{"id":27006,"date":"2016-03-11T11:28:35","date_gmt":"2016-03-11T14:28:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=27006"},"modified":"2023-08-23T12:20:56","modified_gmt":"2023-08-23T15:20:56","slug":"why-i-cant-bring-myself-to-visit-the-museum-of-tomorrow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=27006","title":{"rendered":"“Why I Can\u2019t Bring Myself to Visit the Museum of Tomorrow”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The original text was published in Portuguese by researcher Ronilso Pacheco* on his Facebook page<\/a>\u00a0and republished by Favela 247<\/a>. Ronilso works with the NGO Viva Rio<\/a> and is a consultant for social movements and human rights organizations.<\/em><\/p>\n

Perhaps this post is unnecessary. Perhaps. But nonetheless I choose to share my disenchantment, my frustration, because everything about the building\u00a0of the Museum of Tomorrow<\/a> (not necessarily the museum itself), and what it represents, disturbs me.<\/p>\n

It affects\u00a0my memory to know that the museum was built on a macabre piece of land: the port of entry<\/a> for the largest contingent of black slaves<\/a> in the history of humankind. Traded like merchandise, they were either sold, or became human garbage, or they died. The Valongo<\/a>\u00a0(slave wharf) area in the Port Region<\/a>\u00a0contains the remains of more slaves than any other place in the Americas. Did you know that? More than 500,000 of the men and women who came here as slaves entered through Valongo, where the Museum of Tomorrow stands. Their bodies are down there, buried in the ground or thrown out to sea. The business of selling black men and women was transferred to Valongo from what is now Pra\u00e7a XV, to ensure that those in the downtown area would not have to endure the presence of such ugly, dirty people; so that their odor wouldn\u2019t upset the atmosphere and aesthetic of the city, which was eager for its urban design to inspire comparisons to Paris.<\/p>\n

It disturbs my own history, and my historical consciousness, to know that a black past is deliberately ignored and destroyed so that a white middle class future can be erected in its place with celebration and pageantry. Could anyone imagine building a Museum of Tomorrow at Auschwitz? Never. On the contrary, in Germany, all students must (I said \u201cmust\u201d\u2013it\u2019s required) visit at least two concentration camps at some time during their schooling. It\u2019s an important ritual. They must never forget that there\u00a0people were treated as if they were worth nothing. But in Rio, the construction of the Museum of Tomorrow represents an affirmation\u00a0that if the past is black, “it’s of no interest to us.” That there\u2019s nothing worth preserving. Just leave those forgotten bodies, like garbage decomposing in a landfill. Give them a few plaques, folk art exhibitions, parties.<\/p>\n

And so we have the Museum of Tomorrow. Truly beautiful to look at. Truly impressive. And I would even be tempted to visit, if it weren\u2019t for this pain, this indignation; the deafening silent cry of those who died with nothing.<\/p>\n

*Ronilso Pacheco is a representative\u00a0of the NGO Viva Rio, theology student at PUC-Rio, member of the Coletivo Nuvem Negra (Black Cloud Collective)\u2013a black student group at PUC-Rio, and consultant to social movements and human rights organizations.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas The original text was published in Portuguese by researcher Ronilso Pacheco* on his Facebook page\u00a0and republished by Favela 247. Ronilso works with the NGO Viva Rio and is a consultant for […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":27142,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1267,1328,1331,336],"tags":[772,1261,168,674,188,878,716,2178,1781,148,124,279,1511],"writer":[1957],"translator":[508],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-27006","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-gentrificationwatch","8":"category-by-community-contributors","9":"category-opinion-2","10":"category-violations","11":"tag-cais-do-valongo","12":"tag-central-rio","13":"tag-centro","14":"tag-memory","15":"tag-history","16":"tag-international-comparison","17":"tag-museum","18":"tag-museum-of-tomorrow","19":"tag-opinion-2","20":"tag-port-region","21":"tag-race","22":"tag-slavery","23":"tag-valongo","24":"writer-ronilso-pacheco","25":"translator-rachel-fox"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27006\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27006"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=27006"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=27006"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=27006"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=27006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}