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POST-POSTRACIAL AMERICA
On Westworld and the Smithsonian National Museum
of African American History and Culture
Alison Landsberg
Abstract A seismic shift in the racial landscape of the United States
occurred in 2016. The prevailing discourse about a “postracial
America,” though always, in the words of Catherine Squires a
“mystique,” was firmly and finally extinguished with the election
of Donald J. Trump. Race, in the form of racial prejudice, erupted
in Trump’s political rhetoric and in the rhetoric of his supporters.
At the same time, the continued significance and consequences of
racial division in America were also being asserted for politically
progressive ends by the increasingly prominent #blacklivesmatter
movement and by the newly opened National Museum of African
American History and Culture on the National Mall in Washington,
DC, not far from the White House. This article tracks the resurgence
of race in the US cultural landscape against the racially depoliticized
myth of the “postracial” by focusing first on the HBO television series
Westworld, which epitomizes that logic. The museum, which opened
its doors against the backdrop of the presidential campaign, lodges a
scathing critique of the very notion of the postracial; in fact, it signals
the return of race as an urgent topic of national discussion. Part of
the work of the museum is to materialize race, to move race and white
supremacy to the center of the American national narrative. This
article points to the way the museum creates what Jacques Rancière
calls “dissensus,” and thus becomes a site of possibility for politics.
The museum, in its very presence on the Mall, its provocative display
strategies, and its narrative that highlights profound contradictions
in the very meaning of America, intervenes in what Rancière calls
“the distribution of the sensible” and thus creates the conditions for
reconfiguring the social order. In part, it achieves this by racializing
white visitors, forcing them to feel their own race in uncomfortable
ways. The article suggests that this museum, and the broader emerging
discourse about race in both film and television, offers new ways to
think about the political work of culture.
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Cultural Politics, Volume 14, Issue 2, © 2018 Duke University Press
DOI: 10.1215/17432197-6609074
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POST-POSTR ACI A L A MER IC A
Keywords postracial, dissensus, whiteness, resurgence of this discourse about race
National Museum of African American History in the US cultural landscape, against what
and Culture, Westworld had been a hegemonic discourse about
a postracial America. To do this, I begin
with the HBO television series Westworld
I n the lead- up to the 2008 election, the
public discourse surrounding Barack
Obama, and what his candidacy heralded,
(2016 – ), a popular cultural text and an
example of postracial ideology par excel-
lence in its refusal to speak race even as it
included visions of a postracial America. advances racist or racialized stereotypes.
The very fact that America, despite its The main work of the present article, how-
legacy of systematic racial oppression, ever, is to point to how the discourse of
could elect an African American surely the postracial is now coming under attack,
meant that race could no longer be iden- quite visibly in the institutionalization of
tified as a powerful social force. Indeed, a fundamentally different narrative at the
during the Obama years this notion of a National Museum of African American His-
postracial America gained traction in mass tory and Culture, which opened its doors
culture. The increasingly diverse casts in also in the fall of 2016. While this museum
films and on television shows led some to has been in the works for decades, the
dismiss the continued salience of race as specific form it takes, and the logic guid-
a significant or meaningful social factor. ing its exhibition and display strategies,
However, the idea of the postracial was, in reflects the current urgency to speak race
the words of Catherine Squires (2014), only and to put it at the heart of both Ameri-
ever a “mystique.” In fact, the celebration can history and American politics. In this
of the postracial served a conservative article, I examine the museum’s display
agenda, emboldening those who sought to strategies, its unique strategies for produc-
undo affirmative action, end voting rights ing what Jacques Rancière calls “dissen-
protection, and so forth. Nothing, however, sus,” a precondition for the possibility of
revealed the illusory nature of the “postra- politics. The museum achieves this effect
cial” more than the election of Donald by racializing white visitors, forcing them to
J. Trump in the fall of 2016. Race, in the feel their own race in uncomfortable ways.
form of racial prejudice, erupted in Trump’s The article suggests that this museum,
political rhetoric and in the rhetoric of his and the broader discourse about race that
supporters. But it was not only on the it institutionalizes, offers new ways to think
political right that race was being spoken; about the political work of culture.
at the same time, the implications of racial
inequality and white supremacy were also What Is the Postracial Mystique?
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being voiced by the increasingly prominent Westworld and the Invisibility of Racism
#blacklivesmatter movement in response What makes this resurgence of discourse
to the epidemic of unarmed black men about race notable is that it emerges
killed by police officers. against a pervasive narrative of America as
This article argues that we are postracial. In recent years, this postracial
witnessing a reemergence of race as a ideology has been widely disseminated
socially and politically significant discourse, by mass culture. During the Obama era,
and that this discourse is appearing the casts of films and television do seem
19 9
largely in the arena of culture. I track the to have become more diverse, tacitly
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A lison Landsberg
affirming a vision of a multicultural society topic of race motivate any of the plotlines.
in which racial differences are insignificant; Hosts are black, white, Latino, and Asian,
importantly, race itself often remained and the same diversity characterizes the
unremarked on in the shows’ narratives. scientists, technicians, and programmers.
