Race in America Through the Eyes of Youtube

A very interesting video installation. Exhibiting American opinions on race and blackness a few seconds at a time. Wish I could see the entire thing.

For more on this installation please see this LA Times article After Ferguson: U.S. museums need to show a work by Natalie Bookchin

Reblog: Joint Statement From Museum Bloggers & Colleagues on Ferguson

This statement was to important to not pass on. Please Read! Reblogged from the amazing blog Cabinet of Curiosities.

"The recent series of events, from Ferguson to Cleveland and New York, have created a watershed moment. Things must change. New laws and policies will help, but any movement toward greater cultural and racial understanding and communication must be supported by our country’s cultural and educational infrastructure. Museums are a part of this educational and cultural network. What should be our role(s)?

Schools and other arts organizations are rising to the challenge.University law schools are hosting seminars on Ferguson. Colleges are addressing greater cultural and racial understanding in various courses. National education organizations and individual teachers are developing relevant curriculum resources, including the #FergusonSyllabus project initiated by Dr. Marcia Chatelain. Artists and arts organizationsare contributing their spaces and their creative energies. And pop culture icons, from basketball players to rock stars, are making highly visible commentary with their clothes and voices.

Where do museums fit in? Some might say that only museums with specific African American collections have a role, or perhaps only museums situated in the communities where these events have occurred. As mediators of culture, all museums should commit to identifying how they can connect to relevant contemporary issues irrespective of collection, focus, or mission.

We are a community of museum bloggers who write from a variety of perspectives and museum disciplines. Yet our posts contain similar phrases such as  “21st century museums,” “changing museum paradigms,” “inclusiveness,” “co-curation,” “participatory” and “the museum as forum.” We believe that strong connections should exist between museums and their communities. Forging those connections means listening and responding to those we serve and those we wish to serve.

There is hardly a community in the U.S. that is untouched by the reverberations emanating from Ferguson and its aftermath. "...

Continue reading here: https://adriannerussell.wordpress.com/2014/12/11/joint-statement-from-museum-bloggers-colleagues-on-ferguson/

It is time I made ready for what is to come

I have been slower than I intended in blogging as of late because I am working on some very important applications. After the exhaustion of completing my master's degree finally began to wear off I knew I needed to move on to the next step, but something kept stopping me. I was tired of not making much money, tired of used furniture, budgeting, living paycheck-to-paycheck and watching the majority of my friends back home making big money and moving into gorgeous condos and large homes. I thought now is the time to make money. Then current events and frustrating interactions put a hold on that $$$quest and spun me back to my original goal.

JOINT STATEMENT FROM MUSEUM BLOGGERS & 

COLLEAGUES ON FERGUSON

See, first there was Trayvon Martin. Then after his story hit the news there was the slow accumulation of other names. Men, women and children who were killed before and after him. Their deaths were no longer individual events that only their families or local communities cared about. A movement was growing. Their stories became a collective narrative of state sanctioned violence in a polarized country that was still unable to honestly handle interracial conversations about slavery. Which "ended" almost 150 years ago. When the verdict came back and Darren Wilson went home without an indictment, I was not surprised. When Eric Garner was choked to death by a police officer, I was not surprised. When that officer was not charged I was not surprised. And then suddenly I was staring at my laptop at an ever lengthening list of the dead and I was enraged. I could not write a summary of how my slavery workshops went. I could not answer any of the docents post-it note questions about how to handle a racist cousin, or was George Washington kind, or how do you explain to a black 8 year old that yes the house you work in is a memorial to a man who special ordered a little girl from Africa 200 years ago and funded a stinking, swaying ocean going dungeon that killed more than half of its prisoners. I Could Not! I could not write anything that was not an outpouring of my anger. 

My first slavery workshop last month went so well. I gave the briefest most basic history of slavery I possibly could without skipping some necessary information. Then we got the questions rolling and had a wonderful conversation. Then I hosted the second workshop for more than twice as many people. I had been told to cut the general history and instead discuss the history of slavery in Rhode Island followed by an extended period of discussion time. My time ended up being cut down even further thanks to parking issues and announcements. But how do you have an informed conversation on a topic you know little about. Without the general history I had a difficult time during the second workshop reading the room and figuring out a baseline of knowledge. We had an interesting discussion but I received some very frustrating questions and comments that told me A) the workshop was a bandaid, B) further education was needed and C) there needs to be more diversity among docents and staff. I will address C in a separate post. I was so incredibly frustrated after that second workshop. I had to do something. When I am upset and stressed out I have to do something that feels constructive or my brain will refuse to shut down and allow me to sleep at night.

