Emily Bell McCormick: How small acts become sweeping belief systems

Emily Bell McCormick There is an apartheid museum in Johannesburg, South Africa. Buried yards into zigzagged cement walkways, artifacts, photos and documents, is a wall. A wall that stands stories high, vastly wide. Red and brown brick, covered almost entirely by hundreds of small black plaques, each engraved with white letters. It’s a wall that could be missed, immense as it is, but blended amidst the thronging displays.

Upon examination, the sea of plaques takes form — each containing an “act” or law.

This wall, and each plaque on it, represents the formation and continuation of apartheid. One small “act” at a time.

And thereby, one country’s 300-year history of institutionalized racism, and…