Lara: Tuesday, June 13
Today, I worked mainly on inputing responses of comment cards into a copy of the master excel sheet of the Imagine Africa data-set. Reading the comments is at times interesting, on occasion its entertaining, and, unfortunately, in a few instances it has been disturbing.
In general, the comments have been helpful in understanding the overall types of suggestions that visitors have made regarding the Imagine Africa and African Section galleries, but it has also opened a window into the more direct social role I think the future gallery should take to address unconscious and conscious prejudice regarding the popular Western impressions of Africa.
One particularly disturbing comment that stuck in my mind was "Africa smells like black people and monkeys." The comment was written on the back of the response card with the respondent's demographic information also filled in. The respondent, not shockingly, identified as caucasian. Another comment form contained the comment "Slavery was not manmade but a punishment by God." Only partial demographic data was completed on this sheet.
I feel these examples show the limits of comment cards as a productive form of data gathering, but also the ways in which visitors (thanks in part to the anonymity of the method?) show their true thoughts in anonymous response cards where face to face surveys may cause individuals to think twice before they answer with ignorant vitriol. While these offensive responses by no means represent the majority of responses received through the comment cards, I think these examples demonstrate the important role the future exhibition should take as both an in-depth exploration of the collection itself and also as a tool structured to strongly encourage visitors to reflect and reevaluate their misconceptions and prejudice.
In general, the comments have been helpful in understanding the overall types of suggestions that visitors have made regarding the Imagine Africa and African Section galleries, but it has also opened a window into the more direct social role I think the future gallery should take to address unconscious and conscious prejudice regarding the popular Western impressions of Africa.
One particularly disturbing comment that stuck in my mind was "Africa smells like black people and monkeys." The comment was written on the back of the response card with the respondent's demographic information also filled in. The respondent, not shockingly, identified as caucasian. Another comment form contained the comment "Slavery was not manmade but a punishment by God." Only partial demographic data was completed on this sheet.
I feel these examples show the limits of comment cards as a productive form of data gathering, but also the ways in which visitors (thanks in part to the anonymity of the method?) show their true thoughts in anonymous response cards where face to face surveys may cause individuals to think twice before they answer with ignorant vitriol. While these offensive responses by no means represent the majority of responses received through the comment cards, I think these examples demonstrate the important role the future exhibition should take as both an in-depth exploration of the collection itself and also as a tool structured to strongly encourage visitors to reflect and reevaluate their misconceptions and prejudice.
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