Soon after that second workshop Darren Wilson went home backed by a supportive local white community and with his pockets lined with donations from people around the country who believe he shot a good for nothing thug. And then there was Eric Garner. And then there was Tamir Rice. And my empathy sensors broke down for a few days. I felt helpless. I have four wonderful intelligent nephews. What will happen to them. One is a tall healthy looking 16 year old with autism. He is so quick and has an amazing memory and spelling skills and comes from a loving family. But will his awkward social skills get him killed one day? Will his crime be looking menacing when he is actually scared or threatening when he is just confused? Will he walk forward so that he can hear better when he should back up? Sometimes he goes out wondering around. He got hit by a car last year while lost in his own neighborhood. He was so terrified. What if someone said he had attacked their car? What if the police had seen him walking and tried to question him. He may not have reacted the way a non-autistic kid reacts. I can't continue these thoughts because it breaks my heart.

I have been thinking about my nephews and nieces, my friends who just gave birth to black sons, my own desire for children, the workshop discussions and all of the poorly handled race conversations I have witnessed over the last few years. I have to do something. I've tried marching. I've tried letter writing. I have tried arguing. But my life's mission is to educate. Sharing knowledge and passing down stories. There is a movement stirring and I cannot sit here numb to it all. There is a part for everyone to play. Mine is to continue studying, teaching and engaging average Americans in difficult but necessary histories.

Education is the greatest armor in the war for the American dream. It is time I made ready.

My favorite Moment of Zen

The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Indecision Political Humor,The Daily Show on Facebook

The Slavery Problem: A Good Master

Is there such thing as a good or kind master? 

I have been considering this question for sometime. What do you think? I posed this question during both of my slavery workshops for the Rhode Island Historical Society's docents. One man compared it to the question of whether someone can truly be a "benevolent dictator." Isn't a master a dictator whose kingdom is his home, or his farm or his plantation. During slavery that dictatorial power stretched beyond the reaches of the land he/she owned and follows the master wherever they went within a slave society. That power also followed them into the "free territory". Perhaps it may have been challenged but there would have almost always been someone to reinforce the master's power over the enslaved.

To truly examine this question we need to first break it down.

• What does it mean to be a slave master?
• What does it mean to be good?

As you consider these questions, please enjoy a brief clip from one of my favorite YouTube series, Ask A Slave.




I'll be back later in the week with my take. Until then please comment or tweet to me @their_child

Update Dec 19th

Add caption

The Slavery Problem Or the Problem with Slavery: A Walking Tour

RIHS docent leading a walking tour of College Hill

A couple of months ago I took the Rhode Island Historical Society’s Women’s History walking tour of historic Benefit Street in Providence. I ended up being the only person to show up for the tour. Instead of canceling it, a very friendly and knowledgeable docent and I set off up the hill. As we walked she pointed out various points of interest and enthusiastically explained their importance. In between sites she asked a few get-to-know-you questions and found out that I had just finished grad school at Brown, was from out of state, and was interested in African American history, slavery and cemeteries. What began as a tour of sites connected to some of the many notable women of College Hill eventually evolved into a much larger tour that led us off College Hill, through St. John's Episcopal Church cemetery, through the Athenaeum and past the local preservation society's office.
 

It was an incredibly serendipitous walk. There is nothing better than having an enthusiastic teacher and my guide was full of facts and interesting stories. She was so knowledgeable of local history that she eventually customized our walk to some of my particular interests. That included leading me to the picturesque St. John's Church Cemetery. Even though it was way off the usual tour it gave us a chance to briefly discuss and examine an aspect of Providence’s history of slavery. There among the graves of 19th century Providence Episcopalian elites lies a selection of their favored enslaved servants. She rattled off a few facts she remembered and pointed out graves of interest. This was a history that she was not particularly versed in but she believed it would be a site that I would appreciate. She was correct! Our conversation turned from the usual, well rehearsed and researched details of popular Providence tourist sites to a history she, as an older Rhode Island raised white woman, was not too comfortable discussing. I appreciated that too. Slavery is a difficult topic for many people to handle. She made the effort to push past her natural discomfort and in the end we both gained a lot from the experience.
 

