From the 1890’s through the 1950’s, thousands of postcards depicting racist caricatures and stereotypes of Black people were produced across the United States and the world. Degrading images of blackness also found expression in advertising and other media. Black people were portrayed as lazy, child-like, unintelligent, ugly, chicken stealing, watermelon eating, promiscuous, crap-shooting, savage and criminal. These images comforted white people in their racist beliefs, reinforced white supremacy and enabled whites to justify violence and subjugation of Black people. The stereotypes continue to shape and shorten Black lives in the present.

Relying primarily on postcards from co-curator Mariame Kaba’s collection, this exhibition speaks to the legacy of anti-Black racism that still structures our present. Our exhibition will introduce a new generation to postcards as historical documents and cultural artifacts for understanding anti-Black racism in the past and present. Dozens of postcards will tell stories of how Black people were devalued over time. These artifacts illustrate how little Black lives have mattered in this country and why we need hashtags and movements like #BlackLivesMatter today.

Through this exhibition, we ask: “How did white people justify their continued subordination of Black people post emancipation?” They did so in part, we contend, by actively making niggers through creating and distributing racist stereotypes of Black people. As such, the exhibition interrogates “nigger” as a word, a set of images, and social and political position. We expect to generate passionate discussion and debate.

The exhibition is free and open to the public. We suggest that the content is most appropriate for middle school age children and above. The gallery is unfortunately not wheelchair accessible.

We invite educators to bring students to the exhibition and will be posting a teacher guide in early October on this site. If you would like to schedule a special tour of the exhibition, email the curators at notnggrs@gmail.com.