RACE exhibit
For my scholarly event, I attended the RACE exhibit at the Science Museum in St. Paul. I thought that the exhibit was informative, leading off of topics that we have discussed in class. The main message behind the exhibit was that there is no scientific evidence behind “race�; in fact, all humans share a common ancestry. Rather, race is socially constructed by society. One quote that I liked, but I’m not sure who said it, “The separate physical traits used to mark one race from another aren’t linked to another nor to any aspect of human variation,� and it was basically restating that there is no biological/scientific reason for race. The exhibit also brought up white privilege, and the idea of the so-called “melting pot� that when it was first created, was extended to only white immigrants and not to people of color.
The exhibit focused on other “races� as well. There was a quote given by a Native American expressing how his people have felt racism too and how even though they aren’t given credit even though they were here long before the pilgrims, “We are dedicated to our country- the physical land…It makes no difference whose name is on the deed. We are the landlords�- George Horse Capture.
One aspect of the exhibit that I found especially interesting was the feature on the University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux. I’m from Grand Forks, where UND is. It was interesting to see how differently the situation is portrayed here than in Grand Forks. I’m not saying that the Native Americans don’t have the right to be offended by the “mascot�, but I personally do not understand it. At all sporting events, every game begins with a five minute tribute to the tribe. Also, at games, there aren’t unruly fans mocking the tribe, and we don’t have a mascot dressing up in tribal garments dancing around in the audience. Also, one of the main causes for concern about having to change the mascot from the Sioux falls around the issue of what will happen to our hockey arena. Ralph Engeldstad donated 100 million dollars to the university to build a state of the art hockey arena. It’s absolutely gorgeous. However, in building the arena, he stated that it could only be used if we kept the name “Sioux�. He made sure of this by having the Sioux emblem embedded in the marble floors and walls and seats; if the name is changed, the arena is useless. I know that probably eventually the nickname will have to be changed. I know that it isn’t right to keep a name if it’s making a group of people uncomfortable, yet I wish that it didn’t have to be that way. The Fighting Sioux are a tradition in North Dakota. I just wanted to put this out there because I feel like other cities paint the wrong picture of Sioux fans as disrespectful and discriminatory towards Native Americans, and this is not the case.
In conclusion, I thought that the exhibit displayed a wide variety of topics concerning race. I liked all the different areas that represented racial topics: forensic science, medicine, schools, racial classification, etc. I’d recommend this exhibit to others in our class because it tied together a lot of the things that we have discussed in class.