As we walked back to the John Brown House she confided that she sometimes gave tours where she had to talk about slavery. Sometimes she wanted to avoid or rush through that part of the tour. Her hesitation seemed to stem from both guilt and fear. She was not the only docent who had been having a difficult time talking about slavery. She wanted to do better but, she was not sure how. Also, the history of slavery in and of itself was not always the problem. She and several others had experienced negative reactions coming from visitors when they did discuss slavery and felt attacked by other visitors when they did not. The history of the John Brown House and other historic sites important to Rhode Island’s tourist industry, like pretty much every historic site in America, is tied to a fraught, and often intentionally invisible history. Slavery is not always the issue, but there are often stories that house managers, docents and boards continue to keep under wraps. Perhaps that is for a reason. Who wants to host their fantasy wedding in a mansion where an enslaved 7 year old was kept like a pet of her enslaver and forced to sleep in a stifling windowless attic until her death? And even then she was buried at her enslaver’s feet. Who wants to bring their grandchild to visit the home of a man who was at least partially responsible for the imprisonment of 196 innocent young men, young women and small children? Will the tour be easier or harder if you reveal that of the 196 incarcerated people 109 died of starvation, suicide, illness or murder before they could be auctioned off to the highest bidder thousands of miles from anyone or anyplace they had ever known? How should a docent explain that story?
 

These are difficult histories to tell. But they are necessary.
Over the coming weeks I will explore the many issues faced by historic house staff and docents as they attempt to deal with their site’s history of slavery. Each post will start off with a question I received from a local docent.

From Fred Wilson's Mining the Museum Exhibition for the Maryland Historical Society

Plantains and Cultural Politics

I headed to Puerto Rico last week hoping to learn more about the island's enslaved ancestry and instead learned a great lesson about the complicated nature of representation in the colonial and post colonial context.

First of all for anyone who doesn't know, Puerto Rico is a US territory. Puerto Ricans are US citizens and they (and we American/main-landers) can travel back and forth with as little as a drivers license or other government issued ID. That is because back in the mid to late 1800's America decided that now that it was no longer a British colony it was time to assert it's new found power on the world stage by colonizing someone else. The new government did not have to look very far. American military commanders and pro-slavery robber barons, starting under Lincoln, wanted control of the islands of the Antillies because of their militarily and economically strategic positions. PR was a gateway to the riches of Latin America, an excellent military outpost, and thanks to slave and forced labor- a pretty excellent wealth generator. The Spanish-American war ensued but in the end Haiti wrestled their independence from all of the colonial powers; Cuba and the Dominican Republic were eventually granted their independence from Spain; and Puerto Rico became an American colony.

Even though PR is now considered a part of America, it is not an official state and its representatives can speak but cannot vote in congress. Kind of like Washington, DC. Their historically disempowered voice in their own affairs has had a huge impact on the country. Even though they are no longer a colony it certainly seems like they are. PR is still a very colonial country (American is better - English is better - Whiter/more European is better). Every where I went in San Juan, and in some of the larger cities, I found myself confused about whether I was actually in PR or the US. My cell phone worked, most people spoke english, the mall had everything from Forever 21 to Jc Penney to Church's Chicken (how dare they import such an awful franchise!) The little strip malls along the highways were just as full of American brands. The prices were comparable even though the wages are lower on the island. American businesses crowded out local venders even in some of the mountain villages. Why was there a Pep Boys in every town?

So I eventually found myself intrigued by and exploring the post/current colonial narrative through the lens of public and institutionalized.

Art Commentary:

The banana like fruit called the plantain is informally considered the national fruit. It popped up in every museum and in street art and was used frequently as a representative of Puerto Rican Culture. The two pieces below are both title Our Daily Bread. The first one was created in 1905 and is considered a masterwork by one of PR's earliest native born artists. Below is a modern artist's reinvention of the image. Plantains are meant to represent the island's poor, rural, more primitive elements (native Taino/indian and/or African roots) while also speaking to a sense of local independence and power (production power, landowning independent peasants).

Artist Ramon Frade's Our Daily Bread 1905

Victor Vazquez's "Our Daily Bread" 2009. This image was every where in the art museums and book stores I visited

More plantain art

 

Instead of the ubiquitous "Jesus piece", a platinum plantain

The text in the image is particularly evocative. In order to become American, he must squeeze all of the plantain (Puerto Rican) out.