Westworld is an instructive example. Yet race is a covert presence throughout.
Based on Michael Crichton’s 1973 film, Furthermore, the way the show presents
this science fiction series revolves around bodies reveals a racial logic; there are vast
a theme park staffed by androids, called discrepancies between how white bodies
hosts, and visited by paying guests who and black bodies are treated. It would not
want to experience the “Old West.” The be an exaggeration to suggest that the
action of the show moves between the black body is fetishized in Westworld.
underground world of the scientists and There is a particularly uncomfortable
tech workers who design, program, and moment in episode 5, in which a black
repair the hosts, and the aboveground host named Bart has been sent to the
theme park, Westworld, where guests behavior lab because he was encountering
pay large sums of money to pursue the technical difficulties; like other hosts in this
raw adventures of the American West, as area, he is nude. Elsie, a white behavioral
imagined in the Hollywood western. The specialist, turns to him, and as she does
critical attention the show has garnered his penis comes into view. In a joking, off-
has focused on three main topics: first, its handed way she says to the nonresponsive
central philosophical question of whether host that if he does not stop pouring
androids can, in fact, become human; sec- alcohol on the guests, “I’m going to have
ond, its complicated temporal schema, in to reassign you to a narrative where
which plotlines from three discrete periods your . . . talents . . . will go tragically to
are interspersed without any indication waste.” The show, in this moment, unre-
to viewers; and third, its genre- bending flexively references stereotypes about
hybrid of the western and science fiction. race, and black virility, instrumentalizing,
What draws me to Westworld, however, as it does again and again, black bodies
and its relevance for this analysis, is the in the service of white ones.
way it constructs a world in which race Nudity seems also to be unevenly
seems not to matter, goes entirely unmen- distributed among black and white bodies.
14:2 July 2018
tioned, even as racial stereotypes and In the underground labs, virtually all the
hierarchies are embedded in the show’s hosts are naked; their nudity, one might
narrative and aesthetics. As such, West- argue, is meant to enhance their dehuman-
world is decidedly apolitical, participating ization. Yet some characters are filmed
•
in precisely the kind of numbing consensus naked much more extensively than others.
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that Rancière contends blocks true democ- A comparison of the two primary female
racy and politics. hosts, Dolores and Maeve, is reveal-
Westworld poses as postracial ing. Though hosts are understood to be
because race, as signified by the skin color androids, they are played by actors; the
of bodies, goes unnoted within the diege- actor playing Dolores, Evan Rachel Wood,
sis of the show. The cast is not primarily is white. Maeve, by contrast, is played
white, and nonwhite actors are not margin- by the mixed- race, British actor Thandie
alized in terms of screen time or centrality Newton. Although Dolores does appear
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to the show’s narrative. Neither does the naked, she is always seated and mostly
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POST-POSTR ACI A L A MER IC A
Figure 1 Dolores Abernathy (Evan Rachel Wood) and Maeve Millay (Thandie Newton), Westworld
shot from the chest up. Maeve, however, romantically to Dolores, enters a saloon
appears nude with increasing frequency as and is propositioned by the host-whore,
the series unfolds. Her nakedness is on full Clementine. In rebuffing Clementine’s
display. offer, Teddy establishes his integrity: “I’d
There is also a deep racism underlying rather earn a woman’s affection than pay
the different storylines created for Dolores for it.” As he says this, the camera pulls
and Maeve at the park. The opening image back to reveal Maeve, the madame of
in the pilot episode features Dolores, the whorehouse, standing beside him
sitting in a chair. She is naked, but because at the bar. “You’re always paying for it,
the room is dark, and because her long hair darling,” she says to him. “The difference
falls in front of her chest, she is not com- is our costs are fixed and posted right
pletely exposed. A voice speaks to her, there on the door.” Unlike Dolores, who is
and she responds. The conversation is a innocent and idealistic, Maeve is cynical,
voice- over, and the visuals depict her wak- snarky — and a whore (fig. 1). Uninterested
ing up and descending the stairs of an old in either Maeve or Clementine, Teddy is
farmhouse dressed in a long, blue prairie- drawn to Dolores, whom he sees outside
style dress; she appears wholesome, the saloon window. He leaves the saloon
well- scrubbed, her long blond hair pulled to follow her, and they engage in their pre-
off her face but cascading down her back. scripted exchange whereby he picks up a
This is the start of each day in her story can she has dropped. “You came back,”
line, a plot that plays on a repeating loop: she says. “I told you I would,” he replies,
she wakes, goes downstairs, speaks with and then offers to “see her home.” And he
CULTURAL POLITICS
her father on the porch, and then heads does, as they ride off together. While their
off. She responds to the voice’s question narratives offer them the freedom to roam
“Tell us what you think of your world” with the idyllic, sweeping, western landscapes
her stock, programmed response, “Some at will, Maeve’s narrative ties her exclu-
people choose to see the ugliness in this sively to the whorehouse in town.
