Putting humans on display -- Paris museum asks why

[November 29, 2011]  PARIS (AP) -- For centuries, white people regularly put Africans, native Americans, islanders or the disabled on display. A new Paris exhibit examines how this demeaning colonial tradition shaped discriminatory attitudes that linger today.

Curator Lilian Thuram, former football star and now anti-racism advocate, says in an AP interview that the exhibit made him reflect on his own prejudices about "the other." And he hopes it does the same for visitors to the Quai Branly Museum.

The exhibit, which opens Tuesday, is at times a queasy experience. It includes the projected silhouette of the buttocks of the so-called Hottentot Venus, and film of chained, unidentified tribal dancers performing in Paris to a white man's shouted instructions.

[Associated Press]

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