The Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia

I know some people who think racism isn’t real and if you ignore it, it will go away. Because slavery is over. Because we have an African American president. Because they’re not a racist. Because they think racists are just dumb rednecks — another stereotype — and they hold no power. They fail to understand institutional racism, and how it creates our culture today. I used to not understand it. If you had asked me as a teenager if I had any interest in going to the Jim Crow Museum, I wouldn’t have. Because growing up white in a white community, I didn’t understand racism.

Yesterday, the Jim Crow Museum re-opened in its larger, renovated capacity at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, MI. We went to look through the exhibit. At times, it makes you want to find a Klansman to punch. At other times, it makes you want to cry. Sometimes, I am completely unable to understand how anyone, ever, thought: “Hey, this is okay.”

Here are what we decided were the 13 Most Racist Things at the Jim Crow Museum of Memorabilia.