 

El Velorio (1893) A baby funeral party. These types of parties for dead babies used to be a popular activity in the rural villages. Note the plantains hanging from the rafter to remind us of the location of the party in rural PR

Fine art in the public space. Below are several images I photographed on a long barrier in a San Juan neighborhood. It was curated by two local art teachers and each piece was created by one of their students. Each references Puerto Rican culture or history.

 

 

Is that George Washington, representing America, showing us the new military position he just acquired? The castle like structure in the background likely represents one of the two major colonial era military forts in San Juan. I'm pretty sure we are all familiar with the museum reference this is making

 

One thing I did not get a chance to photograph due to time constraints, exhaustion and the incredibly short battery life of my phone, was a guerrilla style street art exhibition. While walking to find a grocery store in a slowly gentrifying neighborhood in San Juan, I noted a space where a building had been nocked down. The small lot consisted of three concrete walls belonging to other rundown buildings. Upon entering the ragged weed covered lot I realized that all three walls were decorated with art. Each piece was given a clearly designated space and each one appeared to have been created by a different artist. Some pieces were spray pained on, others involved stenciling and others were hand painted. I was blown away. They had everything but labels and a docent. I tried to go back to the space on my last day in PR to get pictures but we ran out of time searching for it and decided it was best not to miss our flight home.

If you go to PR in the future definitely check out:

1 Museo de Arte de Ponce

2 The Puerto Rican Gallery of art in San Juan

3 Museo de la Masacre de Ponce - all about a massacre of unarmed Puerto Rican citizens on Palm Sunday by an American led police force. Small but fascinating museum.

And for fun you must go to Vieques and sit on a deserted beach.

Ships of Bondage Exhibition

Last year I worked on my first real exhibition for the Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice at Brown University. We installed it at the Center for Public Humanities Carriage House Gallery in the spring of 2013. It was a such a success that a curator from the Iziko Slave Lodge in Capetown South Africa invited us to reinstall it in one of their gallery spaces. I was invited to go along and help with the installation. That is a big story unto itself that I still need to write about. There is so much to say about my experiences working on this wonderful exhibition. For now I wanted to share the mini catalog for the South African version of the exhibition.

Theres No Excuse!

I am posting the poster below in honor of my father's birthday yesterday and his never ending love for Nina Simone.

I did not always appreciate Nina Simone's music just like I did not always appreciate my father's seemingly constant storytelling. But once I went off to college I started to find new meaning in her music and his stories. Suddenly, I understood exactly what type of strange fruit was hanging from the poplar trees. Suddenly I knew exactly where Welborn street was. 

Children may not always understand the stories we tell them in the moment. They may seem like they are too busy trying to race back to the TV, or impatiently waiting for you to finish speaking so that they can check their text messages. But they are listening. We are listening even when we don't realize it. My father would tell me stories about growing up on the hardscrabble streets of Atlanta's West End. Then years later bits and pieces of his memories would come rushing back to me when I exited Spelman College's wrought iron side gate, waltzed down "the strip" and took a wrong turn down an old street.

I knew who my heroes and heroines were because my parents told me all about them while I was growing up. Even when I was one of the only, or often, the only black kid in the honors and AP classes, I knew exactly who my heroes were. I wasn't looking up to basketball players and movies stars, I was thinking about Harriet Tubman, George Washington Carver, Arnedia Magby, Neil Degrasse Tyson. My parents wrapped me in the strength and the power of my ancestors' memories and pointed out that if so and so the former slave/poverty-raised-child could do something, then I certainly could too. 

Our children's heroes and heroines should be more than the people they see on TV. We should all be looking up to the many incredible people who came before us for strength in the face of the many obstacles that life throws in our way.  

The "Grandparent Experience" Loving and Loss

I've never had the privilege of having what I like to think of as the "grandparent experience". Well at least I do not remember much about when I did. I've been longing for grandparents, for gray haired old people, who loved and cherished me, for as long as I can remember. And for as long as I can remember I've resented not having them. I had a grandmother who was still living up until a few years ago, but the complicated nature of her relationship with my father and the distance kept us from ever being close. I always felt like she some how couldn't be trusted but not because she had ever done anything personally to me to lose my trust. Just a lot of historic resentments that had soured a relationship long before it could be given an opportunity to blossom.

