Kelsey Kupferer is a graduate of the University of Missouri and held a lot of jobs around here – including at KBIA. She now works for the University of Washington in Seattle.
Kelsey spoke with the Missouri on Mic team at this year's True/False Festival held in Stephen's Lake Park about why her home state is so important and why she thinks that it's vital for Missourians to reflect on their past.
Missouri on Mic is an oral history and journalism project documenting stories from around the state in its 200th year.
Kelsey Kupferer: So, I think it's hard for me to think about celebrating Missouri's Bicentennial because it's like, I'm not super hot on Missouri right now.
To celebrate the past 200 years of Missouri statehood, Missouri needs to really look toward the future and start thinking about what the next 200 years are going to look like.
I have a tattoo of the state of Missouri on my arm, which I got after I biked across the state of Missouri, and I biked through the southern third of the state, and part of the bike route that I rode was part of the Trail of Tears.
And I think, when you think about this state – you think about the colonization of native land – and then you think about the fact that Missouri became a state as part of the Missouri Compromise, which admitted Maine as a free state and Missouri as a slave state.
"I think it was Jay Nixon who said this, but it was a powerful Missouri politician who said, "The wheels of change move slowly in Missouri," and my hope for Missouri is that the wheels of change speed up a little bit."Kelsey Kupferer
You just think about the hurt and the pain and the destruction of lives that this state is founded on.
And then you think more currently about segregation in our schools that has... I think specifically about St. Louis schools and how deeply segregated they are.
I just think that, like, Missouri needs to really reckon with the past 200 years and accept the harm that white people in Missouri have done, and then we need to think about how we are going to make the next 200 years different from the last 200.
I think that if we get can get there, that's something to celebrate, but I don't know that Missourians are really reckoning with our past.
Okay, here's a misconception. Like I said, I live in Seattle now, and people will see, like I said, I have Missouri tattooed on my body – and people will see and they'll be like, "Oh, Missouri," and I'm like, "Yeah, I love Missouri."
Because I do love Missouri. I love the rivers. I love the trails. Like, I said, I love this idea that we are right in the middle, and because we are right in the middle we have we have the ability to have perspectives on the country as a whole.
We are not tied to any one region or any one philosophy. I feel like we can have it all because we're in the middle.
But people are like... so I say that to people and they're like, "Ew, you like Missouri?" Or what they'd say to me in Seattle is "Oh my god, are you so happy that you got out?" and I'm like, "No, that's my home! I love the Midwest."
I think it was Jay Nixon who said this, but it was a powerful Missouri politician who said "the wheels of change move slowly in Missouri," and my hope for Missouri is that the wheels of change speed up a little bit.
