Umm...thats good this was written by a black guy, charles mudede, cuz just seeing the header on the prior page it seems just dumbly racist. Read it. Its not neo nazi racist, just that kind of mean comment you shouldn't say because its just mean. Really, calling the african american history museum normally irrelevant. Everybody was already thinking that, because blacks are repressed in our city, and a small minority. To go and say it just seems rude.

I suppose thats a point of journalism, to let the cat out of the bag. So we can then dissect it and learn from it. The black community is dispersing from the area around the museum. The community is dying, and so the space is making itself relevant by doing contemporary exhibits and events.

Yet, is giving what culture wants, that is, what it wants now!, really going to keep it coming back, or is the culture dying anyways. Is this just a quick fix scheme?

Does history matter? One of those neat questions for the.always philosophical charles mudede. Really. Shoulldnt a museum exhibit a collection of the history of the art, whether modern art in a modern art museum, or asian art .... Doesnt that history expound a sense of a historical community to the viewer, and, necessitate a group of collectors who are willing to collect such pieces from different periods? That is, what does it mean for african american art if its past is left out, who would collect? Can a museum be so horizontally focused and present an idea of a flowing community? Or will the community look erratic and, forgotten?

As mudede says, these times induce tough choices. To play to the audience's wishes, or to play to the audience.