Why Being Black in Museums Feels So Uncomfortable
Countless spaces are labeled as ‘Black’ but they’re not entirely ours. How do we reclaim them?
“Why is the African collection on the lowest floor?” I ask a security guard at the British Museum. Every other collection gets sunlight, but Africa is buried underground, hidden beneath the fire exits, accessible only if you want to look for it. The guard tells me it’s probably because the museum acquired this collection last, so instead of building a fourth floor, they dug deeper.
When I visit the National Museum of Scotland I wait for my group of friends to wander off so I can take a picture of the Art of African Metalwork exhibition. As the picture snaps into focus, it hits me: I’m standing in a building built specifically to display art and cultural tokens the British looted during the colonial era, I’m in a Black space compromised by Whiteness, and I feel like shit.
The simultaneous exclusion and exploitation of Blackness in so-called intellectual spaces is a secret we’re all in on. White university professors are often the experts on marginalized peoples. Mostly White-manned, Silicon Valley brands hire social media managers to hijack Black culture for profit. And in museums, Blackness is often categorized under the “history” label, while Whiteness is categorized as “high art” — one that sometimes glamorizes the ownership of Black people.
It’s hard to navigate spaces that so easily appropriate, exploit, and erase any color that doesn’t fit within the tight mold of Whiteness, but that’s just life as a Black person. We talk about the art of being Black in White spaces — the code-switching, the hair-straightening, the unwritten no-sweatpants rule — but what about the art of being Black in Black spaces that Whiteness has compromised? We’re so used to having our spaces tampered with that we don’t always notice they’re not entirely ours. How do you reclaim a space that’s already marketed as yours?
Art historians and museum conservators have discovered colorful paint remnants on Greek and Roman statues for centuries, but many fought hard to keep this secret hidden. Why? Because this discovery puts in jeopardy all the beliefs they hold about the ghostly white marble that characterizes…
