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F e b r u a r y 2 0 0 9 • I s s u e 1 5 1 • C i n c i n n a t i ’s A l t e r n a t i v e N e w s S o u r c e
This Thing Called ‘Race’ Exhibit shows how much, and how little, there is to it By Lew Moores Contributing Writer We’re not all that different. Are we? Walk through the new RACE: Are We So Different? exhibit at the Cincinnati Museum Center and you get a feel for the enormity of what they’re trying to do – a challenge to, as organizers of the exhibit hope, the way we talk, think and learn about race. Organized and developed by the American Anthropological Association and Science Museum of Minnesota, the exhibit opened at the Museum Center Jan. 17, just three days before the inauguration of President Barack Obama, and will run through April 26. What becomes apparent with a visit to the exhibit, or with a visit to its Web site
construct ( w w w. u n based on derstandinoutward grace.org), is appearthat it’s not ances, just a blackusually white issue. skin color. The exhibit, The theme says Tonya is about Matthews, balancing the center’s the scivice presience, the dent of muh i s t o r y, seums, does the everya good job day expeof pointing rience. that out, and “ Yo u in pointing can pull out is that out all of race is more the DNA cultural and charts geographical you want, and hardly and that is based on not going genetics or to help biology. We you come are all homo to grips sapiens, with, say, sharing a Photo courtesy of American Anthropological Association and the civil common an- Science Museum of Minnesota. rights cestor. go through the exhibit, the less movement. Genetically speakSo what is race? you’ll be able to answer that ing, it’s virtually impossible to question, which is possibly a ‘Defining whiteness’ tell one person from another. good thing,” Matthew says. “I You would not be able to take think at the end of the day, I “You know, the more you out particular genes that are am going with race is a social
particularly associated with what we define as a race. So there’s no scientific construct. “That’s a little weird for people because clearly I can use my eyes and differentiate people of different races.” There is no directional guide to the exhibit, located in about 5,000 square feet of space in the center’s History Museum. Visitors can start wherever their eye leads them once they enter, explains Chad Mertz, the center’s director of public relations. Exhibit interpreters, such as Emily Culver of the museum staff, are there to help and to orient school groups coming through. The exhibit is filled with interactive displays, video kiosks, informational graphics; it is designed with no age in mind. “It’s completely open to what type of people we’re trying to reach, from a younger audience, where you want to keep their attention, to older audiences,” Mertz says. Although attendance numbers aren’t yet available for the first two weeks the exhibit has been See Race, P. 8
Cold Comfort Agencies, donors work together to open emergency cold shelter By Adam Clark Staff Writer December 25, 2008, was anything but a white Christmas. On the one day many people wish it would snow, it didn’t. It was about 30 degrees Fahrenheit most of the day, and the sun shown brightly, giving the illusion of even warmer weather. Then came January 13th. As Christmas thoughts had faded and the event on everyone’s mind was the inauguration of the 44th president, Barack Obama, it got cold. It got very cold. Homeless individuals did whatever they could to keep warm, as they often do throughout the hard winter months. In response to the extreme temperatures, the mayor’s office, Cincinnati
Health Department, Cincin- ation Center, 1715 Republic nati Recreation Commission, St., offered a place for people Cincinnati Police and the to get out of the severe cold Greater Cincinnati Red Cross and gave them pillows and collaborated to open the city’s blankets. The facility was open January 13-20. The shelter Cold Shelter. The organizations have opens when the temperature outside gets becollaborated for “Ten (degrees) low 10 degrees, over 10 years to is still cold, 20 with the wind fill the gap bechill taken into tween the numis cold, but we ber of shelter aren’t really set account. In years beds available up for that,” Heyl past, it opened in the Cincinnati only when the says. “It can be t e m p e r a t u r e area and the total pretty stressful dropped to zero number of homeon our staff.” less individuals degrees; but the in need of emercity revised the gency shelter policy last year. “This year the team felt that on extremely cold nights. An estimated 1,300 people are the old standard, zero degrees, homeless each night in Cin- was worth reviewing,” says cinnati. Rocky Merz, spokesman for The Cold Shelter, housed the health department. “After at the Over-the-Rhine Recre- a review of our factors and
some comparison to other cities, the decision was made to change the standard to 10 degrees.” Timothy Heyl of the recreation commission acknowledges that even the new policy doesn’t prevent homeless people from suffering. “Ten (degrees) is still cold, 20 is cold, but we aren’t really set up for that,” he says. “It can be pretty stressful on our staff.” The recreation center shouldered a lot of the burden, as its staff worked on the Cold Shelter while still keeping all of their programs and normal responsibilities in place. Heyl described the environment during the week as “stressful,” saying the new policy prompted the Cold Shelter to be open for the longest dura-
tion in quite some time. Two staff members from the recreation center and a police officer stay on duty during the 10 p.m.–8 a.m. hours that the Cold Shelter is open. About 100 people a night packed into a cramped space about the size a skating rink during the week that it was open. “I haven’t seen any children stay the night in here, just men and women mostly,” Heyl says. “We got a lot of media attention, and because of it we received an outpouring of donations of pillows and blankets.” Many people also donated food and snacks. The collaboration proved successful, as the Cold Shelter was able to accommodate everyone who showed up.