National Council on Public History Instagram Takeover. Day 5 of 5. (un)Redact the Facts.
From February 20–24, 2023, I took over the National Council on Public History’s Instagram account. It was their first one for 2023. To give visitors to the accounts, mine (@wrkSHapkiloWatt) and NCPH’s (@publichistorian), a taste of one of my favorite things, I presented the captions from the perspective of exploring the New York City / MTA subway system.
Also, I had the idea of picking a word of the week. Throughout the week, I wove the word I chose, “narrative”, in my captions, which were narrations about my offerings to public history, historic preservation, and my favorite art museum — the New York City / MTA subway system. It’s a taste of Beyond Integrity in (X), Black in Historic Preservation, and (un)Redact the Facts sprinkled with subway art. Thanks to NCPH for having me.
Thanks, NCPH, for having me. I now present NCPH Instagram Takeover, Day 5 of 5, (un)Redact the Facts. For the complete Takeover Series, visit wrkSHäp | kiloWatt’s website or on Instagram.
Well, our time has come to an end or a beginning. Before I go, a few words about the initiative that feels like my life’s mission, ancestral work on historical narratives: (un)Redact the Facts.
It all began in June of 2020, when I saw something and said something. What did I see? The passive voice in a caption to an Instagram post that claimed to Tell the Full American Story. So, I said something, and I will continue to say something until there is a concerted effort by organizations and individuals to tell a fuller story about the Black experience in the United States, which is a fuller story about White people and all of US.
In November 2022, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), in response to comments they received about a diagram they made that communicated the difference between equality and equity, they revised the diagram. They said the revision was their attempt to practice empathy for the audience. The audience they chose was the audience that needs the most empathy — people experiencing disabilities.
Similar to RWJF, for all of the offerings that I provide, my target audience are the people in our society who need the most care for their stories, for the narratives we tell about their ancestors, our ancestors, friends, and families. These people are mainly Black people. Through the three aforementioned initiatives, Black in Historic Preservation (@blackinhistpres), Beyond Integrity in (X) (@beyond.integrity), and (un)Redact the Facts (@unredacthefacts), esp. (un)Redact the Facts, I aim to change the narrative about Black people, and thus their experience in the world, to one of more grace and compassion from non-Black people and for themselves, too.
The goal of (un)Redact the Facts is to read and hear historical narratives that tell fuller stories of accountability about our lived experiences of slavery, lynching, redlining, etc. These fuller stories reframe the narrative to one of horrible, unexplained conditions happening to us instead of horrible conditions being a natural occurrence of which we deserved due to a fictional, inherent inferiority. How we tell the story about the past is integral to this — less passive voice that omits who did what to whom and more active voice. Use fewer euphemisms in historical narratives for White people and call plantations what they were — forced labor camps.
This offering is exciting and serious work that I am doing, that we are doing as keepers of our collective, historical memory. To understand how serious it is, visit @unRedacTheFacts to read research published by the Washington Post last week about how racism affects the brain. And, redacted grammar and language in historical narratives, like the passive voice, creates distance between the reader and the lived experience of people in the past. As recently published research by Eugene Y. Chan and Sam J. Maglio has shown, this temporal distance creates beliefs such as, “slavery happened a long time ago, so why care about it now?” At the same time, I am encouraged by my research on redacted grammar and language, the support I receive, and I am motivated when I read or hear historical narratives from institutions that include unredacted grammar and language like the active voice.
The Allusionist Podcast Episode 170: If you are curious to hear my voice, well now you can via my first published podcast interview. I speak about unRedact the Facts, the word “plantation”, and more. Have a listen — visit @unredacthefacts for the link in the profile.
With all of the reels I shared this week, it’s been real, pun intended. Time to skidaddle from underneath the city that never sleeps. Thanks to NCPH for having me.
be kind to yourself and others.
- k. kennedy Whiters, AIA (@wrkSHapkilowatt . @beyond.integrity . @blackinhistpres . @unredacthefacts)
(un)Redact the Facts is an initiative of wrkSHäp | kiloWatt, a boutique architecture firm owned and operated by k. kennedy Whiters, AIA, that specializes in historic preservation, owner’s representation/construction management, and racial equity communications.
k. kennedy Whiters, AIA is an architect with licenses to practice in New York and Washington State, a published writer, an artist, and a business owner. She was a 2008 recipient of the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Mildred Colodny Fellowship. In 2021, she founded Black in Historic Preservation, (un)Redact the Facts, and Beyond Integrity in (X). The latter was a national historic preservation conference that focused on the topic of architectural integrity of historic landmarks. She’s been known to hug a tree and a building or two.
