Plus, hiding history would be not showing it anywhere. As others have stated, put the jewelry in a museum. Notate its history and context. Don’t wear it as a personal accessory in 2017.
I think there is no such thing as bad publicity, the monarchy is like the kardashians, as long as there is press coverage, they stay relevant, really, and only for foreigners.
Sigh. I am a historian. My entire life is about not hiding history. I want history to be apparent in everything we do.
That doesn’t mean going around making heil hitler solutes, wearing black face, etc. It means that we have frank and open conversations about why we don’t do these things anymore and what it says about you and our society when you do do them.
History has a place in our every day lives. History is not an excuse to perpetuate racist ideas, iconography, clothing, etc.
Wearing a blackamoor pin isn’t showcasing history. It’s revealing you as (in the most charitable reading) an ignorant, uninformed relic of the past. Or, more likely, as a racist, bitter old woman.
I think, given the woman’s history, that this was intended to be a deliberate dig.
I strongly doubt that it was just her favorite pin that she wore all the time and had never thought about its implications.
Really astonishingly bitchy and petty.