{"id":10948,"date":"2023-06-20T07:00:03","date_gmt":"2023-06-20T05:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/boasblogs.org\/?post_type=undoingraceandracism&#038;p=10948"},"modified":"2023-06-20T18:17:01","modified_gmt":"2023-06-20T16:17:01","slug":"the-museum-a-play","status":"publish","type":"undoingraceandracism","link":"https:\/\/boasblogs.org\/de\/undoingraceandracism\/the-museum-a-play\/","title":{"rendered":"The Museum \u2013 a play"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<style>\n\t.dkpdf-download-icon { height: 1.5rem; }\n<\/style>\n\n\n\n\t<div class=\"dkpdf-button-container\" style=\" text-align:right \">\n\n\t\t<a class=\"dkpdf-button\" href=\"\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/undoingraceandracism\/10948?pdf=10948\" target=\"_blank\">\n\t\t\t<img src='\/wp-content\/themes\/boasblogs\/dkpdf\/download_red.svg' class=dkpdf-download-icon'\/>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t\t<!-- <a class=\"dkpdf-button\" href=\"\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/undoingraceandracism\/10948?pdf=10948\" target=\"_blank\"><span class=\"dkpdf-button-icon\"><i class=\"fa fa-file-pdf-o\"><\/i><\/span> Download PDF<\/a> &rarr; -->\n\n\t<\/div>\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What follows is a fictionalised play that draws on actual events, conversations, and incidents that we have witnessed or experienced working inside museums. Museums are in a bit of a mess. The most recent public debates about restitution of cultural heritage and repatriation of human remains have shaken them, requiring them to revisit their violent pasts and reimagine their future role as public institutions. On one hand, research, inspired by these debates but also informing them, has proven the colonial foundations of many museums, especially those holding ethnological and natural history collections, and medical and university collections. On the other hand, many of these findings evidence the racist conditions under which museum collections were assembled and continue to be researched, displayed and managed. These conditions determine present epistemic, institutional and organisational practices. Calls by stakeholders for acknowledging and redressing colonial crimes, for example through restitutions or reparations, can no longer be ignored by museums and have, to a certain extent, found their way into government and museum policies. For instance, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bundesregierung.de\/breg-de\/aktuelles\/koalitionsvertrag-2021-1990800\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the 2021 coalition contract<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of the current German government states its commitment to support research into Germany\u2019s colonial past and, eventually, to facilitate the restitution of cultural heritage from colonial contexts. Similarly, institutions holding cultural heritage and\/or human remains from colonial contexts are developing and implementing guidelines and standards for their handling. Yet, the racist conditions which endure in and suffuse museums\u2019 structures and routines, their collections and atmospheres, are largely left unacknowledged save for some trifling attempts to \u201cdiversify\u201d the institution or \u201csensitize\u201d staff to racist discrimination and bias. Often, these attempts come at the expense of those among us who are experiencing racism in the institution, by being turned into tokens, by being made to repeatedly recount racist incidences, or by being forced to again and again confront ignorance.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The authors of this blog piece all work in the museum sector. Each of them holds multiple roles and identities: head of department, researcher, project staff, commissioned\/invited artist, guest scholar, fixed-term staff, exhibition guard, natural scientist, poet, BIPoC, white, outreach worker, anthropologist, ethnographer, member of an anti-racism working group, member of a self-organized group, member of an art collective, PI in a research project\u2026\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While the play is fictional, it is based on real experiences and conversations as well as incidents in museums. It is presented anonymously to primarily protect the authors. We want to continue our work in and with museums, a work that is interested in changing the institution, perhaps even abolishing it. We do not feel safe revealing our names because we are familiar with the retributions that can follow critique. At the same time, we want to avoid highlighting specific individuals, institutions, or projects. The problems of institutional racism depicted in this play are not limited to any particular museum or individual, but rather represent a larger, systemic issue present throughout the museum field and in related institutions, such as universities.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Indeed, in our fictionalized situations, racism does not qualify as an \u201cissue\u201d in a straightforward manner (Mills, 1973: 15). Instead, these situations exemplify how racism operates in what Raymond Williams so aptly termed a \u201cstructure of feeling\u201d, describing a general sense that affectively orients assessment of our times and realities. In other words, racism routes the ways in which we come to feel a situation to be appropriate, awkward, right, wrong, acceptable, or unbearable.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Racism in institutions defies easy capture. It manifests in different ways. For example, in the way it is met: by suppressing critical discussion, by not hiring diverse staff, by benevolent advocacy for maintaining the status quo. At the same time the very tangible, material and epistemic racism is expressed in museum collections, archives and inscriptions, including scholarly texts. But our work also confronts us time and again with less obvious and less targeted forms of racism. These are widespread but not exclusive in institutions of research whose mission\u2014the production of knowledge\u2014is based on the negation of positionality and feelings. In these contexts, racism also (and above all) works by being rendered not only inexpressible but incomprehensible. While talk of racism is allowed to surface in carefully choreographed moments, such as official declarations stating the institution\u2019s commitment to diversity and anti-discrimination, its workings and effects on people, interactions, decisions and organisation are difficult to name. Again, none of the scenes depicted in the play refer to explicitly racist incidents. Rather, they refer to specific enactments of an emotional structure: refusal to acknowledge hurt, denial of empathy, commitment to ignorance, and belief in one\u2019s own superiority.