world. The disarray. I choose to see the Dolores is part of a nuclear family;
beauty.” she lives with her father who loves and
We meet Maeve moments later, when protects her. Her storyline in the park is
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Teddy, a host whose storyline ties him also inflected by notions of true love and
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A lison Landsberg
romance. She fervently believes that one technicians. Maeve is no longer naked,
day she and Teddy will be together. She but dressed in a navy outfit resembling
does not work for a living but wanders the a uniform; she seems powerful and
park at will, shops in town, or engages in to be calling the shots. However, one
painting, which is her hobby. Maeve, by technician shows Maeve the keyboard
contrast, has a storyline with no family; control: she was programmed to be able
she is jaded and cynical, and she works for to wake herself from sleep, and even more
a living. discouraging, she was programmed to
Perhaps the most important rebel. Bernard, the head of programming,
difference in the way Dolores and Maeve tells her that someone altered her storyline
are imagined is that from the very start and that what she thinks are her own
Dolores, and not Maeve, is the host decisions were all pre- scripted. By the
being coached into consciousness, and end of season 1, Dolores has achieved
by extension humanity. In the opening consciousness, but we are not so sure
moments of the very first episode, as we about Maeve. Maeve is on the verge of
are introduced to her storyline, we are also escaping from Westworld; it might be
introduced to the idea that she might be the case that she, too, has moved toward
engaged in some form of thinking beyond humanity, has gone off script, as it were.
her programming: a voice asks, “Have But the show has taken little interest in
you ever questioned the nature of your her psychical and emotional development,
reality?” This voice, we learn, is Arnold, relishing instead her “bad- ass” attitude.
her original programmer. Over the course Most important, for the black woman, the
of the series we learn that Arnold had a issue of consciousness has never really
theory about consciousness: that it is a been on the table. It is only the characters
journey inward. And indeed, by the final played by white actors who are imagined
episode, Dolores hears her own voice and to have limitless potential.
realizes that it was the voice Arnold had Under the guise of being race neutral,
been pushing her to hear all along. or multicultural, the show tacitly affirms
This journey, though, is not for Maeve. white supremacist ideologies, perpetuates
The programmers have little interest in stereotypes about the locus of black
her consciousness, seeming instead women’s worth, and perhaps most
14:2 July 2018
to fret over why she is no longer able distressingly reserves consciousness and
to attract johns. To “fix” that problem, humanity for those with white skin. This
they increase her aggression and her racial hierarchizing is only underscored
acuity. Nevertheless, Maeve seems to be by the fact that Bernard, too, the other
•
developing as well. She has memories, black main character, is also revealed to
CULTURAL POLITICS
and a pain in her side, and can no longer be a host. White audiences are invited to
tolerate the situation in the park. She indulge in these ideologies under the cover
decides she has to escape, so she puts of postracial discourse. Westworld was
together a resistance team, and in the celebrated as groundbreaking, thoughtful,
final episode, they launch their plan. and edgy. Nevertheless, its participation
She believes that she has taught herself in postracial discourse — as evidenced
to wake at will, and with this skill, she both by its diverse cast and by its refusal
wakes herself up in the lab; she and her to speak race — works to provide cover
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crew undertake a bloody attack on the for racism. Indeed, its silence about race
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and racial hierarchies makes a political All talk, talk, talk — no action or results.
response to racism virtually impossible. Sad!” (Alcindor 2017). Trump’s ignorance
of black history was further revealed during
Race Matters his Black History Month breakfast at the
Season 1 of Westworld might very well White House, when he seemed to suggest
represent the last gasp of the discourse that Frederick Douglass, the nineteenth-
of the postracial in the cultural arena. I century slave-turned- abolitionist, was
suspect that by the time season 2 airs, alive and well: “Frederick Douglass is an
it will thematize the issue of race in the example of somebody who’s done an
way that many contemporary television amazing job and is getting recognized
shows have begun to — including Dear more and more, I notice” (Wootsen 2017).
White People (Netflix, 2017 – ), Atlanta Perhaps the clearest indication to date that
(FX, 2016 – ), Insecure (HBO, 2016 – ), This Trump has fostered a resurgence in racism
Is Us (NBC, 2016 – ), and Blackish (ABC, came in Charlottesville, Virginia, on August
2014 – ), just to name a few of the most 13, 2017, when armed white nationalists
notable. In the era of Trump, on the one felt emboldened to protest the removal
hand, and #blacklivesmatter on the other, of a Confederate statue, and Trump
America has entered the post postracial. responded to their clashes with counter-
What I want to argue here is that what protesters, one of whom was killed, by
we are witnessing in America right now saying that there was “blame on both
is a rematerialization of race, one that has sides” (Shear and Haberman 2017).
