Racism and Jim Crow Museum - Essay Example

The aim of the imagery, it appears, is to speak out against an issue whose impact has been felt greatly and yet still goes on unattended. The imagery‘s graphic and captivating nature ensures that the audience’s attention is retained and at the same time engraved in their minds.

Through the imagery, one can see the history of racism against the black community. The website displays a picture of the Coon Chicken Inn that existed spanning the 1920s to around the 1950s. The restaurant has a shape in the form of a black man’s head in a grotesque and humiliating way that at the time seemed ridiculous. The historical provision states that only waiters of black descent and those that were extremely dark in comprehension got employment.  This indicates the level at which racism was engraved in the hearts of the American populace at the time. It is an illustration that although it may have reduced in the current day and age, those that existed in earlier times were not as privileged. The white counterparts regarded the black community as “unequal” to them.

The late 1880s saw the rise of a fictional character Aunt Jemima. As illustrated on the website, many people were of the belief that she was a happy and out rightly kind woman that enjoyed her cooking. The fictional Aunt Jemima kept telling old stories of Southern Orientation - happiness and love between white and black people (Ferris State University, 2014). This is however far from the truth. The late 1880s were amongst the worst years in the slavery of black people. The use of Aunt Jemima to voice an opinion, so differing from reality was for marketing purposes. Slavery in that day was so deep that the victims themselves tried to cover it up. Aunt Jemima was a black woman. She was well aware of the turmoil that the black community was facing at the time but instead portrayed the situation as rosy. Blacks felt so demeaned that the majority succumbed and settled to this fate.

The Website illustrates that racism was and still exists. It illustrates that simple items, images and artistic designs embody racism. By ignoring the things that promote it, the world, in turn, breathes life into racism. Certain average items of everyday use such as lawn jockeys and doll collections are racist. The saddest aspect portrayed in the website is that in the 21st century, where everyone claims to be enlightened and all are hot on their heels in pursuit of development, racism lives. It is so much easier to act as though racism ended in the 20th century. The ignorance makes racism survive and proceed well into the 22nd century. As with the Jim Crow Museum, people need to speak out when they encounter racism even in the smallest elements.