Activity 4

How do you engage in reading a scholarly secondary source? Taking advantage of the opportunities for multimodal presentation on a webpage, examine your reading practice and show others how you do it, using the example of one or more of the assigned book chapters written by art historian Bridget R. Cooks: the Humanities Core Handbook chapter “What’s Wrong with Museums? African American Artists Review Art History,” the academic book chapter “Back to the Future: The Quilts of Gee’s Bend,” or the exhibition catalog essay “Intricate Illusion."

Who do you think is the audience for this scholarly work, and what features of the text reflect its rhetorical purpose? How do you identify the central scholarly claims made and key terminology used? What do you do when you encounter words or proper names you don’t recognize? How do you note the way the author analyzes primary sources, uses information from other scholarly sources, and responds to other scholars’ arguments or interpretations? Which references spark your interest in reading more?

For Activity 4 I have chosen to focus on the Humanities Core Handbook chapter "What's Wrong with Museums?" Throughout my reading, I have taken notice of the author's intended audience and purpose within her emphasis on the faulty misconceptions museums are placing upon the public. Bridget R. Cooks- the author- I assume she directs her findings towards a variety of audiences, one being the common public. Considering museums center within the purpose to teach and bring back history, the public who attend these museums in turn would most obviously wish to learn more about such history and culture. But as Cook exposes the wrongdoings within the museum industry, she probably intends to inform the public what they really are consuming- false misconceptions- to gain understanding of the real truth that is hidden from their vision. Taking into account the way the author presents her informational findings, Cook gives an exemplary standpoint using the painting by a "white artist Justus Engelhardt Kuhn" who paints a superior white individual with an enslaved person of color in the background. With more depth into the meaning behind the painting, Cook reveals the point in which the public -or us individuals who see in museums artifacts like that painting- are so blinded by simply consuming what we see in plain sight: the image of a person of color who is depicted in poor clothing with a collar while a white individual stands confidently in the center of the painting. The painting directly creates a connotation of racial superiority between races by also depicting the individuals through the hues of the paint: dark shadows surrounding the slave (giving the slave an underlying uneasy feeling) while the white individual is surrounded with lighter hues and is in the center of the painting, gaining the most attention (creating a more joyous depiction).

• This further gave me the most insightful revelation, coming to the understanding that we simply consume what we are seeing without taking much account for the meaning and interpretation behind what is being shown to us. Therefore, museums that show historical pieces that infiltrate racism (such as the painting Cooks emphasized) have the harmful intention to blind people and engrave something in which Cooks calls "inferential racism" - naturalized ideas of things relating to "race, whether factional or fictional" to the extent that we accept these visuals with "unquestioned assumptions" (Humanities Core Handbook; Cooks 139). In turn, by engaging to Cooks's revelational work, I then am able to gain such understanding of the misconceptions museums inflitrate of racial differentation and see how African American history and culture is not being rightfully expressed and should rather gain the recognition and acceptance it deserves.

• Outside Connections: After diving into this analysis, I find myself creating connections to this easiy consumption of false teachings through places such as within social media. Information within the social platform is easily followed and believable through the appealing representation of information in posts or stories. People further become captivated by whatever is shown and many follow through with "reposting" or "liking" the photo without taking the time to research or analyze the information given. We as people desire pleasure in the easiest ways, one of being which is visually accepting things we find appealing or at easy grasp. Therefore similar to Cooks argument in her work, people are easily consumed with false predicaments or information such as what is seen in museums because individuals seek easy access and lack the will power to dig deeper in depth into what they (at times including myself in admittance) are being shown or given.

Reflection: This then deepends my interpretation of world building because as Cooks advocates for a revival of African American empowerment, she encourages her peers, readers, and ourselves to continue with this notion and further enables this world to have the possibility of a future that engages and promotes African American success within the arts and history community. By bringing back this recognition, our world can change to one where truth and equality for all individuals is welcomed, creating an equally peaceful world where there is no supremacy or ethnic superiority but rather equal empowerment for all.

With the intention to gain understanding of Cook's work and the truth behind her argument, I make my annotations on the reading directly. Having bought the book, I am able to directly write out my thoughts of analysis, highlighting and writing my notes and at the end, rereading my analysis to create an over arching interpretation of what I have read.

Cited Sources:

Humanities Core Handbook, Chapter 13: "What's Wrong with Museums?" African American Artists Review Art History, Bridget R. Cooks, 2022-2023