happened on both the political left and If the postracial discourse prevents
the political right. Trump has followed up discussion and activism about racial
the incendiary claims he made during his inequality in the United States, tacitly
campaign (accusing a Mexican judge of reinforcing racial hierarchies, then per-
bias, targeting Muslims, stating that black haps the reemergence of discourse about
Americans are living in hell) by making race on both the right and left becomes
appointments and enacting policy that an opportunity for politics, in the way
further his racial ideology. According to Rancière has articulated. For Rancière,
the Huffington Post, there were over nine politics is the antithesis to government
hundred hate incidents in the United States proper, to an established system of ruling,
in the ten days after his election, and in which he refers to as the arkhe. “Poli-
40 percent of those, Trump’s name or tics,” he writes, “is a specific break with
campaign slogans were invoked (O’Connor the logic of arkhe” (Rancière 2010: 30).
and Marans 2017). In January 2017, days Established systems of rule are instru-
before the inauguration, Trump lashed out ments of consensus, and consensus is
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at Democratic congressman John Lewis, the enemy of true democracy. Indeed,
a revered figure on both sides of the “demos,” he writes, “is the name of a part
aisle, for his involvement in the civil rights of a community . . . simply the people who
movement: Trump tweeted, “Congress- do not count, who have no entitlement to
man John Lewis should spend more time exercise the power of the arkhe” (32). In
on fixing and helping his district, which is other words, “To be of the demos is to be
in horrible shape and falling apart (not to outside of the count, to have no speech to
mention crime infested) rather than falsely be heard” (32). Those most radically dis-
203
complaining about the election results . . . enfranchised, then, are the true subjects
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of democracy, “the supplementary part in in which the argument could count as an
relation to every count of the parts of the argument, one that is addressed by a sub-
population” (33). He further clarifies this by ject qualified to argue, over an identified
saying that there are two ways of counting object, to an addressee who is required to
the parts of community — the first, in his see the object and to hear the argument
words, “counts real parts only — actual that he ‘normally’ has no reason either to
groups defined by differences in birth, see or to hear. It is the construction of a
and by the different functions, places and paradoxical world that puts together two
interests that make up the social body to separate worlds” (39, emphasis added).
the exclusion of every supplement,” and What the museum does in fact, as I hope
he calls this “the police” (36). This portion to illustrate shortly, is create dissensus by
are those who are socially visible, those forcing into visibility a series of paradoxes
who can be seen and speak within the about race in America. It puts the historical
existing order. The second way of counting narrative in which racial difference and
counts precisely those who do not have a state violence against first Africans and
part; this way of counting is politics (36). then African Americans is the basis for
So, for Rancière, politics is brought into America today, together with the narrative
being in contradistinction to the police, by of a postracial America based on the prin-
which he means the existing social order. ciples of equality, liberty, and justice for all.
Politics takes the form of “an intervention But of course, this is the paradox, as the
in the visible and the sayable” (37). This two narratives cannot exist side by side.
leads Rancière to a central claim: that “the In putting these “two separate worlds”
essence of politics is dissensus,” which together — a world that is, as yet, at odds
is not simply a confrontation between with, or not fully seeable or sayable, out-
different interests, but something much side the museum — their mutual incompati-
more fundamental: “It is the demonstra- bility comes into focus.
tion of a gap in the sensible itself” (38), Rancière identifies the existing
a gap in what can be seen and heard. In distribution of the sensible, the prevailing
other words, political demonstration brings social order with the “police,” with all that
into visibility precisely that which previ- term’s resonances, and which for him is
ously had no reason to be seen, that which at odds with politics. It is at the hands of
14:2 July 2018
lacked legibility; political demonstration the police that African Americans are the
“places one world in another” (38). victims of state violence. Under the current
We see “politics” in precisely this distribution of the sensible, these deaths
sense in the #blacklivesmatter move- are unsayable, not legible, as murder. One
•
ment, which I touch on briefly, and also in police officer after another is exonerated
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the case I am considering at length, the for the murder of young African Ameri-
National Museum of African American His- cans. It was in response to this spate of
tory and Culture. I argue that the museum deaths of African Americans at the hands
performs precisely such a political demon- of the “police,” both in Rancière’s sense
stration, on both a micro and a macro of a particular prevailing social order and
level. As I show, the museum creates the in the literal sense of law enforcement
conditions for a political argument: “Polit- agents, that a political argument — an
ical argumentation is at one and the same assertion that black lives matter — was
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time the demonstration of a possible world made sayable by the thousands of
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protesters who filled the streets after the against African Americans, in part by nam-
acquittal of George Zimmerman for the kill- ing those killed, creates a new form of vis-
ing of Trayvon Martin. The #blacklivesmat- ibility, what in Rancière’s terms might be
ter, created in 2012, sought to “broaden[] rendering a condition newly seeable and
the conversation around state violence sayable. In a discussion in September 2016
to include all of the ways in which Black between a staff writer for the Washington
people are intentionally left powerless Post, Krissah Thompson, the cocreator
at the hands of the state. We are talking of the District Black Lives Matter group,
about the ways in which Black lives are Erika Totten, and the SNCC Legacy Project
deprived of our basic human rights and dig- member Courtland Cox, Cox compared the
nity” (Black Lives Matter 2013). In protests conditions those in the civil rights move-
on the streets, and through grassroots ment were fighting against to those facing
mobilizations, the movement seeks to the Black Lives Matter group. For her part,
disrupt the veneer of a postracial America, Totten asserted that the goal of Black
literally making visible and sayable state Lives Matter is to expose racial violence
violence against black people. In a piece and injustice. She endorsed actions on
for the New Labor Forum, Russell Rickford the street, but she also argued that social
has argued that Black Lives Matter has media can serve as a powerful tool: it is
been able to advocate radical politics in a “similar to the legacy of Ida B. Wells . . .
