What should I do with this racist artifact?

July 19, 2021 11:51 AM

I have an old cast iron bank with some moveable parts that is, well, racist. What is the right thing to do with it?

This bank would fall into the category of "mammy" artifacts. As a white person, I don't want this, nor do i want any money from it. What should I do with it?

Throw it out for the trash it is? Sell it to a collector and donate the money to a cause that uplifts Black lives, donate it to a historical society? Bury it in the woods?

posted by archimago to Society & Culture (17 answers total)

Recycle it as scrap.
posted by wenestvedt at 11:59 AM on July 19, 2021

Yeah, plunk it into your recycling bin. Most metals I'd leave out in a sack on top of my garbage can for the guys who come cruise the alleys for scrap metal on the weekends, but cast iron has such a shitty scrap value that it wouldn't be worth the effort to haul it.
posted by phunniemee at 12:04 PM on July 19, 2021

You could see if the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia wants it.
posted by FencingGal at 12:04 PM on July 19, 2021

There is a Jim Crow Museum that would be happy to take this off of your hands
posted by blue suede stockings at 12:05 PM on July 19, 2021

You might want to donate it to a museum or cultural center (as I did in this previous Ask).
posted by BlahLaLa at 12:07 PM on July 19, 2021

I don't know about scrapping it. I had a friend (a black guy from Jamaica) years ago who collected that kind of stuff. If it has value to someone in a non-creepy way it'd be a shame for it to get recycled.
posted by nixxon at 12:43 PM on July 19, 2021

I’ve donated several of these kinds of artifacts to the Jim Crow Museum. Scrapping history doesn’t make it vanish.
posted by Ideefixe at 12:46 PM on July 19, 2021

The Jim Crow Museum is a good idea, since they seem to be accepting donations without screening. I'd nudge you to make a financial donation at the same time, to help them with processing.

If it's too expensive or difficult to mail (how big and heavy is this thing?), I'd see if you can find a non-creepy collector (like, perhaps a Black person who is in the South) and see if they're interested. I would not sell to any collector.

I don't think it's bad to recycle or scrap. Things like this weren't made as one-offs.
posted by bluedaisy at 1:16 PM on July 19, 2021

Yeah, if this is a bank where you put the coin in his hand and he swallows it, that's mass-produced. My grandmother's family has one somewhere, which I will have to get rid of eventually if I inherit it, and I plan to just chunk it.

(I played with it a lot as a little kid. I had no idea what it meant.)
posted by Countess Elena at 1:28 PM on July 19, 2021

I recently saw an pandemic episode of Antiques Roadshow where S. Epatha Merkersen and another Black performer whose name I don't remember were interviewed about antiques they own, and they were both embracing such artifacts to memorialize this period of American history, to hold it up as something that happened, not as something to be minimized or denied. Not sure how this would or should translate to a non-person of color's reaction to it, but it's at least something to think about as you find a way to dispose of it.
posted by lhauser at 1:43 PM on July 19, 2021

Looks like cast iron is about $0.02 per pound for scrap. So if it's 50 lbs, you could get a dollar for it. So, yep, I'd throw it in the recycling bin. They have magnets that will pull it out and reuse it.
posted by bbqturtle at 2:53 PM on July 19, 2021

Just a note that random bits of metal are generally not suitable for your residential recycling bin - check the info for your area. Garbage bin or recycling drop-off may be the go.
posted by neatsocks at 3:38 PM on July 19, 2021

Cast Iron is brittle. If you're okay with destroying it and any value it still has (and, you know, have taken your coins out), then pop on some impact-protection glasses/goggles and swing a sledge-hammer at it. (Do this outside on a surface that's going to recover from a sledge blow.) Regular claw hammer can probably do the job; just go for heavy, accurate blows instead of high frequency hits.

Bring a magnet on a stick for collecting little pieces and sweeping the area.
posted by Sunburnt at 4:36 PM on July 19, 2021

Don’t destroy it or throw it out. White discomfort is not a reason to destroy Black history. (Why are so many Mefites so opinionated about things that don’t concern them?)

Give it to an African-American collector or organization.

And if you want, make a donation to a Black school.
posted by nouvelle-personne at 6:19 PM on July 19, 2021

Just want to note that if you just put it in with general metal scrap while still intact, there is a good chance that it will be recovered by someone who may then do what you want to avoid - which is to keep it and display it or sell it to a collector who isn't Black and/or interested in it for more nuanced historical and educational reasons. My uncle was a backhoe operator at a landfill when I was growing up and he CONSTANTLY brought home anything that might be "worth something" (nothing racist that I can remember, fortunately) and this was in the days before eBay was even a thing.

I know that destroying something made of cast iron is easier said than done, but it's very brittle so wrapping it in a towel and going at it with a heavy hammer might work. Wear eye protection!
posted by cilantro at 1:17 AM on July 20, 2021

Agreeing so hard with nouvelle-personne! Don't destroy it. Get it to someone who can use it productively. Please check out Betye Saar. These images and items can be used in powerful ways, for example The Liberation of Aunt Jemima (1972).

Saar was recently asked about Aunt Jemima because Quaker Oats is retiring her image on their packages. "I created The Liberation of Aunt Jemima in 1972 for the exhibition “Black Heroes” at the Rainbow Sign Cultural Center, Berkeley, CA (1972). The show was organized around community responses to the 1968 Martin Luther King Jr. assassination. This work allowed me to channel my righteous anger at not only the great loss of MLK Jr., but at the lack of representation of black artists, especially black women artists. I transformed the derogatory image of Aunt Jemima into a female warrior figure, fighting for Black liberation and women’s rights. Fifty years later she has finally been liberated herself. And, yet more work still needs to be done.”
posted by Phyllis keeps a tight rein at 4:19 AM on July 20, 2021

Yeah, plunk it into your recycling bin.

This is "wish-cycling," no facility that recycles would deal with this. Scrap metal guys collecting from the alley in Chicago would grab it. I would throw it away if you can't scrap metal it.
posted by tiny frying pan at 11:01 AM on July 20, 2021