So I've adopted old people instead. I've tried to chose grandparents to love and listen to who could replace the ones I felt like I should have been given. Replace the ones who were taken away before I had the chance to meet or be conscious of their existence. Then slowly the ones I adopted began to leave me and the old ache and resentment of the original loss sprang anew.

I'm losing one of my adopted grandparents. He is my great great uncle Alphonsa "Fuzz" Cook. He stepped in, unknowingly, to replace the love and kindness I like to imagine I would have received from his older brother Frank. I probably would not have gotten much from Frank. The more I delve into his life the more problematic he becomes. He was a slender, intelligent man who was full of ideas. He pushed hard against the limits set upon him by his race and his poverty but for every small win there were lingering losses that eventually took him down at an early age. There did not appear to be too many people around to shed tears when he was gone. But my uncle Fuzz was different.

My Uncle Fuzz was cautious and hard working. He had a little ice cream stand that he pushed around in front of a bicycle. Then when he was barely old enough he joined the Navy as a cook. He fought his way out of poverty, and out of Atlanta, a city that for him would always be a world of drama, frustrations and familial entanglements that seemed to constantly threaten his sanity. He married a beautiful, feisty young woman named Shirley and he took her around the world. They got away from the crime, the problems, the servant jobs and the segregation. They made a life for themselves and their children in Italy, Germany, Scotland and later Newport, RI.

The uncle Fuzz I grew up visiting was a joy to be with. He was like a chocolate Santa Clause brought to life; tall and strong like an oak but so sweet that you could not help but to love him. I just wanted to nestle myself in his arms and stay there listening and feeling the vibration of his voice as he spoke and especially when he laughed. I'm losing my Uncle Fuzz, we all are. But I will always have my memories of him and the many many stories he told me about his youth and his travels with his beloved wife and children. I will also always have an amazing example of a couple in love. I have never seen two people more in love and loving than Uncle Fuzz and Aunt Shirley. Even their arguments were full of tenderness and "but, Baby I told you I would" and "oh Sugar you know I said I would"..."well you know my Baby is right I did say I would". Of course she knew he forgot and as always she forgave him right away. She would give him a stern look, he would look truly  sorrowful, and she would plant a kiss on his forehead.

I will miss him and it is an honor to do so.

Roots Tech Part 2: The diversity problem and why a 99% white conference is a problem in 2014

Roots Tech 2014

As most people know by now, I am very passionate about genealogy. I think it is important for all people to understand where they came from and how that has effected who they have become. In the last few years genealogy has changed from a  hobby of mine to a way of viewing and engaging the world.  I have begun using genealogy like a sociologist, to understand the modern world, and mainly why Americans treat each other they way they do.

With graduation day fast approaching, I have set my sights on a future career that combines genealogy with the teaching of “warts and all” American history.  My historical focus is on African American history and slavery so I have been working diligently to form myself into as much of an expert as possible on the tracing of enslaved ancestry and understanding the enslaved experience in America. With all that in mind I decided to attend the Roots Tech 2014 in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Roots Tech is considered the premier genealogy technology conference in the country. Every year for the last four years the Mormon Church’s family history research organization, Family Search, has organized the conference and hosted it at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City, Utah. According to the website, this year it included over 100 exhibitors and vendors, more than 100 classes and labs over four days and 13,000 registered attendees from around the country and around the world. It was also sponsored by several of the biggest genealogy companies in the English speaking world - Ancestry.com, Find My Past, My Heritage and of course Family Search.  In other words I thought this would be the perfect conference to attend. There would be plenty of interesting useful classes, incredible networking opportunities and the chance to use the Mormon Church’s extensive records collection.

For better and for worse Roots Tech did not quite live up to my expectations. That was mostly due to the disturbing lack of racial diversity among presenters, vendors and attendees. I also did not find some of the presentations to be as interesting or engaging as I had hoped. There was however an almost overwhelming number of choices... I'll get back to that later.

The almost complete racial homogeneity was the first thing that caught me off guard about this conference (see photos above and below and from the Family Search blog). I knew it would be mostly white but I had no idea how white the crowd would be until the conference began. Two of the other black attendees and I estimated that there were no more than 15 black people out of close to 9,000 at the Salt Palace (I only counted for the days that I actually attended- Wednesday to Friday). That 15 includes two African men and one African American man who worked for Family Search, two black Mormon lifestyle bloggers who had been invited by Family Search to help with social media outreach, a black man I believe may have been working for one of the vendors, African woman wondering alone in a gorgeous green dutch cloth dress, a very tall man in his early 40's who was also alone, three members of an AAHGS (African American Historical and Genealogical Society) Tennessee chapter, and the most adorable elderly coat check man. 

