Race Exhibit at Minnesota Science museum. / Terry Gydesen
A provocative, much-acclaimed exhibit on race and racism touches down Saturday at Rochester Museum & Science Center.
It’s the first national show to explore race from biological, historical and cultural perspectives. And Rochester is the first New York city to host it since it began touring 30 American cities in 2007.
“Science challenges the foundations of race — telling us that we are much more the same than different,” says RMSC president Kate Bennett. “This exhibition is expected to spark conversations about race and racism, which are important steps in changing ideas we have when it comes to our differences.”
“Race: Are We So Different?” is intended primarily for visitors in fifth grade or older, partly because of the serious social issues it addresses. But its interactive components should appeal to all age levels.
One display uses 3-D animation to give visitors a close-up view of their molecular makeup. Another lets them scan their skin and compare it to other visitors’ skin tones. A third challenges them to match taped voices with photos of people of varied races, to see if they can determine people’s race by their speech.
The exhibit also will serve as a springboard for community activities on racial concerns. (The first of the events planned are listed in the diversity calendar on Page 5C and at faceraceroc.org.) Guest speakers, discussions and performing arts events will be held at RMSC and other local venues.
“On certain Sundays, we’ll highlight our city’s different ethnicities in a family-friendly way,” says Calvin Uzelmeier, RMSC’s director of education. “We’ll host Borinquen Dance Theatre, an African-American gospel choir and poetry slams as our way of celebrating diversity.”
“Race” is arguably the most ambitious of several Rochester exhibits that have tried to spur societal change since the late 1990s.
For example, in 1997, 12 local cultural groups organized Landscape/Land Use, a citywide set of exhibits on environmental awareness. Last year, RMSC presented a powerful display on the global impact of the 9/11 bombings, using artifacts from Ground Zero.
“Race” differs significantly from those ventures. It uses scientific findings to prompt dialogue on racism and its corrosive effects on society.
Specifically, it maintains that humans are more alike genetically than any other species alive today. We share a common ancestry, and so-called racial variations actually result from marriage, migration or adaptation to new environments.
Setting people apart by racial characteristics is a relatively recent concept, the exhibit states. (In America, this practice became deeply ingrained through slavery.) The exhibit illustrates how these differences are experienced in neighborhoods, schools and homes.
Its forceful appeal for racial equality impressed the Rochester Area Community Foundation, which contributed $200,000 to bring the exhibit to Rochester. It was the group’s largest discretionary grant in 18 years.
“The foundation works to create enduring, positive change,” says Jennifer Leonard, its president and CEO. “We identified race relations as a significant Rochester issue, because it leads to disparities in health, housing, education and employment. Rochester’s disparities exceed those of the nation as a whole, causing and exacerbating poverty here.”
The exhibit’s local relevance also was quickly apparent to RMSC leaders.
“We’re very excited to sponsor an exhibit that encourages conversation about race,” says Bennett. “Next year will be the 50th anniversary of Rochester’s race riots. We think this is a good time to bring people together and set new community goals.”
Nearly 40 percent of Rochester’s population is black and 16.5 percent is Hispanic, the 2010 U.S. census reported. But beyond its demographic makeup, the city’s history is inextricably bound to racial struggle.
In the mid-1800s, Frederick Douglass’ abolitionist activities and the Underground Railroad made Rochester a haven for black Americans seeking freedom. A century later, the city’s reputation suffered a lasting reverse when the nation’s first major race riot erupted here.
On July 24, 1964, police tried to arrest an intoxicated black youth at a block party on Nassau Street. Accusations of police brutality sparked three days of violent disturbances around Joseph Avenue, Nassau Street and downtown. Four people died and 350 were hurt before the National Guard restored order.
The upheaval quickly was blamed on deep-rooted racism and poverty, since most local African-Americans held low-paying jobs and lived in substandard housing.
The devastated neighborhoods were rebuilt — yet deep economic disparities still are blamed for chronically low high school graduation rates among Rochester’s African-American and Hispanic students. Many other American cities also contain minority youths at high risk of unemployment, criminal activity and unstable family relationships.
Against this troubled backdrop, the Race exhibit was launched in 2007 by the American Anthropological Association and the Science Museum of Minnesota. Its call for social change resonated loudly in multi-ethnic cities like Detroit, Jersey City, N.J., and Philadelphia, whose museums were among the first to host it.
Interest in bringing it to Rochester gathered momentum in 2010. One of the first to promote it was Robert Ulin, an anthropology professor at Rochester Institute of Technology. While teaching in Kalamazoo, Mich., he had helped the Kalamazoo Valley Museum acquire the exhibit.
“Kalamazoo has very strong racial divides,” he says. “The exhibit was an opportunity to regenerate community efforts that were foundering. ... It was a tremendous success.”
He discussed the exhibit with Bennett, who was eager to showcase it at RMSC. James Norman, president of Action for a Better Community, made himself the point man to secure financing. He asked the Rochester Initiative for Structural Equality (best known as RISE, a coalition formed by his agency) to head the fundraising. He and Bennett approached Leonard about a grant in the summer of 2011.
“We discussed how the exhibit could be a catalyst for deepening our community’s understanding about the myths and realities of race,” he recalls. “And how such understanding is fundamentally important for any efforts to mitigate or eliminate race- and ethnicity-based inequalities.”
In early 2012, the Rochester Area Community Foundation approved the $200,000 grant.
The exhibit, Leonard says, can promote conversation about a critical, sensitive issue in a congenial way: “For us to change as a community, individual hearts and mind have to change.”
RISE then began planning community and educational activities around the exhibit.
The exhibit faces one obvious problem wherever it travels: Minority students in low-income school districts may not get the opportunity to see it.
RMSC took steps to make sure that disadvantaged youngsters can visit. It will provide free or reduced admission, busing and educational materials to more than 3,700 disadvantaged students from local urban and rural communities.
The museum also will host special programs for mixed groups of city and rural schoolchildren. After they tour the exhibit, a theater troupe will perform for them.
“One actor is African-American, the other Caucasian,” says Uzelmeier. “Their show, Race to the Finish, will engage the students in a debate about racial issues. Trained facilitators will help them talk about how race impacts their daily lives.”
Ulin hails the new exhibit as a valuable educational tool, but cautions against unrealistic expectations.
“Some people are extremely frustrated that change isn’t happening fast enough,” he says.“This exhibit isn’t going to solve all of Rochester’s problems on racial inequality. But any time you have people talking to each other, the outcome can only be positive.”
Indeed, visitors get the last word in this far-ranging exhibit. On a large map of the world, they can scribble their thoughts about race and its place in their lives.
It recalls RMSC’s 9/11 exhibit, where visitors could leave objects on a memorial fence to express their feelings.
“Race” invites a similar personal response. Only this time, the aim is to tear down fences.