way that was profoundly difficult during exposing on a grand stage what is hap-
Obama’s tenure, when postracial discourse pening to us” (Thompson, Totten, and Cox
was hegemonic: “Black Lives Matter has 2016). Thompson asked them both about
evolved into a potent alternative to the their thoughts on the impending opening
political paralysis and isolation that racial of the National Museum of African Amer-
justice proponents have faced since the ican History and Culture, and both were
election of Obama” (2016, 25.1:35). Unlike hopeful that it would lend visibility to the
other contemporary grassroots political black experience. For Totten, the possibil-
organization, such as MoveOn.org, Black ities were heady: “To be able to walk into
Lives Matter is not a digital campaign; a space that is expansive and intentional,
Black Lives Matter seeks to get bodies thoughtful that really talks about our
out in the streets; it is an attempt to call history of being black in this country, it’s
attention to black bodies by putting bodies really important. . . . It’s really powerful”
into public view. Writes Rickford, “Their (Thompson, Totten, and Cox 2016).
mainstay has been occupation — of high-
ways, intersections, sporting events, retail The National Museum of African
stores, malls, campaign events, police American History and Culture:
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stations, and municipal buildings” (2016, Staging an Argument
25.1:36). Indeed, this movement is about Although race has become a topic of
visibility — as opposed to the presumed debate for politicians and activists, the
invisibility of blackness — under the postra- issue is often engaged more forcefully,
cial gaze, an instance of placing one world and with greater traction, in the arena
in another, creating the conditions under of culture. The newly opened National
which someone might hear an argument Museum of African American History and
that they could not previously hear. Culture, I argue, is itself a voice in this
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Making visible this state violence debate, occupying, as it does, a prominent
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position on the National Mall, between the “a delimitation of spaces and times, of
Washington Monument and the American the visible and the invisible, of speech and
History Museum, and in the immediate noise, that simultaneously determines the
vicinity of the White House. Although the place and the stakes of politics as a form
idea for the museum is more than one of experience. Politics revolves around
hundred years old, I argue that the shape what is seen and what can be said about
it has taken — the architecture, exhibit it, around who has the ability to see and
design, historical narrative — is directly the talent to speak, around the properties
connected to racial politics in the present. of spaces and the possibilities of time”
At almost every turn, the museum, I sug- (13). Rancière is in effect claiming a privi-
gest, functions to debunk the idea of the leged place for aesthetic innovation, as it
postracial; on the one hand, it advances is through “aesthetic practices” that new
a historical narrative in which the United formal arrangements in the social world
States is a nation built on the exploitation become visible and thinkable. The aes-
of racial difference, and on the other, it thetic realm is thus a privileged arena for
fosters a museum experience in which all the political.
viewers feel their race. While black people It is therefore incumbent in an analysis
in America do not have the option of racial like this one to pay close attention to the
invisibility, white people in America do. museum’s aesthetic gestures, its architec-
But in this museum, white visitors cannot ture and design. The building itself stands
help but feel their whiteness, an experi- in stark opposition to the other museums
ence that is profoundly uncomfortable in on the Mall — which are white or slate,
this context. The museum thus creates largely in the neoclassical style. This one,
the occasion for white people to con- designed by David Adjaye, a British archi-
front the violence that whites, and white tect born in Tanzania to Ghanaian parents,
supremacy, have inflicted on blacks. That is visually striking (fig. 2). The exterior is
this experience is political, in the sense an ornately carved, bronze- colored, metal
that Rancière describes, has to do with lattice intended as an homage to the kind
the fact that what happens in the museum of intricate ironwork produced by enslaved
happens in public; black people and white African Americans in Louisiana and South
people experience this museum together Carolina (National Museum of African
14:2 July 2018
and apart, but in relation to one another. American History and Culture 2016).
