Oh, boy. The joys of perusing estate sales as a Black woman in Alabama!
For the unaware, during the peak of white people’s hatred of (and odd fascination with?) Black people, they weren’t simply content to be owners of pretty much everything in the country. They also did minstrel shows mocking Black people’s appearance, made racist art depicting Black people doing stereotypical things and even produced dolls with Black faces and big red lips that were for some reason called Golliwogs.
While most of the relics of this period have, thankfully, been lost to history, some still exist. And wouldn’t you know it, they were recently available for purchase at an Alabama estate sale.
In a video with more than 9.6 million views, TikToker Ken (@shopsecondhand), who is Black, shows the various pieces of racist artwork she discovered there. These include “mammy” dolls, a painting of three Black children eating watermelon and more. According to a follow-up posted by Ken, shoppers were concerningly interested in these pieces. “These people were like ransacking this house for this stuff,” she explains. “I was just like, there’s no way I’m in 2023. And they’re all just, like, smiling in my face!”
No matter how uncomfortable the experience was, Ken says she did nab some bags and belts before getting the hell out of there.
One commenter summed up the situation best — and finally put all of this in the proper 2023 context: “Get Out movie vibes.”
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