A Lesson Learned

One thing was made painfully clear this week in the serious gaffes by the Suffolk County Historical Society and Southampton History Museum in misguided attempts to mark Black History Month: Malice is not required to offend — and good intentions alone can’t undo the damage.

Neither organization sought to disrespect the Black community with social media posts. But both did, and it’s instructive to examine exactly why.

It’s a lesson in context, or lack thereof. There’s no question that county residents who might not know its long history of racism, including an active presence of the Ku Klux Klan in the startlingly recent past, can learn something from a candid discussion of this ugly part of local history. But social media posts with inflammatory images of the Ku Klux Klan alone are something altogether different.

The Suffolk County Historical Society’s social media post was presented as a historical “Photo of the Week” entry on its social media account. It was an image of robed Klan members, accompanied by a short piece about the hate group’s roots in the county, and referenced an advertisement for a Klan rally planned in Riverhead in 1926.

In Southampton, a similar social media post referenced a virtual discussion sponsored by the museum on the movie “The Birth of a Nation” and the book, “The Clansman,” on which it was based. The post similarly used a provocative image of a Klan member and a burning cross to publicize it.

The Southampton History Museum lecture, by author and book critic Joan Baum, sought to put the two works from the early 20th century in a current context, to discuss how they might be used to examine the issue of white supremacist attitudes through the years and bring that conversation into modern times. That’s constructive and, in a nation divided over “critical race theory,” timely. History and current events are eternally linked.

But NAACP Eastern Long Island Branch President Lawrence Street pointed out what is obvious in hindsight in both instances: The postings, which he called “offensive, repulsive and insulting,” lacked context. At a glance, you might be forgiven for being startled, and confused about what they were about. As a result, the flippant use of KKK imaging could just as well have been seen as giving the hate-filled movement a boost in attention, in a social media environment where such groups thrive.

Moreover, Black History Month should not be a time to focus solely on the challenges that people of color have overcome — it should be a celebration of all they have achieved and contributed to life in our communities. There is a place for scholarly work on the subject of the darkest days of race relations on the East End; the East Hampton Library, for example, illuminates the history of slavery in East Hampton with a current exhibit, and does so by focusing on the men and women who were subjugated by the system, seeking to identify them by name and focus on their humanity — bringing them to life as human beings, not mere symbols of oppression.

But why did both of these organizations turn their focus on such dark themes during a month of celebration? As the Reverend Charles Coverdale pointed out, Black History Month is an opportunity to tell people about “so many great achievements by so many outstanding people” that the region’s residents, of any ethnicity, might not know about. An engaging new exhibition at the Southampton African American Museum offers a perfect example of how to do it right.

Black history is so much more than pain and suffering — it’s also the incredible perseverance, courage and talent that led to so many successes for this community. Take the time to tell those stories: the dreams realized, not just the nightmares conquered.

Credit both organizations for meeting with the NAACP, immediately acknowledging their errors, and taking swift action — including a pledge to expand the diversity of their organizations, which are overwhelmingly white. That would be a simple step, it seems, that could have avoided the entire mess: more non-white voices at the table, offering the perspective that a message might not land as intended.

Victoria Berger, the executive director of the Suffolk County Historical Society, was at this week’s press conference with NAACP officials issuing a formal apology and accepting a two-week suspension (the same punishment given to the Southampton History Museum’s executive director, Tom Edmonds) that she, in fact, recommended herself. Tearfully, she said she was “heartbroken” by the controversy, adding, “We will be better. We will grow from this.” Father Patrick Edwards, president of the Southampton History Museum, apologized to the NAACP, stressing the “good intentions at heart.”

We learn from mistakes, and we learn most from painful ones. There certainly were good intentions — and they weren’t enough. Change is necessary.

If that lesson is learned, even if it’s the hard way, this was a step forward, not backward.