To uncover the political work done by Although the design itself is graceful,
this history museum, I want to focus on its evoking the three-tiered crowns used in
particular mode of address to visitors, the Yoruban art (National Museum of African
•
kinds of confrontations, provocations, and American History and Culture 2016), Adjaye
CULTURAL POLITICS
political arguments it initiates. Dissensus, wanted the museum to be a “punch,”
Rancière argues, can be provoked aesthet- coming as it does at the “end of the row
ically by intervening in the “distribution of of palaces,” not simply a “stone box with
the sensible,” which “defines what is vis- things in it” (Shin 2016). The point here is
ible or not in a common space, endowed not simply that the museum’s exterior is
with a common language” (2004: 12 – 13). dark, in contrast to the other Smithsonian
There is, in other words, a politics to buildings, but that in being dark, it rejects
aesthetic forms, and “an ‘aesthetics’ at the hegemonic architectural style and
20 6
the core of politics.” Aesthetics, here, is look of the Mall and with it, as I show, the
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hegemonic national narrative. Indeed, in “Slavery became based on perceptions
referring to it as a “punch,” Adjaye is reg- of race. Enslaved people were considered
istering his hope that the museum might property and dehumanized. Slavery was an
itself be disruptive, perhaps even combat- inherited status and passed down through
ive, in this way. Furthermore, the architec- the generations. Slavery was for life.” Over
tural style of this museum, and also that of the course of this first floor, visitors are
the other outlier, the National Museum of drawn into the story of how, exactly, this
the American Indian, makes the whiteness happened.
of the neoclassical architecture visible. Visitors are quiet, and as they move
The internal architecture and toward the end of the first gallery, the
strategies of display have a powerful sound of crashing waves begins to the fill
symbolic dimension as well. The three the room (fig. 3). On a large video screen,
floors of history galleries, which are by all black- and-white images of waves crashing
measure the true heart of the museum, on rocks fade into images of maps and
are subterranean. There is of course a trade routes. The screen is mounted on
logic to the building’s organization, with a floor-to- ceiling wall, the Hall of Slave
the history floors below ground and the Ships, on which is inscribed the names
culture floors above. The visitor’s journey of every known slave ship, along with the
begins with a descent. From the entrance dates of the voyages, the initial cargo
level, visitors ride down a long, steep (the number of Africans at departure) and
escalator. At the bottom, a snaking queue the cargo at arrival (the number of Africans
forms for the transport elevator, which who survived the voyage). The sheer scale
performs the final descent and which can of the Middle Passage comes into view
accommodate only about forty visitors as one realizes that this wall of slave ships
at a time. The wait increases anticipation runs the entire length of the museum,
but also fosters a sense of dread, as the through multiple galleries. Adjacent to this
visitor knows that what follows will not be room, a wooden walkway, meant to evoke
comfortable. When one is finally ushered “the long, rugged slave ramp along which
into the crowded elevator, not knowing captives were marched from the mainland
quite what to expect, the elevator operator down to the shoreline” (Ruane 2016) in
explains that in addition to journeying Mozambique leads visitors in a loop around
down, the journey is also back in time. the remains of the Sao Jose, a slave
As the glass elevator descends, the ship that went down at sea. This room
years, printed on the walls of the elevator is even darker, and voice- overs reading
shaft, flash by: 1985, 1968, 1800, 1400. slave narratives fill the darkness; the
The elevator doors open onto a dimly lit accounts, read by African Americans and
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gallery, so dim it takes several moments Afro- Caribbeans, explain that many slaves
for the eyes to adjust. The ceilings are jumped overboard, into the sea, to escape
very low, and there are display cases on their fate. On either side of the walkway,
both sides. Visitors are elbow to elbow over the railing, are huge ballasts — human
with other museumgoers. The narrative cargo was light, even when Africans were
begins in 1400, with displays on one side laid one on top of another, in comparison
addressing historical developments in to other types of cargo.
Europe and, on the other, developments in This room, like the rest of the exhi-
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Africa. The very first placard announces, bition, is not experiential in the sense of
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•
CULTURAL POLITICS A lison Landsberg
enabling some kind of reenactment. One Elsewhere I have described the museal
does not enter a slave ship, or even the strategies that produce “prosthetic memo-
likeness of a slave ship; the experience ries” (Landsberg 2004) in viewers —
is not literal. Yet it is both evocative and memories of events that one did not live
208
provocative. It is meant to destabilize. through yet to which, after an experiential
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engagement with a representation of a
past event, one feels a personal, affective
connection. I have argued that prosthetic
memories are most productive when one
is brought into proximity to a past event,
but not through simple identification with
past historical actors. At the US Holo-
caust Memorial Museum (USHMM), for
example, when one is confronted with
the room full of shoes, one is brought
into contact with the enormity of what
happened. The visitor sees the shoes that
survived while their owners did not, and
at the same time feels her own shoes
on her feet. The Holocaust can never be
our experience, yet in engaging with the
room full of shoes, the visitor has had an
experience in connection to the Holocaust
and its victims, an experience that feels
meaningful. Because the Holocaust did
not happen here, in the United States, it
is not an American story. Although the
USHMM does include a critique of the
United States’ refusal to take in Jewish
refugees, Americans themselves are
not implicated in the critique. Jews and
non- Jews are invited to engage with the
Jewish experience, to see as if through
Jewish eyes. The context of the National
Museum of African American History and
Culture, an American museum designed
largely for an American audience, is quite
different. As Lonnie Bunch, the curator,
has said repeatedly, American visitors,
whether they are white or black, are to
feel that this is their story. This museum
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forces white visitors to own uncomfort-
able memories of American whiteness
and the violence American whiteness has
inflicted. By reframing the history of the
Figure 2 Smithsonian National Museum of
African American History and Culture United States with race at the center of the
narrative, the museum forces visitors to
reconsider America and what it stands for.
