“The Urban Praxis Workshop and the University of Michigan-Dearborn hosted a community forum on Race and Region in late March. It was a discussion that drew on the power of legacies and their monuments, the necessity of new metaphors in engaging white supremacy, the resonance of past experiences and present engagements with racial division in Southeast Michigan and beyond, and how segregation can be defined in part as a hoarding of resources.”
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“Islam told the audience that history is written by the winners.
“Something like a statue is part of the larger broader narrative about what is history in this country,” she said. “We have this very skewed understanding in our textbooks, in our media and art; in all kinds of different forms of representation as to who is American, who speaks for America. All these different things that erase the existence of multiple different people of color.”
She said this produces a society that is deeply undereducated about issues of race and racism. When statues of racist leaders are placed in public spaces it reinforces those ideas. She said it tells citizens these are the people we should be learning about and trying to emulate.”