight generations. The immigrants that come from Poland, Russia are first and second generation, and are treated better than people like my folks that cut the sugar cane in Alabama for six generations."

The exhibit was in the Roberta R. Allen Reading room from Nov. 13-16 from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. and the 17th from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The exhibit and lecture were free and open to the public.