An American Sociologist in London Day 6 - Navigating My Time at the Museum of London Docklands5/23/2016 Going through London can be a surreal, I am a stranger and occupy a unique position. In The Stranger George Simmel once wrote that this position creates both a closeness to other members to share and distance. There’s dichotomy to my existence here and the world seems to flash like a light switch being turned on and off. Click, click - click, click. Since I have been here, starting conversations with people has been pretty easy. My role of a stranger makes people want to share. Who hasn’t needed to share something with a stranger who you believe you will never see again. I have lol. I am able to observe, study, and understand the culture in a way that full time members can’t. Today, I traveled on the train to the Museum of London Docklands to visit its exhibit the London Sugar and Slavery. I was excited to see the exhibit and how London framed its role in the slave trade. I hoped it would be something that would blow me way and add to my knowledge base. In the museum, I walk up the wooden stairs the exhibit is on the 3rd floor of the museum. You have to pass through two exhibits to get to it. The way that they are positions, I am walking in a circle and I felt like I was walking to the back. It gave me a sense that the exhibit was seen as unimportant and insignificant (through this not be the case). I kinda smurked and thought, “that’s typical.” The exhibit covered the typical topics in slavery, initial enslavement, abolitionism, significant people but it was not highly detailed. It primarily focused on the sugar plantations in the Caribbean. I heard a couple people, say, “oh that’s sad.” I didn’t feel like the exhibition makes you sympathize with slavery though. Conversations about race here as minorities being label as racist as much as Whites. Understanding of race is separate from slavery and colonization and it has fragmented. I was the only dark skin person in the museum. (Well, I saw an Indian girl with White adults). I talked to some of the staff and they said not a lot of minorities visit the museum and they are trying to explore ways to attract more. It has become a familiar feeling traveling around London. As diverse as the population is, this diversity seem to transfer to institutions or restaurants (unlike it’s a specific ethnic restaurants in certain areas). There seems to binary way of understanding why this is. Obvious issues like segregation and economic disparities are not connected when people explain it.. I am left embracing my role as the stranger and contemplating the balanced between my cultural understanding and interpreting what I observe. I feel both close and distant to the society and my position has helped me continue to grow.
2 Comments
Caazena
5/25/2016 09:42:31 am
Hey so this is the album that I was referring to when I was stating it reminded me of the movie Belle.
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Myron Strong
5/26/2016 06:53:55 pm
It is supposed to be her
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Myron Strong
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