“Polly want a derogatory term for a melanin-challenged Euro-American?”
Posted May 18th, 2012 by Kristin Gallas
The origin of the word “cracker” was never important to me.1 Growing up in Vermont, my only relationship to the word was something we put in soup or ate with cheese. I was vaguely aware that it was a pejorative term of southerners, but I never gave it much thought.
That all changed a few years ago when I started working for the Tracing Center. I was trying to think of an interesting introductory activity for a teacher workshop – I wanted something that would ground people in the content of slavery and get them comfortable with the idea of talking about difficult subjects. I chose four words – “slave”, “master”, “cracker”, and “quadroon” – and each person was given one word to respond to in writing. They were to write down whatever came to mind about the word and then we went around in a circle and shared responses. I’ve done this activity multiple times hence and have found it a great way to start a discussion. However, I always run into the same problem … people will ask about the origin of the word “cracker”?
- The title of this blog post comes from www.vendio.com. [↩]
Why don’t black Americans swim?
Posted April 11th, 2012 by James DeWolf Perry
James DeWolf Perry is the Tracing Center’s executive director. This entry is cross-posted from James’ own blog, The Living Consequences, and the opinions expressed are his own.
Why don’t black Americans swim?
This is the provocative headline of a BBC News story, and it would be easy to misinterpret the BBC’s meaning. This is, after all, a sweeping generalization, and one which has been a racial stereotype in the United States for many generations.
However, the BBC reporter cites credible statistics to support the widely-held belief that swimming is, in fact, nowhere near as common among black Americans as it is among white Americans.
More importantly, the article argues that this situation arises out of the nation’s painful legacy of slavery and race and has deadly consequences.
12th Annual Congressional Civil Rights Pilgrimage
Posted March 6th, 2012 by Katrina Browne
I had the incredible opportunity and honor to participate in the 12th annual Civil Rights Pilgrimage to Alabama this past weekend sponsored by the Faith & Politics Institute and hosted by Congressman John Lewis. We visited Birmingham, Montgomery and Selma – going to the specific sites of so many defining moments in the Civil Rights movement. The delegation included 17 members of Congress from both parties; civil rights leaders in addition to Congressman Lewis: Dorothy Cotton, Rev. Dr. Bernard Lafayette, Bob Zellner; John Seigenthaler (who represented Robert F. Kennedy as intermediary between fed. govt., freedom riders, and segregationist state officials), Ethel Kennedy and Kerry Kennedy; Bill Plante (who covered the events in Alabama and Mississippi in 1965 for CBS); Ruby Bridges (the first black child to integrate a white school). There were c. 240 of us in total on the Pilgrimage – from government, the private sector, the non-profit sector, universities, religious institutions, etc. It was a remarkable group of people (including a youth contingent) to spend 3 days with absorbing lessons from these landmark dates and places.
Tim Wise on accountability in racial justice
Posted December 29th, 2011 by James DeWolf Perry
Tim Wise has a very thoughtful statement on his web site proposing principles for being accountable to others while working on issues of race and racial justice. It’s obviously the product of considerable reflection over time, as well as engagement with many other people, and it’s well worth reading by anyone working in this field—or who simply wants to make personal progress in this area.
A handful of key passages, and a link to Tim’s full statement on his web site, are below.
December 2011 newsletter
Posted December 27th, 2011 by James DeWolf Perry
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Leadership transition
Posted June 24th, 2011 by James DeWolf Perry
The Tracing Center is pleased to announce that our founding executive director, Katrina Browne, has taken on a new role as our director of ideas and external affairs. This shift will allow her to dedicate her time to public activities, content development, and other work on behalf of the organization.
The board of directors has hired James Perry to be our new executive director. James was the founding board chair and president of the Tracing Center and has been centrally involved, since 1999, with Traces of the Trade, for which he shared an Emmy nomination.
Civil War’s dirty secret about slavery
Posted April 12th, 2011 by James DeWolf Perry
We have an op-ed today at CNN.com on how to understand the relationship of the North to slavery and race on the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War.
The essay, written by Executive Director Katrina Browne and Managing Director James DeWolf Perry, builds on our ongoing work around the sesquicentennial of the Civil War and the enduring historical myths which blind us to the legacy of slavery and race today.
Here is how the op-ed begins:
This week marks the 150th anniversary of the outbreak of the U.S. Civil War, a war that redefined national and regional identities and became an enduring tale of noble resistance in the South and, for the rest of the country, a mighty moral struggle to erase the stain of slavery.
On April 12, 1861, Confederate forces opened fire on the beleaguered Union garrison at Fort Sumter, South Carolina. By April 14, the fort had fallen and the war had begun in earnest.
By the time Fort Sumter was again in Union hands, following the evacuation of Charleston in the closing days of the war in 1865, the war had become the bloodiest in the nation’s history — and has not been surpassed. Yet the relationship of the North to the South, and to slavery before and during the war is not at all what we remember today. The reality is that both North and South were profoundly complicit in slavery and deeply reluctant to abolish our nation’s “peculiar institution.”
To read the full article, go to “Civil War’s dirty secret about slavery” at CNN.com.
Calvin College’s Inner Compass Series
Posted February 18th, 2011 by Christie Gibson
Watch Katrina Browne and Juanita Brown’s interview with Karen Saupe of Calvin College.
Interviews in Grand Rapids
Posted January 25th, 2011 by Christie Gibson
On Katrina Browne’s recent visit to Grand Rapids sponsored by the West Michigan AmeriCorps Collaborative, she was interviewed by Fox 17 News. Segments One and Two are both available on Fox 17′s web site.
Letter from Katrina Browne
Posted December 16th, 2010 by Katrina Browne
Dear friends,
I am so pleased to be sending the first newsletter from our new non-profit: The Tracing Center on Histories and Legacies of Slavery. Here you can read great stories about what we’ve been up to this year with many different collaborators … all over the U.S. and overseas. We wholeheartedly invite you to get further involved with our efforts, through programming and/or financial support.
We formed the Tracing Center in 2010 as an organic extension of two years of work screening Traces of the Trade, having heard, again and again, about the ongoing need for programming about slavery and race that works at a more systemic level, such as in the fields of education and public history. We received encouraging feedback in a comprehensive on-line survey about our 2009 programming, showing high demand for broader and deeper programming. You can read our mission statement here.