I remember the coat check man, whose name escapes me, looked up over the pile of coats, his eyes lit up and he exclaimed “Welcome! Welcome! What’s your name?” He had a warm gentle faced, a beautifully full head of gray-white hair and long elegant fingers. He was so excited to see another brown face. “There aren’t too many of us here,” he said, referring to the attendees. I suppose he had been counting too. 

Actually most of us were counting. After being introduced to, or after I introduced myself to, nearly every black person at the conference, one of the first topics of discussion was how few of us there were and how little there was to address our specific needs as researchers of color. Yes obviously we can enjoy the digital scrapbook making presentation or the Google Hangouts for Family History lab. But other than the session on sub-Saharan oral histories or the two presentations in Spanish, there was not a single session, or company that addressed the specific challenges faced by researchers interested in non-European genealogy. And thats a shame. Not just for genealogists of color but also for the major genealogy companies that have chosen to ignore or put minimal effort into a relatively fast growing market.

According to my calculations, persons of visible African descent only accounted for 15 out of the approximately 9,000 people who attended the conference the three days I was in town. In other words black people represented .0016% of the population of the conference. That is .0009% if you only count the registered attendees and not staff. 

.0009%  

• In 2010, black Americans accounted for 12.6% of the population. 
• In the year 2000 the US Census polled to find the 15 largest ancestral populations in America. Americans of African descent were the third largest ancestral group in the country behind German's (#1) and Irish (#2).

So where was every body?

I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me. 

Or again, you often doubt if you really exist. You wonder whether you aren't simply a phantom in other people's minds. Say, a figure in a nightmare which the sleeper tries with all his strength to destroy. It's when you feel like this that, out of resentment, you begin to bump people back. And, let me confess, you feel that way most of the time. You ache with the need to convince yourself that you do exist in the real world, that you're a part of all the sound and anguish, and you strike out with your fists, you curse and you swear to make them recognize you. And, alas, it's seldom successful. (Ralph Ellison - The Invisible Man: Prologue.2)

Black's in Utah who may have had the easiest time venturing to Salt Lake, account for a measly 1.8% of the population. Utah's AAHGS chapter is mostly elderly, and from what I've been told, almost completely disinterested in technology. But, honestly, being that there was not anything targeted to their research needs, why would they bother driving the 5 minutes or 3 hours to get to the Salt Palace. What really would have made them that much more likely to attend than a black family historian in Maryland, Florida or Ohio?

Side Note:  I also attempted to count the number of Asians. Not including vendors, I counted 10 women of visible Asian descent and two children. I spotted them all walking in two groups. I ended up in meetings during both of the spanish language sessions so I am not able to get a reliable tally for that group.

Family Search does appear to have made some relatively last minute attempts in the last two years to diversify the bloggers they invited to the conference. Unfortunately, despite the variety of African Americans who actively blog through personal and professional sites (see this amazing list thanks to AAGSAR), along with hundreds of active Twitter users, the only black bloggers in 2014 were two Mormon lifestyle bloggers who had not begun their own genealogical research before their initial invitation to the conference last year. They also do not appear to have had much of a following among genealogists or family history hobbyists before they started blogging from Roots Tech. Now to their credit, the women have since begun researching their own family histories, but they are still very new to it. Meanwhile there are dozens of black bloggers with decades of research experience who could have stepped into this obvious gap. It could have been so amazing to have blog posts and interviews coming from beginners and expert researchers. I did have an amazing time with the two lifestyle bloggers, known as Sistas in Zion. They are intelligent, interesting, quick and very funny. They are also the first to admit how little they know about genealogy. They were clearly invited to take part in Roots Tech's social media team rather naively for the sake of diversity.  Yet, once they got in they managed to surprise everyone and score some of the biggest interviews at the conference.

