Whispering Black

***The staff of the Jim Crow Museum receives dozens of letters and emails. Some of these communiques offer insight into race relations -- historically and in the present. While some are hateful, we have decided to share some of these letters and emails with our Internet visitors.***

A friend of mine just forwarded your article "The Garbage Man: Why I Collect Racist Objects."

I don't even really know what to say because I'm still digesting your words and imagining your journey over the years and what it all means. I guess I really wanted to say thank you and I hope our paths cross.

I'm a writer/filmmaker/speaker living in Nashville who spends most of my time engaging other white people in challenging conversations about systemic racism and white privilege. This year I'm travelling to colleges and universities across the country with a program called "Whispering Black: Code Talk For Whites" wherein I address the conscious and unconscious ways white people whisper around issues of race and thereby participate in the continuation of systemic and individual racism. I'm also working on a documentary called "The Crazy-making of Race" about the psychological, emotional and spiritual 'fallout' due to institutional racism.

All this to say that since reading your article I plan to visit Ferris State to witness the collection some day. So much of what I try to address in my writing, etc. was articulated in your article and there is part of me that understands that as much as I may not want to see the objects, that I must.

Again, thank you and much peace to you.

Molly Secours
-- Oct. 8, 2005