Wing Luke Museum: EXCLUDED, INSIDE THE LINES
Briskly walking through the International District on a crisp Tuesday morning, we arrived at the Wing Luke Museum just one minute after it opened. As we entered the museum, we were greeted by the receptionist at the front desk in an assertive manner. Since we were the only visitors in the museum at that early hour, her attention was especially directed at us in an almost suspicious manner. The receptionist informed us that we needed to buy tickets for the exhibits behind doors, but we told her that we were only there to see the Excluded, Inside the Lines exhibit.
The museum had wooden wall panels and modern architecture, and its cleanly laid out structure made it easily navigable. We were gestured towards a small area near the entrance that featured two walls of informational boards, visual maps, pamphlets, and interactive videos.
The exhibit explores the history of redlining, specifically in the Seattle area, and how that has affected oppressed groups. These groups included Native Americans, African Americans, and Asian Americans. The boards were divided into sections which discussed the history and effects of racial segregation in Seattle in chronological order.
Being an Asian American based museum, I came in with the expectation that the exhibit would focus solely on the effects of redlining on the Asian community, but was pleasantly surprised by the intercultural exploration that was present. Although the Wing Luke Museum is a museum that centralizes around the Asian Pacific American experience by focusing on capturing the struggles of Asian American individuals and communities, its exhibits feature views that span through many cultures. The Excluded, Inside the Lines exhibit addresses the stories and effects of redlining on Asian American communities, but also Native American and African American communities.
EXCLUDED, INSIDE THE LINES.
read the bold letters on the title boards. Underneath followed blocks of quotes.
“It was very obvious to me that as soon as I was visually seen, being non-White, she was longer interested in me as prospective customer,”.
“We got eggs thrown at us at times, and we got firecrackers thrown into our house, and even got a cross burned in our yard at one time… it was burned in the night, next to the room where my children were sleeping,”.
“A Black person at that time in Queen Anne, they stared at you in the streets, I mean, it was that scary. Ballard was absolutely off limits,”.
“They don’t say, ‘Well, we can’t rent it to you because you’re Chinese’ or anything, and you feel that it’s discrimination, right? But you can’t do anything,”’.
These quotes were first person recollections and dialogue of the discrimination that was present in the Seattle area, which made the meaning of the exhibit all the more powerful. It was important to share stories recalled by individuals who experienced and were directly affected by redlining. The recollections were drawn from people of different races and backgrounds, from different areas around Seattle, to emphasize that redlining was not an issue that was contained in a small area, but in fact affected the many neighborhoods that we know today. These personal quotes make the experience of redlining and its effects very real for myself, and I would imagine others viewing the exhibit.
A large map of the greater Seattle area featured a color key labeled as follows: best, still desirable, definitely declining, hazardous, business, industrial. As you could imagine, the “best” and “desirable” areas were populated solely by upper and upper middle class White individuals and families, and by no surprise, the less desirable areas were occupied by oppressed minority groups. The visual rhetoric of the map explicitly reveals the neighborhoods that were created as a result of redlining, and how this plays out today. The map spoke to me especially because it made me realize how the neighborhoods that are considered “better” and “safer” today came to be.
THE RIGHT TO HOME.
This next section of the exhibit explores the question: What is home? This question is explored by diving deeper into the history of segregation in Seattle starting in the mid 1800s, when Native Americans were barred from living in the city by law. The displacement of Native peoples in the Seattle area established the conditions for the discrimination against Chinese Americans in the late 1800s, the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II, and the segregation of African Americans from White neighborhoods. The exhibit emphasizes that redlining is truly a cross cultural issue deeply rooted in Seattle’s history.
DIFFERENT RULES, SAME GAME: THE FIGHT CONTINUES.
The exhibit discusses how the Central District became the center point of the Civil Rights Movement in Seattle. The Fair Housing Act was passed in 1968, making it illegal to discriminate and segregate when it came to housing. Regardless, “Weed and Seed” programs were implemented to push minorities, especially Black people, out of the area. The effects of these regulations is still seen today, as approximately only 25% of Black households in King County own their homes. The effects to redlining are not in the past, but are disturbingly prevalent in our neighborhoods today.
LAYERS & LEGACY OF SEGREGATION IN SEATTLE.
This section explores the lasting effects of redlining in Seattle that are still present today. It was significant for the exhibit to include present day effects, because many of these effects go unnoticed. Why is the Rainier Beach neighborhood predominantly Black? Why is the International District predominantly occupied by Asians? Why are neighborhoods that are considered upper class and have a higher cost of living predominantly White? The answer stems from the history of redlining in Seattle.
As an Asian American individual, I was personally aware of the issue of redlining in Seattle because I was fortunate enough to learn about it in my high school history classes. I went to Shorewood High School, located in a suburb around 20 minutes north of Seattle. It was a few miles from a residential neighborhood called Innis Arden, so a large portion of students from this neighborhood fed into my high school. Innis Arden is currently a predominantly White populated neighborhood. I’ve spent a lot of time in this neighborhood because most of my friends live there, and have always noticed that the non-White residents is evidently minimal. I was shocked to learn that although the segregation laws were removed in the 1990s, landowners still adhered to the doctrine of redlining up until 2006. However, I know that many people, including my friends and family, don’t know about the prevalence of redlining in Seattle history, or even what redlining is.
The Wing Luke Museum, unlike many other museums, is free for public access. Some of its exclusive exhibits need purchased tickets to enter, but I felt that it was important that the Excluded, Inside the Lines exhibit was free because it allows the information presented to be easily accessible by more people. I particularly liked how the Wing Luke was a non-profit organization, and money from exhibit tickets and memberships went to upholding the museum and its new exhibits. Like other cultural based museums, the existence of the Wing Luke Museum is important because it sparks cross cultural and intercultural communication.
Leaving the museum, I continued to think about the history of discrimination in Seattle, and the present day effects of redlining. What is a seemingly diverse and progressive city was in reality built on the redlining of minority groups. We go about our everyday lives without realizing or taking time to think about the foundation that our city was built on. It’s time to take the time to think about why we live the way we do, and where we do, and how this is a result of oppressed groups being EXCLUDED, INSIDE THE LINES in Seattle history.