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-10949\" src=\"https:\/\/boasblogs.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Figure_1-920x650.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"920\" height=\"650\" srcset=\"https:\/\/boasblogs.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Figure_1-920x650.jpg 920w, https:\/\/boasblogs.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Figure_1-1440x1018.jpg 1440w, https:\/\/boasblogs.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Figure_1-1536x1086.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/boasblogs.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Figure_1-2048x1448.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/boasblogs.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Figure_1-920x650@2x.jpg 1840w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 920px) 100vw, 920px\" \/><figcaption>\n<p style=\"font-size: 80%; line-height: 125%;\"><em>\u00a0\u201cTears in the institution (after Fred Wilson) I\u201d, 2023-ongoing, \u00a9CollectedRage<\/em><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We will reflect upon these enactments in an epilogue following the \u201cplay\u201d below. For now, we invite you, dear readers, to delve into the six scenes we have composed and assemble your own thoughts, images, and context. The scenes are fragments of longer set-pieces. We have collectively imagined these pieces in a series of conversations about our experiences in different museums. We think of them as <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">projection surfaces <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">facilitating both generalisation\u2014they could happen in almost any institution\u2014and reconstruction work, i.e., readers might reconstruct characters, the full breadth of the situation, and its possible antecedents. Some of you might recognize the mode or tone of the situations, or perhaps similar conversations among colleagues come to mind.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe Museum\u201d and exhibition that appear in the following scenes are inventions. Any resemblances to existing institutions or exhibitions are accidental. However, neither museum nor exhibition are entirely random. We deliberately deploy a museum that encompasses ethnological, natural history, and art collections to acknowledge that structural racism is not confined to \u201csensitive collections\u201d, a term usually reserved for ethnological artefacts or human remains. Also, by coming up with an exhibition that brings together objects and stories from different collections and disciplines, we pay heed to current trends encompassing multi-perspectival approaches to exhibitions and programming which combine natural, cultural, and social histories while also seeking to integrate different kinds of knowledges.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Scene 1<\/b><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The opening of the new exhibition \u201cHair: a natural-cultural history\u201d at The Museum, situated in the capital, comprising substantial collections of ethnological objects, natural history, and art. Opening remarks by the minister of culture, the minister of research and education, and the museum director just concluded. A minor interruption by the artist A has caused some confusion amongst those present. People are milling around in small groups, murmurs and bemused glances fill the expansive hall.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/i><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A group of three colleagues is gathered around a high table, set off to the side: H (art historian, working in Museum collection on permanent contract, white, female, cis); AN (anthropologist, working between collection and critical research on fixed-term contract, situated at university, POC, female, cis); B (biologist, working in Museum collection on fixed-term contract, POC, male, cis).<\/span><\/i><i><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">H: Well, that was awkward. [referring to the speech of the director and the intervention by the artist A that followed it]<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">AN: Yes, but good awkward. A had to call him out&#8230;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">H: How do you mean?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">AN: I mean that the whole purpose of the exhibition was to\u2026I don\u2019t know, somehow address the epistemic injustice that our collections are implicated in? Isn\u2019t something like that even in the press release? And then he patronizes her like that\u2026taking her words as the museum&#8217;s new motto or mission or whatever\u2026just to make himself and the institution look super aware?!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">B: Urgh, more than just patronising. I feel like he co-opted her&#8230;the phrase was taken completely out of context. It wasn\u2019t meant as a quick &#8222;lesson learnt&#8220; but really, a harsh and fundamental critique\u2026You can\u2019t just appropriate something like that and then\u2026no action. Remember how the room fell silent in shock and horror when A said it during the workshop?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">H: That&#8217;s true\u2026 And the whole thing with the G Collection was just awful. Or really\u2026remains awful. As far as I know, nothing has changed despite A&#8217;s request and the Decolonize Working Group\u2019s email.