The memories mobilized by the museum
20 9
are politically important in that they work
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Figure 3 “Transtlantic Slave Trade” exhibit
to break through and unmask the everyday It aims to disrupt hierarchies and estab-
reality of racial oppression in the pres- lished narratives — primarily the narrative of
ent. This version of American history, in America as a nation founded on principles
other words, is in stark opposition to the of equality and freedom. After the Middle
whitewashed myth of the west advanced Passage, the story shifts to the eighteenth
by Westworld. In Bunch’s words, even if century and the process through which
you’re white, “the story of slavery is still slavery became racialized (based on Afri-
14:2 July 2018
your story” (Capehart 2016). White visitors can descent), hereditary, and lifelong. As a
to the museum cannot help but feel their placard spells out, “Africans became black
whiteness and what it has wrought both in colonial North America.” The historical
historically and now. narrative reveals that the United States is
•
The mode of address here is not fundamentally a nation built on the logics
CULTURAL POLITICS
“looking as if through black eyes.” The and economics of racial difference. This
narrative and display strategies do not careful, historical unfolding forces the
aim to elicit white visitors’ sympathy — or visitor to consider what her own whiteness
even empathy — for African Americans. has prevented her from seeing or hearing.
Instead, the museum, again and again, in The real contradiction emerges
its historical narrative and in its exhibition forcefully as the narrative of the American
design, attempts to produce dissensus; Revolution is rescripted. On an enormous
it does this both through cognitive disso- screen, the size of an entire wall, a video,
210
nance and through affective dissonance. narrated by an African American, explains
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that African Americans watched with inter- created equal . . . With certain inalienable
est in 1776 as the colonists fought the Brit- rights . . . Whenever any form of gov-
ish for their freedom. As political actors, ernment becomes destructive of these
African Americans strategically fought ends, it is the right of the people to alter or
for whoever promised them freedom. abolish it.” At this point in the exhibition,
This little room recasts the triumphalist visitors are forced to pair the conventional
narrative of a War for Independence in the narrative of American freedom from tyr-
context of a slave nation where unfreedom anny with the reality of racial oppression
was the law. and violence on which the new nation will
This central paradox is dramatically be founded. Behind Jefferson are bricks
underscored by the next room. Visitors exit or blocks, each one engraved with the
what has thus far been crowded exhibit name of one of his slaves. The change in
space — a small warren of congested, low- exhibition space, coupled with the inver-
ceilinged rooms — and enter, with a sense sions and emphasis on hypocrisy, I would
of relief, into a large hall, three stories argue, function almost like a punch; as a
high (fig. 4). Straight ahead, the visitor is powerful intervention into the distribution
greeted by a life- size statue of Thomas of the sensible, the exhibition display and
Jefferson and might imagine that a familiar, narrative generate dissensus, which is the
patriotic narrative awaits. But this expec- grounds for an urgently needed political
tation is thwarted. Beneath Jefferson, in intervention.
gold lettering, the caption reads “The Par- The “race work” done by this
adoxes of Liberty.” In gold lettering on the museum is in large part dependent on
wall behind him a passage from the Decla- the collective nature of the museumgo-
ration of Independence reads: “All men are ing experience. While there are other
Figure 4 “Paradox of Liberty” tableau
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museums on the Mall that draw a diverse may themselves have experienced — that
crowd, one cannot help but feel one’s violence makes one hyperaware of one’s
race in this one. As a white person, one’s race as a white person and has a shaming
experience is in part mediated — or triangu- effect. Again, it is not just that the narra-
lated — through the experience of the black tive makes visible the centrality of racial
museumgoers with whom one walks side oppression and violence to the construc-
by side. Almost all the dozens of articles tion, formation, and prosperity of the
that appeared in the Washington Post United States, but that white visitors are
about the opening of the museum mention confronted with the costs of that history
the heady experience of being there as a while in the presence of African Ameri-
black person: Blair L. M. Kelley, an associ- cans. One cannot hide one’s whiteness
ate professor of history at North Carolina or hide behind it. It is in this way that the
State University, describes her experi- museum forces white visitors to accept
ence as a black citizen: “It was personally their own complicity, to feel the shame of
edifying. . . . It felt like my ancestors, who their own white privilege, while in the com-
were brought to this land decades before pany of African Americans. That discom-
the nation’s founding, had come home. No fort is palpable, embodied, and profoundly
longer just a few things in a room on the racial. While black people in America feel
side, no longer just mentioned outside the their race every day, white people have the
plantation house, no longer the whispered- luxury of racial invisibility. Racializing white
about laborers or servants, they had a visitors — not by letting them see through
place” (Kelley 2016). Roy Meyers, a retired black eyes as much as forcing them to
advertising executive, was visiting from accept their own whiteness and the role
Georgia: “This museum is incredible . . . whiteness has played historically in the for-
because in many cases, as we know, the mation of the nation — is yet another way in
story has not been passed to the younger which this museum generates dissensus.