As I briefly mentioned earlier there was a single session that was targeted to those interested in African heritage. It turned out to be my favorite session of the entire conference. Dr. Osei-Aguemang Bonsu hosted a session on the importance of oral histories, and methods used in three countries in West Africa. Family Search has been funding Dr. Bonsu's project over the last five years. His stories were incredibly interesting and moving. He spoke so quickly, and for the first time at the conference I found myself tapping furiously at my Kindle trying to write down every word. Unfortunately, for the many African American social media users tweeting from afar about #RootsTech, the one session made for them was neither recorded or streamed. If I had thought about it ahead of time I would have sat in the front row and made an audio recording on my phone or streamed using my own laptop. There was simply too much important information in this session for it not to be shared with others.
Side note: the reason for this last minute addition to the schedule may have been due in large part to at least one very angry black blogger. She had noted the lack of diversity in the presentation schedule and went straight to Family Search for answers.

Quote of the day - 

I know that part of my problem with the sessions that I did attend was due to the fact that I have been a rather constant user of technology and social media since I was a small child. I am a Millennial after all, unlike at least 98% of the rest of the attendees. As you can guess I stood out at this conference for a lot of reasons (brown skin, Afro, youth...).  Anyway, the tech and social media sessions were mostly targeted toward a much older and less tech savvy audience. One presenter hosted a session on Facebook and attempted to "talk like a cool young person" and massively failed. I was just waiting for him to say something about "hip hoppers" or not sharing photos of your friends if their pants are sagging on the down-low. Anyway despite, the lack of tech in Dr. Bonsu's presentation he was able to keep the audience engaged by bringing them new analog ideas and a fresh perspective. The way I see it, if you are going to present on youth oriented technology, why not have an experienced young person do the presentation. They did later have a college student host a very promising presentation on cross generational social media usage. 

Why is a lack of diversity a problem for Roots Tech and the big genealogy companies that sponsored it?

I think the answers are pretty obvious, but I am assuming that if they were that blatant to Roots Tech's sponsors then they would created a more inclusive event from the very beginning and this entire piece would have been unneeeded. So lets first take a moment to scroll back up to the photos of the Roots Tech audience. Not only is it more than 99% white, it is also mostly of the blue haired variety. Ok that was a bit ageist. But, kind of true. I would venture to estimate that more than half of the approximately 9,000 registered attendees were over 50. I bet at least 1/3 were over 60. That does appear to be relatively representative of the majority of family history enthusiasts. But like all things in America these days, you must diversify or die. In the case of genealogy the death is quite literal since many historical societies are significantly more likely to lose members to death than general waning interest.

In order to not only keep up but increase membership numbers, and cash flow, genealogy companies, non-profits and societies must reach out to younger people and fast growing minority groups. Roots Tech is a technology conference sponsored by companies that make the majority of their money off of technology users. According to a 2010 Pew Research poll, minorities, especially African Americans "outpace whites in their use of social technologies."

Among internet users, seven in ten blacks and English-speaking Latinos use social networking sites—significantly higher than the six in ten whites who do so. Indeed, nearly half of black internet users go to a social networking site on a typical day. Just one third of white internet users do so on a daily basis.

African Americans and American born Latinos are also significantly more likely to use smartphones and tablets to access the internet. This is primarily due a lack of access and/or relatively high cost for computers and internet service. If minority Americans are more likely to use technology than white Americans then why were there so few people of color at such a massive tech conference? It is not just because Roots Tech is a genealogy conference because tech conferences with a variety of focuses, across the country, have also had difficulty attracting minorities. I believe the problem with Roots Tech is that :