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Scene 2<\/b><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A (artist, invited for an artistic research project as part of the exhibition on a short-term contract, POC, female, cis) joins the group.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A: Hey, can I hide here for a moment?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">AN: Of course!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A: Thanks.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">H: That was courageous of you&#8230;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">B: [at the same time] I&#8217;m so sorry&#8230;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A: I&#8217;m just so tired\u2026 This shit just happens again and again and I tell myself that I won&#8217;t work with these museums ever again\u2026but then I think that this time it will be different because, really, we\u2019ve been there so many times\u2026[she\u2019s reminded of another incident during the preparations of the exhibition* [see insert below]<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">H: Yaaa, you\u2019re so right\u2026I really felt that at some point we were all on the same page\u2026during that early workshop in March even the curator of the G collection was talking about [air quotes] \u201cdecolonizing the collections\u201d and how historical responsibility requires a [air quotes] \u201cnew ethic of relation\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A: And it only took one rather benign confrontation for all empathy to stop\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">AN: All you did was point out the obvious: the collection\u2019s \u201cscientific\u201d merit, or however you want to call it, is rooted in racist science.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A: Not just its merit, the science itself is racist.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">AN: Yes, our historical research into the making and use of the G collection has shown that again and again\u2026if you look at G\u2019s diaries and fieldnotes it\u2019s impossible to ignore the racism in the language and\u2026the mindset. Not to mention the boxes of the hair samples and their [air quotes] \u201cscientific\u201d classification\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">B: Well, during their training, scientists are not taught to even be mindful of this bigotry. It\u2019s like the positions and beliefs of collectors like G are immaterial to the studies he designed and conducted and are therefore of no relevance to today\u2019s scientists. It\u2019s like they\u2019re trained to have white spots.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A: Yeah, well, it seems to me that scientific objectivity can only be clear-eyed if we allow for a few selective white spots.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Scene 2 continued<\/b><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">B and H leave to fetch more wine.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A: Uff, I\u2019m actually still shaken. I thought we shared this in\u2026a more private space<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">AN: [interjects] Well yes, it was a closed workshop situation and we all agreed to have it as a sort of safer space.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A: Yes, exactly.\u00a0 You know that the situation hasn&#8217;t been resolved. The curator\u2019s comment about the hair sample and its exhibition showcasing was just\u2026really\u2026violent. She didn&#8217;t get my point at all and now everyone thinks she had such an enlightening conversation with the artist and [air quotes] \u201clearned so much\u201d?! It was never about not showing it\u2026it was about the history, the context, the framing. And that\u2019s what\u2019s missing from his speech. In the end I had to insist on not exhibiting the hair sample because their contexting was all wrong. The curator probably still is convinced that the sample is [air quotes] \u201ctoo sensitive\u201d to show\u2026But that is really not the point\u2026And now for his opening speech he just took this as a &#8222;best practice&#8220; example for how the institution is dealing with racist incidents? WTF?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">AN: Ya, well, he does that a lot. And after someone calls him out, he usually comes to me or one of my [air quotes] \u201ccritical\u201d colleagues seeking absolution, feeling misunderstood and\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">B and H return with wine, AN excuses herself and makes her way to the bathroom, the Director intercepts her en route<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Scene 3<\/b><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Director (archaeologist, has run the Museum for three years, before that he headed the capital\u2019s Cultural Foundation, male, white, cis)<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Director: AN! [he catches up with her] Can I have a quick word with\u2026 [he stirs them to an alcove] I&#8217;m a little bit confused about what just happened. I really didn&#8217;t mean to offend anyone with my speech. I think it is important to show the public how we as an institution are taking racism very seriously and that our staff is aware and reflected. I just don\u2019t understand why we should be silent about it. I mean how shall we ever move forward if we can\u2019t even talk about our shared experiences and what we learned from them? You know how I meant it, right?