!*Detroit: Concerned Citizens Call For Boycott of Museum!

[Marpessa Kupendua]

)Date: Wed, 12 Feb 1997 21:54:56 -0600 (CST)
)From: fh...@ix.netcom.com (Eric Gubka)
)Subject: Concerned Citizens Call For Boycott of Museum!
)To: natt...@ix.netcom.com
)
)An open letter to Citizens of Detroit regarding the Museum of
)African-American History
)
)Dear Detroit:
)
) Because Black History is more than slave-ships and slavery,
)because we are the original people of the planet and the founders of
)civilization who built the pyramids in Kemet (Egypt) and great
)civilizations in the Indus Valley, the black family who is from 3.5 to
)5 million years old has been robbed of knowledge and technology which
)we developed in Africa.
)
) Although the MAAH (Museum of African American History) has been
)promoted as a tremendous accomplishment for the people of Detroit, much
)to our displeasure the concerns of internationally renown artist,
)Bennie White Ethiopia, and others have been totally ignored by the city
)administration. Their criticisms of the character of the new museum
)are valid because they emphasize the necessity of Africans to control
)th eartistic, cultural, and historic presentations depicting our
)peoples, legacy. Consequentley, the museum in its current form should
)be abolished and a new approach should be taken which preserves and
)promotes the integrity of African culture in the 21st century.
)
) If this museum concerns itself with preserving the culture, it
)should be sensitive to the community that it serves. We should have
)been asked, "What do you think should be exhibited in this museum?"
)There should be balance in the presentation at the MAHH and if it is to
)be taken for truly in our interest, the MAHH would present slavery ina
)contextualized time-line with other events in size and scope, realizing
)thatthe slavery period was a fraction of the time of the existance of
)the black man and women.
)
) We do not intend nor can we authorize any further myth domination
)where one exhibit dominates any other unless it is about Alkbulan
)History that predates slavery here in America. Beginning in 1994,
)Bennie White Ethiopia and Abdul Raheem began picketing against the MAHH
)for the disrespectful treatment the African-American Vendor Association
)received at the African World Festivals. This protest spread to the
)construction of the new MAHH and in particular it's art exhibit of a
)slave-ship with body castings of black children, to open the new
)publicly funded building. This is an outrage to the African-American
)community.
)
) For this Brainwash Mental Conditioning Museum, which stands
)against all black people, to keep us in a mind-set of slavery (by
)having a massive slave-ship exhibit as the focal point of this museum)
)we protest! If allowed the administrators will make this the first
)thing you will see on April Fool's Day and the last thing you see when
)you leave. Innocent black children are to be used to represent slaves
)on this ship. Whites have been awarded financial contracts to carry
)out this onslaught in the name of black history. Enough is enough. We
)are taking this exhibit out of the administrators control.
)
) We have an obligation to our past and an obligation to our present
)generations to work against all forms of discrimination, racial
)backlash, and slavation-no matter how candy coated and pen-striped that
)form of oppression may be. We are presented with the facts that the so
)called MAHH in Detroit is out to make mockery of 400 years of the most
)formidable and brutal slavery that has existed on earth. We strongly
)protest this exhibit for the following reasons:
)
)1) The art exhibit is dehumanizing and insulting. It was not even
)produced by a black artist. And if it doesn't matter who paints the
)picture, then why not let the one who suffered paint the picture and
)tell the story?
)
)2) Unsuspecting children were solicited to do body casts that will go
)down in history ( if allowd exposure) to do irreversable psychologica,
)emotional and social damage to the already ailing, insecure, and
)fragile psyche of our youth who do not want to be further exploited by
)so called well meaning white liberals who are taking our tax dollars to
)the tune of 1/4 million dollars to build their slave ship and get their
)rocks off in providing an exhibit whose contextual racial bias is in
)question, while the crimes have gone unchecked before have not netted
)so much as an apology, formal reperations, nor any significant
)acknowledgement of any kind in respect to this animal and subhuman
)behavior. Now we are not against the white artist painting a slave
)ship in Groose Pointe or in some suburb where he can entertain his own
)collegues, but don't take money from Detroit and don't build such a
)monstrocity in the African-American comunity and then have our children
)go see it.
)
)3) We further find it appaling that the sinister element in the
)community was aided by certain Negroes who sought to sabatage the
)protest of the MAHH, resulting in the arrest and subsequent court
)injunctions against Benny White Ethiopia and Abdul Raheem, who
)initially spear-headed the movement. We believe if Martin Luther King,
)Jr. was alive today, this struggle would be the new Alabama and the
)masses would be mobilized to correct this impending danger.
)
)4) We strongly recommend letters of protest be forwarded to members of
)the Detroit City Council and the office of Mayor Dennis Archer, the
)MAHH board of directors, and all other responsible parties to bring
)about some closure to this fiasco and to bring about a new posture that
)will be more inclusive to the best Detroit has to offer, which
)certainly is not this exhibit.
)
)5) We feel that no one should participate in the opening of the museum
)and that the organizers of this exhibit melt down this monstrosity, and
)grant funds to established black artists like Bennie White Ethiopia to
)produce a positive and productive exhibit that will show our culture,
)our traditions, our sufferings in a positive and non-degrading light of
)mockery.
)
)6) We strongly recommend that the organizers of this exhibit resign
)their positions after issuing the citizens of Detroit a formal public
)apology for the grief with which they were planning to capture us.
)
)Thank you for reading these few words, and taking the proper action in
)the boycott!
)
)Concerned Citizens In Support Of The Museum of African-American History
)(313) 869-8383
)