The article reflects on a collection of novelty salt-and-pepper shakers owned by the author's grandmother. While most were innocuous mid-century kitsch, some were offensive racial caricatures. Following her death, the family struggled with what to do with the racist sets that clashed with contemporary values. They removed them from display but ultimately chose to keep them hidden, representing a broader conflict about acknowledging and addressing past insensitivity. The author's contemplation connects this personal experience to larger discussions about what historical items and representations should be showcased in museums and public spaces today.
"Social mores change, and what was considered commonplace, even (regrettably) normal, in 1960 was no longer so thirty years later."
"We wanted the ideas out of circulation. We didn't want to be a part of perpetuating racism and, admittedly, we didn't want to face that these offensive caricatures were somehow 'of us.'"
"Once my grandmother died, the army was disbanded, deemed clutter too unwieldy to dust and out of step with contemporary interior decorating trends."
"The racist sets, though? We didn't know what to do with them. Donating them would require acknowledging we had them."
Collection
[
|
...
]