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">[awkward silence for a few seconds]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">AN: Sure\u2026we can talk. Well\u2026 I know that your heart\u2026was in the right place, but\u2026I think maybe you\u2019re not wholly aware of the situation from all angles? For A\u2026this is not some theoretical discussion or even a single incident\u2026It\u2019s actually a reflection of her lived\u2026and repeated\u2026experience. Your recent appreciation for these issues is\u2026 very important, but\u2026at the same time\u2026you should realize that it does not compare to her lifetime of dealing with these issues. Also, you should be aware\u2026from your point of view\u2026this revolves around looking forward\u2026and an institutional stance. Don\u2019t get me wrong, these are good things. At the same time though\u2026you have to understand that A can\u2019t exactly look forward without simultaneously looking back on painful experiences that inform her worldview. So, I think you entered into your conversation from very different points of view.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Director: Ah, I see, I see. I\u2019m glad that I can talk to you about these issues. While tonight was definitely not what I was expecting, I still believe that this is an important opportunity to learn and so, ultimately, it\u2019s a good thing. I think the most important thing is that we all continue to learn about and reflect upon these issues, talk about them, share them in public and with our audiences. Do you think that\u2026deep down\u2026A understands where I\u2019m coming from? I saw you talking to her earlier\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">[awkward pause]<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">AN: Oh\u2026I am sure she understands\u2026at some level. But A\u2019s the only one who can say for sure\u2026 Maybe you should reach out to her to have a private conversation [sheepishly grins, followed by a noticeable pause]. Actually, if you don\u2019t mind, I really need to run to the bathroom [quickly exits].<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-10951\" src=\"https:\/\/boasblogs.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Figure_2-920x650.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"920\" height=\"650\" srcset=\"https:\/\/boasblogs.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Figure_2-920x650.jpg 920w, https:\/\/boasblogs.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Figure_2-1440x1018.jpg 1440w, https:\/\/boasblogs.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Figure_2-1536x1086.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/boasblogs.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Figure_2-2048x1448.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/boasblogs.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Figure_2-920x650@2x.jpg 1840w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 920px) 100vw, 920px\" \/><figcaption>\n<p style=\"font-size: 80%; line-height: 125%;\"><em>\u201cTears in the institution (after Fred Wilson) II\u201d, 2023-ongoing, \u00a9CollectedRage<\/em><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><b>Scene 4<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><\/b><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">AN has rejoined the group, they continue observing and commenting on proceedings.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">AN: Were you at the last meeting of the Decolonize Working Group?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">H: Yes, there were only a few\u2026it\u2019s hard to fit into the schedule with all the strategy development, the upcoming summit, and the preparations for the exhibition. You know how it is.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">B: Did you discuss what we had sketched on the Etherpad the last time?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">H: Not really, M [from management] is really keen for the group to work out a plan for the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Beschwerdestelle<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. You know, according to the ALG the museum needs to have one. So we discussed possible ways forward.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A: What\u2019s a <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Beschwerdestelle<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">H: It\u2019s a designated person or persons that deal with discrimination in the institution. For example, when there\u2019s a sexist or racist incident you can go there and they are obliged to handle it and make sure that it is properly addressed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A: But if it\u2019s a legal requirement shouldn\u2019t the museum\u2019s management be responsible for setting it up rather than your working group? From the meeting I attended I got the impression that the group is mostly made up of students and junior staff. Do you have an institutional mandate or something like that?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">B: That\u2019s a really good point. And no, we have no mandate or official standing\u2026 To really establish something like the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Beschwerdestelle<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> you need authority and other pertinent resources which none of us has\u2026Ahem, I\u2019m actually not sure that the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Beschwerdestelle<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is something we should invest our energy in. Like A said, it\u2019s management\u2019s job to make sure that the institution complies with the law.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">AN: Yup, I feel the same way. From the discussions so far, I get the sense that most of us want the group to be a place where we can collectively figure out and talk about how racism works here\u2026 Listen to each other, support each other and within our, albeit limited, powers\u2026You know, try and do things differently\u2026a little bit better or at least less painful.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A: So, if there was such a <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Beschwerdestelle<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, what would have happened if I had \u201ereported\u201c [air quotes] my exchange with the curator?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">S: It would have been documented, the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Beschwerdestelle<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> would have gathered information on the incident, probably talked to the head of collections and then submitted it to the director.