You may have heard by now that a noose was found INSIDE the National Museum of African American History and Culture, more affectionately know by Black people locally (in DC) as the Blacksonian.
Somebody actually placed a noose, one of the most vile and explicit symbols of America’s remarkably racist history, inside of a museum dedicated to the contributions, accomplishments, and achievements of Black people. I’m not sure what kind of person you have to be in order to do this, but there’s a special place in Hell for that them.
What makes it even worse is this: they’re STILL doing timed-tickets for entry into the museum. It’s entirely possible that this motherfucker has been waiting for MONTHS to do this shit, just itching with racism to get inside to place this noose there in the segregation exhibit. And in the oddest bit of irony, a noose hanging randomly in the museum is ALMOST an exhibit in itself as a display of this country’s FUCKED up history and present when it comes to its minority communities. The act is damn near living art.
Obviously, it was intended as a reminder that no matter how far we’ve come and no matter how well we catalog and display just how important and vital to this country we are, some idiot - and I’m assuming it’s a white person and I’m entirely comfortable assuming this without proof, fuck your feelings, b - in 2017 can stroll right into this nice public space and piss all over it. Boy, those white folks are really taking it personal that their losing their symbols of racism, even though there’s a very prominent statue of a Confederate racist named Albert Pike STILL chilling like a motherfucker at Judiciary Square in DC. Why not just go sit under that statue and tell racist tales?
To be clear, I’m not surprised by this at all. In fact, I’m surprised it’s taken this long - the museum opened in September 2016 - for something so brazen to happen. I’ve been expecting to wake up to news of NIGGER being spray-painted on the building’s facade. When the Peace Ball happened during inauguration weekend, I was also surprised that something overtly racist in nature didn’t happen. While I’m not surprised, though, this type of shit is obviously sick and twisted. Just a few yards away and a few days earlier, a noose was found hanging from a magnolia tree near the Hirshorn Museum. To mis-quote Cam’ron playing Rico in Paid in Full, “niggas get racism’d everyday, b.” True as it is, it doesn’t make it any less jarring.
Living in DC and really only venturing to “Washington” for work means that I remain largely insulated from the out of town racists proudly rocking their “Make America Great Again” hats and leering at the vast majority of people of color they must encounter at gift shops and counters across this city and area where tourists gather. But I know they’re out there, lurking, seething, carrying around nooses looking for opportunities to try to kill the spirit of people who’ve come too far to go backwards. I realize that placing a noose anywhere is scary because it implies there’s a threat that’s present. And if there’s a threat, who knows how it’s going to manifest itself. That young Bowie State University student who was killed in College Park, MD, is proof of that. And there's Lebron's house in LA, too.
I don’t know what any of this means and if I’m being honest, I don’t think it means much of anything. There are racists in our midst. That’s always been the case and always will be. And in some instances, some of those racists are willing to go the extra mile to try to make a point. Two nooses a few days apart in DC is something because it happened on Smithsonian grounds where throngs of kids on field trips and out of town trips to the nation's capital stand in line with grandmother's and baby strollers taking in the nation's history. But one or two monkeys don’t stop no show. If anything, this type of shit just proves why we must keep fighting the good fight and stomping mudholes into the agenda of racists and pushing them further and further to the fringe.
Now if only we could get 45 outta here.