Exhibit: Citizenship, Inclusion, and the Struggle to Belong

This exhibition explores the ways that exclusion affects minority groups in Western-dominant societies. It explores the ways in which Jews were excluded from European Christian-dominated society based on Christian notions of Jewish inferiority and the way Black people were excluded and marginalized in the United States and Europe based on race and association with slavery. We contemplate the idea of citizenship and belonging not only from the perspective of inclusion but also from the perspective of legal and social exclusion. We examine mechanisms of marginalization and exclusion: marking people and spaces, use of language, law, and also violence. We also examine the way these marginalized groups navigated exclusion, highlighting their coping mechanisms, resilience, and resistance to oppression and their unabashed demands of full equality and inclusion. We confront here this critical chapter in the history of the U.S., Europe, and the Western Hemisphere to better reflect on its enduring impact on the ongoing struggle for justice in “Citizenship, Inclusion, and the Right to Belong.”

The exhibit was curated by Wes Alcenat, Corinne Gibson, FCRH ’24, and Magda Teter.