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A: And then?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">[Clueless glances]<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">H: Well, the director would then have to implement appropriate measures\u2026 If the incident warrants it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A: I can see the potential benefit in acknowledging discrimination in the institution in some formal process but, hey, if there is no basic understanding of racism, of how it works in structures and words and how and who it hurts\u2026And what are the criteria by which an incident is deemed to warrant an official response?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">AN: And what are the criteria by which an incident is deemed to be an incident in the first place?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A: Right. I\u2019m not too optimistic about this <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Beschwerdestelle<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Particularly as it seems to be premised on the idea that the\u2026what is it called again\u2026Dientw\u2026<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dienstweg<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2026 and its inhabitants are somehow [air quotes] \u201cdecolonized\u201d\u2026\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">B: When the visiting professor confronted the head of research about the lab leader\u2019s racist remarks, his first reaction was to defend his colleague\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Scene 5<\/b><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">H decides to go home, A leaves to join her friends, AN and B make their way towards the bar where they meet ST who joined the group (studies cultural anthropology and works as an exhibition guard at the museum, member of an anti-racist activist group, female, white, cis).<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">AN: Who are they? [Discreetly nodding to a well-dressed group amicably chatting with the deputy director and some of the museum\u2019s benefactors, all white in their 30ies]<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">B: They are from this agency from Cologne that is accompanying the change management. Because one of the recommendations from the museum foundation\u2019s audit was to hire an external consultancy for supervising the strategy process. They\u2019ve worked with Siemens and BMW but also the Cultural Foundation. I went to the workshop on Friday afternoon.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">AN: Ah, of course! How did that go?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ST: They even included us, the freelance and outsourced staff, to join the sessions. First I thought that was quite smart and we had some interesting conversations and viewpoints from some people who are never listened to. But\u2026hey\u2026this doesn\u2019t break up any hierarchies. We need to learn a bit more self-organizing and a few buttom-up skills\u2026I know, I know, this sounds very \u201cactivist\u201d [air quotes]\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">B: Well, it\u2019s like Groundhog Day\u2026you remember when the W agency from Sweden was commissioned to roll out a new concept to \u201cdehierarchize\u201d the institution? First we had to play this game\u2026 \u201cDo you feel seen in your institution?\u201d&#8230; and everyone had to find a spot in the room where we felt most comfortable. I was hiding under a chair and trying to crawl out of the room without been seen [laughing out loud]&#8230;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b><\/b><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Eight months before the opening of the exhibition. The invited artists are presenting their ideas referring to the G Collection. After the presentations, AM [artist, contributed to the exhibition, male, white] approaches A.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">AM: I love your idea, A. It\u2019s really amazing. So strong.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Three weeks later. AM posts images of his proposed work, without any comment, on the shared working platform. It includes elements of A\u2019s ideas.<\/span><\/i><i><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Curator comments in the messenger: \u201cWow! Wonderful how your work is developing so beautifully! Can\u2019t wait to see more!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A is angry and starts typing into the messenger: \u201cWhat\u2019s going on?&#8230;This is clearly appropriation, why won\u2019t you make this transparent and refer to my work? Or just ask me? Did that ever cross your mind??? Isn\u2019t that the whole point of our engagement with the collection? That we question appropriation and discuss loot??\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">She stops writing and deletes the message. Instead, she writes: \u201cThanks for picking up elements of my work. I would like to remind you that these elements form parts of myths and collective practices in my home country. So, my work is a discussion that brings together knowledge production and creative flow when working with collections\u2026\u201d A sends the message.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">AM responds: \u201cThanks for reminding me, let\u2019s talk about this later.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Some weeks later during the setup, curator approaches A.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Curator: I really don\u2019t know why you were so upset, it\u2019s very clear that W\u2019s work has a totally different approach and has nothing to do with yours!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A: I don\u2019t understand how you can\u2019t see this&#8230;Can we maybe talk about this when we are finished with the setup? I am definitely upset now\u2026I can\u2019t believe I have to educate you about appropriation and white spots\u2026!