{"id":72765,"date":"2019-04-22T11:10:05","date_gmt":"2019-04-22T16:10:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=72765"},"modified":"2019-04-22T11:10:46","modified_gmt":"2019-04-22T16:10:46","slug":"contemptible-collectibles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2019\/04\/22\/contemptible-collectibles\/","title":{"rendered":"Contemptible Collectibles"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Content Note: This post discusses racist memorabilia in sociological context and provides an image of one collection critical of this memorabilia below the page break.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why do some people collect<\/a> racist memorabilia and artifacts? Objects depicting African Americans in derogatory and stereotypical ways are commonly referred to as \u201cblack memorabilia\u201d or \u201cblack Americana,\u201d although scholar Patricia Turner<\/a> more aptly names them \u201ccontemptible collectibles.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As documented by David Pilgrim<\/a>, founder and curator of the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia<\/a>, these artifacts include everyday objects like toys and games, household items such as cookie jars, and postcards. Although usually associated with the Jim Crow era, many of the items are still produced or reproduced today<\/a>, and all draw on racial caricatures, such as the \u201cmammy<\/a>,\u201d \u201cTom<\/a>,\u201d \u201cpicanniny<\/a>,\u201d and \u201cbrute<\/a>,\u201d among others. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Not without controversy<\/a>, \u201ccontemptible collectibles\u201d have different meanings to different people. Some collectors embrace the racist meanings attached to the items. Others buy the objects with the intent of destroying them. Still others hope to \u201cliberate<\/a>\u201d the artifacts from their previous racist history and hold the objects in \u201chigh esteem\u201d instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Les Whittington, the grandson of an enslaved person and whose life history is the focus of my recent research, has another reason for collecting. Ignorance or denial of the history of African Americans\u2014especially in Appalachia<\/a>, where he is from\u2014motivates him to document the existence of slavery and the ensuing Jim Crow era. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part of Les\u2019s collection includes multiple \u201cmammy\u201d figurines, which he displays in a case, where they look like a small army of racist caricatures. The objects are shocking to see, not just because such iconographic pieces of racist memorabilia are disturbing, but also because seeing so many together is a reminder of the objects\u2019 pervasiveness in the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This history may seem long past, but not to Les for whom the legacy of slavery is immediate. His grandfather, \u201cJohn Myra\u201d Stepp, was enslaved, and died the same year that Les was born.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Les himself grew up in a mostly racially segregated world. Though Brown v. Board of Education<\/em> ruled that segregated schools were unconstitutional in 1954, it wasn\u2019t until 1966, when he was in the sixth grade, that Les\u2019s school became the first middle school in his hometown to fully integrate<\/a>. And another of his relatives, Barbara Hawkins, also one of John Myra\u2019s grandchildren, was one of four Black students to attend the newly integrated high school<\/a> in 1965.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His family members faced adversity with great resolve, and Les has told me, \u201cAnd no matter what, they persevered. They were resilient. And they were smart. Because even though they had all those obstacles in front of them, they were still a success.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

But don\u2019t mistake Les\u2019s comments for a \u201cpull yourself up by your bootstraps\u201d narrative. Nor should his comments be taken as a way to obscure past or present racism and white supremacy, as Robin Di\u2019Angelo<\/a> argues is far too common. Instead, as Les has explained to me, his collection is \u201cphysical documentation of a lot of hate,\u201d and represents \u201ca history that doesn\u2019t need to be forgotten, [. . .] even though it\u2019s painful to people.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Les also acknowledges that the objects are relevant to today, a message repeated by more well-known collectors, such Alan Page (a former NFL player) and his wife Diane Page. Echoing Les\u2019s concerns about the objects, Diane has noted<\/a> that \u201ccontemptible collectibles\u201d are a \u201cconstant reminder that we have to be vigilant,\u201d especially because \u201cpeople have become more comfortable of late expressing racist views publicly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jacqueline Clark, PhD<\/a> is a professor of sociology at Ripon College. Her teaching and research interests include social inequalities, the sociology of health and illness, and the sociology of jobs and work. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Content Note: This post discusses racist memorabilia in sociological context and provides an image of one collection critical of this memorabilia below the page break. Why do some people collect racist memorabilia and artifacts? Objects depicting African Americans in derogatory and stereotypical ways are commonly referred to as \u201cblack memorabilia\u201d or \u201cblack Americana,\u201d although scholar […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1893,"featured_media":72767,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[227,229,285,23665],"class_list":["post-72765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-commodification","tag-consumption","tag-raceethnicity","tag-raceethnicity-history"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2019\/04\/JCM3.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1893"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72765"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72765\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72774,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72765\/revisions\/72774"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}