As of 1/29/2019 I have not received any reply.
December
19, 2018
Edward
H. Sebesta
edwardsebesta@gmail.com
Carolyn
King Arnold – District 4
Mayor and
City Council
Dallas
City Hall
1500
Marilla St.
Dallas,
TX 75210
Dear Hon.
Arnold:
Recently
money was taken away from other arts groups and given to the Dallas Heritage
Village by the Dallas city council and there was reported considerable
criticism of this action.
I decided
to conduct a field trip to assess the Dallas Heritage Village (DHV). The entire
operation is a failure in terms of being a historical project. Well might they
use the word “Heritage” rather than “history” in their name, since it seems the
operation is primarily about nostalgia and not history.
In
regarding the DHV’s failures, a person could focus on their handling of the
Confederacy. At their book store you can purchase a model of Millermore as a
plantation house, and you can get a magnetized toy (Dress up set) in which you
can put Confederate uniforms on figures. However, this would be distraction
from their primary failure.
The
primary problem with the DHV historical interpretation in general is well
represented in the following picture as part of the historical interpretation
of the Renner School House.
This is
an all-white student body in a multiracial Texas. The past practice of segregation is not part
of the interpretation of the Renner School House.
When I
doing the field trip there were many students from the public schools and they
were mostly African American and Hispanic. What they could learn if it was the
Dallas Historical Village, instead of a theme park for nostalgia, is that if
they lived at the time, they would be placed in segregated schools.
They
would learn that in the historical period of the time of these buildings they
would never be allowed to walk through the front door of these houses, and
would only be visiting via the back door as help if at all. They would learn
that the people living in these houses would never consider socializing with
them and their families and the people in these houses would consider
themselves racially superior. They would
learn that they wouldn’t be allowed into the saloon except as help, or the
other stores on the DHV’s main street except as help.
The
primary and dominating aspect of Dallas is its economic inequality divided
largely along racial lines. Dallas’s
history is that of grudgingly implementing civil rights under the direction of
a federal court order, of racism, Klan revivals, of violence against African
American bodies, segregation, and racial exclusion.
The
students I saw at the DHV would with a real historical interpretation would
learn why many of them are in poorer neighborhoods with less opportunities, why
they and their neighbors have ended up in their situations. They would learn
about why Dallas has issues of economic inequality.
Yet, the
real history of Dallas is nowhere to be found in the DHV. The DHV
interpretation instead creates a nostalgic dream world of the 19th
and early 20th century. It is more akin to a Disney theme park Main
Street USA attraction than anything related to the historical past.
I expect
at some point to have a full assessment of the DHV and issue a report, but I am
backlogged in researching the Dallas racialized landscape and so the report
will likely be issued sometime in 2019. However, the City of Dallas needs to
start critically thinking about their support of the DHV now.
The
nature of the DHV is fairly obvious and the fact that it hasn’t been flagged by
the Cultural Commission for Dallas says a lot about what type of culture the
City of Dallas is committed to promoting. The fact that this type of cultural
production is funded by Dallas in 2018 says a lot about the real values of
Dallas.
The
erasure of the past and the failure to instruct on the historical realities of
the Dallas past is a far, far more powerful instrument to maintain a racial
order than a dozen neo-Nazi rallies. This erasure operates on a level in which
the person is not likely to be conscious of its operation and so it slips into
a person’s thinking without them realizing it.
The
question isn’t that money shouldn’t be taken away from other projects to be
given to the DHV, though additionally money shouldn’t be given to them, the
question is why the City of Dallas gives them any money at all.
I would
like to see a real competent historical assessment done of the DHV and the City
of Dallas take appropriate actions, such as cutting off all funding.
Sincerely
Yours,
Edward
H. Sebesta
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