Exclusive: Former Staff Call Out 'Culture Of Racism' At Top US African Art Museum
Ten former staff and board members of the world’s largest museum complex have urged executives to address an alleged long-standing “culture of racism” at its museum of African art in Washington, DC.
A group of former staff members at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art (NMAfA) have accused their leadership of turning a blind eye to concerns of bigotry in a two-page letter seen by HuffPost.
The letter’s signatories are calling for the resignation of the NMAfA’s deputy director and chief curator Christine Mullen Kreamer to “enable real, systemic changes in the museum’s practices and policy implementation”.
The letter was addressed to Smithsonian secretary Lonnie G Bunch III, who last year became the first Black person to serve as the institution’s head and now oversees 19 Smithsonian museums.
The letter alleges that more than 10 former or current Black employees have “reported or experienced incidents of racial bias, hostile verbal attacks, retaliation, terminations, microaggressions and degrading comments,” all of which have been ignored by management when raised formally.
On several occasions, managers at the museum have attempted to promote white employees into vacant roles while disregarding the institutional policy requiring a competitive application process, former staffers said.
“Persistent racial disparities at NMAfA are apparent in the application of institutional policies,” the letter reads.
“Recent events have brought deeper attention to systemic racism within museums across our country. In this spirit, we write to you to express our outrage about the current state of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art.
“Our goal is to collectively express our concerns and to engage in building an equitable and inclusive museum for our community.”
One former staffer claims just five full-time Black employees worked at the museum at the time they left – out of more than 40 staff members – which is solely dedicated...
