From: Matt Carter <cartermc1104@gmail.com> Date: Mon, 19 Feb 2018 12:11:47 -0600 Subject: Re: Offensive names Message-Id: <FF4166E2-A07B-40BD-BCC6-1A63637EE2A9@gmail.com>
Hi Bill,
While I was at the Dunn County Historical Society, we did an exhibit on Afri
can American barnstorming baseball.
We had an intro panel to this exhibit that explained some of the text isnâ
€™t of the language we use today and is often times deemed racist. We al
so stated that language, whether spoken or written, can be seen as an artifa
ct of history as well.
Matt Carter
Sent from my iPhone
> On Feb 19, 2018, at 11:31 AM, JANET IRENE SEYMOUR <> On Feb 19, 2018, at 11:31 AM, JANET IRENE SEYMOUR <janet.seymour@wisconsin
history.org> wrote:
>
> Bill: You asked about the possibility of including a caveat at the beginni
ng of the article. The following text appears on the Smithsonian Transcripti
on Center website, which includes similar documents to those you referenced:
>
> "Please note that some language in this collection may be culturally insen
sitive, or offensive to some viewers. It is presented as it exists in the or
iginal document for the benefit of research. The materials reflects the cult
ure and context in which i t was created and not the views of the Smithsonia
n Institution."
> From: localhistory-request@listserve.uwec.edu < <localhistory-request@listse
rve.uwec.edu> on behalf of Diana Bolander <museumdirector@platteville.org>
> Sent: Monday, February 19, 2018 10:56:25 AM
> To: localhistory@listserve.uwec.edu
> Subject: RE: Offensive names
>
> Bill,
>
> We recently did an exhibit on African American Lead Miners and one of the m
iners, James Williams, had a diggings that was called the "Nigger Jim Mine" o
n government documents as late as the 1960s. We felt that it was important n
ot to censor this and instead to draw attention to it as an opportunity to t
alk about discrimination and the Jim Crow era. We had two advisors from dif
ferent universities look over the exhibit text to make sure it was appropria
te.
>
> Private message me if you have any questions or would like to see the text
we ended up using. The Jim Crow Museum at Ferris State University in Michi
gan might be a good resource as well. https://ferris.edu/HTMLS/news/jimcrow
/
>
> Diana
>
> Diana Bolander
> Museum Director
> The Mining & Rollo Jamison Museums | City of Platteville
> 405 E. Main St./PO Box 780 | Platteville, Wisconsin
> (608) 348-3301
> museumdirector@platteville.org | mining.jamison.museum
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: localhistory-request@listserve.uwec.edu [mailto:localhistory-request
@listserve.uwec.edu] On Behalf Of William Schuette
> Sent: Friday, February 16, 2018 6:12 PM
> To: List Serve <localhistory@listserve.uwec.edu>
> Subject: Offensive names
>
> We have old settler's articles and newspaper stories on our Web site from t
he late 1800s and early 1900s, which contain a few derogatory names for Afri
can Americans and Native American females. How do other organizations treat s
uch occurrences? Do we leave them as written with the understanding that th
e usage was based on the time period, perhaps with a caveat at the beginning
of the article explaining why they were retained? Or do we delete these ref
erences and put a bracket [ ] with an explanation as to why the words have b
een excised?
>
> Bill
>
> Sauk County Historical Society
>