The Inexplicable Urge to Not See

Episode 2 of Wilde Lake Captain Planet Adventures will have to wait until tomorrow. I saw this piece by Marlena Jareaux of Howard County Lynching Truth and Reconciliation last night and I can’t get it out of my mind.

Levi and Oliver: The Howard County History Fear We Don’t Talk About, Marlena Jareaux, HCLTR

The piece is a response to an article in the Washington Post about a property in Ellicott City and the significance of its history to a woman whose ancestors were enslaved.

She cherished the home where her family fled slavery. Then a stranger bought it, Sydney Trent, Washington Post

This is the property in question. It was put up for sale about a year ago.

I had a strong emotional reaction to reading the piece in the Washington Post. Jareaux’s response provided me with more context and made me realize that the complexities and nuance involved were more layered than what came across in the Post article.

One thing I do know: we can’t just steel ourselves against what we may learn about our history in Howard County and hope that will make it all go away. Honestly I’m surprised by how many folks seem to want to do just that. It is like a small child closing their eyes and believing it makes them invisible.

The truth will out. We may not like it, but we can learn from it. All over the U.S., I see people who are investing a great deal of effort to not learn and to prevent their children from learning. Do they fear truth? Do they fear justice? Do they have any sense of the value and necessity of reconciliation?

I don’t know.

I do know one thing. It is a completely different thing to put a house like this on the market and sell it than most other houses in Howard County. To call Richland Farm an “historic property” and remain silent that it was a forced labor camp bothers me. Do realtors take on special responsibilities to inform sellers and potential buyers the ethical questions involved in such a transfer of property? Is there in fact a special professional protocol for selling homes like this?

There should be.

It is not just any other building or acreage. To pretend that it is leaves everyone involved open to the kind of situation that is the center of Sydney Trent’s article and Marlena Jareaux’s response.

Much of the history I deal and work with involves things that are “challenging” that people would rather we forget about and “get over it” so that we can all just concentrate on Howard County being “the top X place to live” and be happy that we live here and not “over there” somewhere. I encounter it in many groups that I have given talks to, and I can see that some people are curious but also afraid of the history. We never seem to get around to talking about what exactly they are afraid of. - - Marlena Jareaux

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