ones. It’s a difficult subject to talk about While I cannot discuss in such detail
in any meaningful way. This museum is the rest of the history galleries — those
going to open up another side of it” (Hesse that address the internal slave trade and
and Thompson 2016). Sonya Patterson, a slave auctions, abolitionism, the Civil War,
grandmother escorting three generations Reconstruction, Jim Crow, and the civil
14:2 July 2018
to the museum, said, “I am here repre- rights movement — I do want to consider
senting all of the ancestors before me” what many people take to be the heart
(Hesse and Thompson 2016). So on the of the museum: the chapel that holds
one hand, being there as a white person Emmett Till’s casket. This is by far the
•
among black people for whom the expe- most affectively charged space in the
CULTURAL POLITICS
rience feels like a pilgrimage decenters museum. Often there is a long line to
one’s own experience. Visitors need to be enter the room — on one of my visits the
respectful of someone else’s space — both wait was about an hour (fig. 5). The room
literally and metaphorically — as they navi- is small, and no photographs are allowed.
gate the rooms together. Being confronted The music playing is the gospel music
visually and aurally with the material traces that was played at Till’s funeral. Here
of white- on- black violence and hatred, the museum does deploy an experiential
while in the presence of African Americans strategy, as viewers themselves partici-
212
whose ancestors experienced — and who pate in the act of paying respects to Till,
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Figure 5 Queue to enter the Emmett Till Memorial
the fourteen-year- old boy from Chicago their business, not mine.’ Now I know
who was lynched in Mississippi in 1955 how wrong I was. The death of my son
for speaking to a white woman. Till’s body has shown me that what happens to any
was mutilated beyond recognition, and of us, anywhere in the world, had better
when it was returned to his mother in Chi- be the business of all of us.” And indeed,
cago, she decided that she would have an this is the message — that what happened
open casket so the world could see what to Emmett Till is all of our business. As
they did to her boy. I would argue that a white person, the emotions are com-
his open casket was in fact a moment of plicated: it almost feels as though one is
dissensus — Jet magazine published those trespassing in a very intimate family space.
images, and they had a seismic effect on There is an overwhelming sense of guilt
the political landscape of the country. Till’s and complicity, especially in the presence
original coffin sits on a raised platform of African Americans in this chapel. But the
along the back wall of the room. On either experience also illustrates how powerful
side are quotations, the one on the right dissensus can be in changing the course
CULTURAL POLITICS
from his mother, Mamie Till, and the one of history, as evidenced by the large- scale
on the left from Rosa Parks. Both speak response to Till’s murder. Furthermore,
to the political nature of this decision to visitors are meant to connect this dead
show the world his disfigured body. The African American boy’s body to the present
words of his mother drive home this point: day epidemic of murders of young African
“Two months ago I had a nice six- room American men by police officers.
apartment in Chicago. I had a good job. This museum makes all visitors wear
I had a son. When something happened their race, which is indeed a powerful
213
to Negroes in the South, I said, ‘That’s rebuttal to the discourse of the postracial.
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Indeed, in its recounting of recent history, sayable. It creates the occasion for politics.
the museum points to the salience of race It is in this way that the post postracial
in contemporary America. As one moves might be a step in the right direction.
up from floor to floor, one encounters
cinema- sized video screens and sitting Acknowledgments
areas. In the final video, Ta- Nehisi Coates, This essay was first presented as a keynote address
John Lewis, and others discuss how to for “An Interdisciplinary Workshop on Cultural
dismantle white privilege. In an article Memory: Memory, Nation, Race,” at the University of
for the Washington Post, Lewis (2016) St. Andrews, Scotland. I am grateful for the comments
made at the gathering.
explains,
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Alison Landsberg is professor of history and cultural studies at George Mason University.
She is the author of Engaging the Past: Mass Culture and the Production of Historical
Knowledge (2015) and Prosthetic Memory: The Transformation of American Remembrance in
the Age of Mass Culture (2004), as well as numerous articles and book chapters. Her research
on film, television, and museums has focused on the modes of engagement they solicit
from individuals and the possibilities therein for the production and acquisition of empathy,
215
memory, politics, and historical knowledge in the public sphere.
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