Visualizing White Supremacy in Institutions

Compiled by Ta’Ziyah Jarrett (Affiliate - Critical Race Museology Cluster)

In December of 2021, Amal Alhaag and Syrus Marcus Ware facilitated an online workshop called “Uprooting White Supremacy in the Institution”. In Zoom Breakout Rooms, TTTM members were asked to share an object that for them represents White supremacy in an institution they belonged to.

The goal of this project is to share and archive some of those objects. Between January and February of 2023, nine people were offered the following prompt:

Select an object that you believe represents institutional White supremacy.

When visualizing White supremacy, images of white hoods, burning crosses, and Confederate flags may be what immediately comes to mind. However, as these responses demonstrate, White supremacy often operates in much more subtle ways. Thus, if we hope to one day rid ourselves of White supremacy, we must all look deeper, at both the world around us and within ourselves, so that we may be able to see and bring attention to White supremacy in all of its forms.