• the companies do not make an honest and true effort of reaching out to people of color and inviting them to come as speakers, vendors or attendees
• I personally know several black genealogists who speak at other conferences, teach courses on family research or run social media sites dedicated to genealogy. (Liv Taylor- Harris, Bernice Bennet, Michael Henderson, Robin Foster, Luckie Daniels, Wilhelmena Kelly and those are just the names I remembered off the top of my head!) It is a lazy argument to say that Family Search simply could not find anyone to present.
• there also should have been a push to contact and involve the heads of black genealogy organizations like AAHGS and ... oh wait here is a long list of African American genealogical societies Black Gen Societies
• why wasn't African Ancestry a vendor at Roots Tech? Were they invited? With only 15 people showing up I suppose it would not have been financially worth the cost of the trip and vendor fees. But if they had participated they likely would have used their own marketing resources to let their network of members and potential members know about the conference.
• Question: Are there any other genealogy companies run by non whites? At least there are plenty of women running these companies.
• They think that a token or two is satisfactory
• I asked a Family Search staff member why there was only one panel for non European ancestored attendees. He said that FS was afraid that if they had too many sessions for African descendants, then Latinos and Asians would want sessions too. Oh no!!! Now wouldn't that have been just awful! (Sarcasm obviously) SHAMEFUL! Just think of how many attendees they lost because people of color felt like this was a conference by and for white people.
• The one session on oral history in West Africa was not advertised as part of the extensive list of sessions during online registration. Trust me I actually did a word search of the list  for "African" and "Black". Out of the hundred or so sessions there was nothing. I was so surprised to see the one workshop on the calendar once I arrived that I skipped a lab presentation that I had paid extra money for.
• They do not hire any, or enough people of color - In this case the need for a "Jamaal", as one of my favorite podcasters Elon James White might say, has left the company without a much needed diversity of perspectives. According to White, a "Jamaal" is the person of color who sits at the decision making table and ensures that the company does not maliciously or naively create a product that is offensive or unattractive to POC's (people of color). I like to believe that the vast majority of people these days consciously try not to be offensive to anyone. But sometimes mistakes or misunderstandings happen, especially in a homogeneous environment. For instance, you wouldn't hire an all male marketing team to create a new commercial for tampons right?...or was that on the last episode of Mad Men. Or would you? Either way, its not 1958. There are people of color out their with a great variety of skills, interests and education levels who would be happy to work at these genealogy companies, if only they knew that the positions were available. Lets not even talk about how most hiring is about networking and not your resume (see How Social Networks Drive Black Unemployment). In places like Utah where several of these companies are based, there is only a 2.5 % African American population. So of course there is only one Jamaal (or in Family Search's case Thom and Osei). To increase their staff diversity they have to advertise to audiences of color and they may have to import them to Utah or look for diverse candidates for their satellite offices in other states. 

"They did fail. And it’s the same issue that many media sites have–a staff lacking diversity and sensitivity, so when anything goes down, there’s no one to point out the ignorance. We’ve said it time and time again–every staff needs a Jamal." ~ Elon James White

• Prohibitive costs - This was an extremely expensive event for me to attend. If it was not for the fact that I used nearly my entire grad student travel budget, provided by Brown University, to pay my way, I would certainly not have been able to attend. The trip including flights, registration, labs, hotel, transportation and food totaled over $850! For 3 days!! And that is with the student discounts! So if it was not for the fact that Brown gives its grad students $1000 stipend to travel to conferences there would have been only 14 black people at the conference. Timing of the conference during Valentines day weekend instead of a federal holiday when the average American has time off from work, was also an issue. Oh and come on, how are you going to host a conference during Black History Month and have almost no Black content? That was a complaint from almost every black person I met.
• to solve this problem Roots Tech may benefit from traveling instead of hosting the conference in one of the whitest states in the country. We really only made use of the Mormon Church's library for about 4 hours anyway (I think next year if they stay in the same location, they should hold a lock-in. There are so many dedicated genealogists out there who would have loved to bring a sleeping bag to the library and pass out at 4 am among the stacks. It's only once a year right?)
• Research awards or contests that encourage minority participation and award free/discounted registration and or flights would also bring in more underrepresented minorities and young people. Come on I can think of several ways to bring in more people of color without it making a big dent in the Family Search wallet...actually in the long run these ideas would bring in more money and more than cover the cost of a few prizes. This isn't rocket science.

Roots Tech needs to fix it's diversity problem, and it is a problem. It is a problem because there are thousands of genealogy fans and tech enthusiasts in this country who are of mostly non-European descent who use Family Search, Ancestry.com, My Heritage and others to do their online genealogical research. They pour their hard earned dollars into these companies pockets and they deserve to be catered to. In other words these companies need to continue to diversify their advertisements, staff and records. A few record uploads and nice sentiments during Black History Month is not enough! The shockingly un-diverse attendees in an increasingly diverse nation cannot be and should not be tolerated. If you are going to bring on companies that only have records for Europeans (Find My Past) then why are there no vendors that cater strictly to recent immigrant groups (another growing market), and people of color? Roots Tech and its sponsoring companies can and should do better. They are missing out on an excellent opportunity to increase their memberships (money), build themselves into companies that welcome Americans of all colors, and dispel the myth that genealogy is only for the elderly and white people who can trace their roots to a King of England.

Recommended Reading for anyone interested in increasing the number of minorities in the tech world or at technology conferences:

Top Tech Organizations To Follow

How I Got 50% Women Speakers at My Tech Conference