Blunt Instruments

Recognizing Racist Cultural Infrastructure in Memorials, Museums, and Patriotic Practices

By: Kristin Ann Hass

Narrated by: Nadia Marshall

A field guide to the memorials, museums, and practices that commemorate white supremacy in the United States—and how to reimagine a more deeply shared cultural infrastructure for the future

Cultural infrastructure has been designed to maintain structures of inequality, and while it doesn’t seem to be explicitly about race, it often is. Blunt Instruments helps listeners identify, contextualize, and name elements of our everyday landscapes and cultural practices that are designed to seem benign or natural but which, in fact, work tirelessly to tell us vital stories about who we are, how we came to be, and who belongs.

Examining landmark moments such as the erection of the first American museum and Colin Kaepernick’s kneeling pledge of allegiance, historian Kristin Hass explores the complicated histories of sites of cultural infrastructure, such as:

· the American Museum of Natural History

· the Bridge to Freedom in Selma

· the Washington Monument

· Mount Auburn Cemetery

· Kehinde Wiley’s 2019 sculpture Rumors of War

· the Victory Highway

· the Alamo Cenotaph

With sharp analysis and a broad lens, Hass makes the undeniable case that understanding what cultural infrastructure is, and the deep and broad impact that it has, is essential to understanding how structures of inequity are maintained and how they might be dismantled.

©2022 Kristin Hass (P)2022 Beacon Press

Critic reviews

"With this much-needed book, even readers already engaging in more holistic history-telling will find meaningful ways to level up their critical thinking.”—Booklist, Starred Review

“Hass offers a powerful exposé of the persistence of race in the ongoing public dialogue about citizenship and belonging.”—Library Journal

“[An] ultra-compelling book . . . With this much-needed book, even readers already engaging in more holistic history-telling will find meaningful ways to level up their critical thinking.”—Publishers Weekly

Important

The notion of "cultural infrastructure" is important towards understanding the perdurance of racist and oppressive structures--how they reiterate and maintain themselves. This important piece of scholarship is an interesting and compelling listen, well read and well written. My only complaint could be seen as a strength by some: the repetitiveness with which she circles back to her conceptual framework. It makes it memorable, but it also makes it a bit redundant at times when you're already asked as a reader/listener to consider the topics within her conceptual framework from the beginning. Otherwise, it's an important and compelling read.