<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-10953\" src=\"https:\/\/boasblogs.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Figure_3-920x650.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"920\" height=\"650\" srcset=\"https:\/\/boasblogs.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Figure_3-920x650.jpg 920w, https:\/\/boasblogs.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Figure_3-1440x1018.jpg 1440w, https:\/\/boasblogs.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Figure_3-1536x1086.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/boasblogs.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Figure_3-2048x1448.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/boasblogs.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Figure_3-920x650@2x.jpg 1840w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 920px) 100vw, 920px\" \/><figcaption>\n<p style=\"font-size: 80%; line-height: 125%;\"><em>\u201cTears in the institution (after Fred Wilson) III\u201d, 2023-ongoing, \u00a9CollectedRage<\/em><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Epilogue<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWhat (just) happened?\u201d This question regularly appears in our work with and in museums. It hovers in the awkward silence that follows a racist remark in workshops and staff meetings, it hangs heavy over the rows and rows and rows of dead animals and artefacts barely contained by store rooms and depots. And it structures the scenes above\u2014scenes which are written and wrapped around an absence, an unknown. Something is literally and metaphorically <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">off<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2014off to the side, beyond sight, out of time, not quite right. When we met to discuss this contribution, our conversations rarely referred to something or someone <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">being<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u201cracist\u201d. Yet, all of us immediately knew which experiences from our museum work we wanted to share with one another in discussing the theme of this blog: undoing race and racism. This perhaps reveals something about us, but it also speaks to the power of remembering and re-telling opaque experiences of tension with \u201cinstitutional habits\u201d (Ahmed, 2007: 165). Experience became both, evidence and resource: Evidence for structural racism\u2014the effect of which is the reification of \u201crace\u201d\u2014and resource for a critical reflection of the background to experience, which is neither private, nor individual, but always historical and collective. In our experiences, structural racism is constituted in and through obscuring and unknowing, through a form of \u201cstructural amnesia\u201d (Douglas 1986: 71): the disavowal of racist remarks, the ignorance of colonial history, the denial of objectivity to accusations of racism as well as the systemic erasure and dismissal of, for example, the specific history of objects and collections or the relevance of a person\u2019s employment status for their institutional investments (Sullivan and Tuana, 2007). This unknowing is part of what allows \u201crace\u201d to be done, it renders demands for acknowledgement or redress unintelligible.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWhat (just) happened?\u201d At the heart of our \u201cplay\u201d lies a series of confrontations which white, institutionally powerful actors often refuse to recognize as part of a struggle against racism. Instead, institutions choose to interpret such struggles as a matter of different perspectives and approaches to history (or life). They seek resolution, and often, absolution, through personalized inclusion: othered voices are integrated in public scripts, such as exhibitions, speeches, and press releases. At other times, marked\/racialised subjects (in many cases artists) are temporarily and prominently parachuted into museum spaces. Here, inclusion becomes a form of accumulation that enhances the institution\u2019s symbolic capital\u2014once again, bodies are added to the collection, so to speak. Therefore, the political economy of the museum, which is premised on elaborate but rarely elaborated inclusions and exclusions, remains intact. What\u2019s more, it strengthens the classificatory logic of museum collections, by subsuming, \u201ccelebrating\u201d, difference and distinctions without a fight. In this logic, objects, specimens, people become substitutes for their presumed context of origin. As a consequence, the institution can translate a commission by an artist with biographical ties to former colonies into a cooperation with \u201ccommunities of origin\u201d. Once again, the institution makes racism disappear, this time through busy efforts to perform the institution\u2019s awareness\u2014not awareness of racism but its awareness that racism presents a problem for the institution. Hence, haphazardly organized \u201cdiversity trainings\u201d and righteous codes of conducts are rarely followed by any serious institutional reconstructions. Rather, conflicts are cast as personal, not institutional.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWhat (just) happened?\u201d Feminist scholars, and especially BIPoC feminist scholars, have demonstrated the power of writing from and through marginalized experiences in bringing to light questions which dominating social and cultural norms systematically exclude (e.g. Anzaldu\u00e1 1990; Mohanty 1995). Cautioning against the presumption that such experiences reveal an unmediated truth or provide an easy route to solidarity, they have argued that writing allows \u201cthe <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">interpretation<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of that experience within a <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">collective<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> context\u201d (Alexander and Mohanty, 1997: xl) and thus facilitates participation in groups and movements working towards transforming (or abolishing) institutions. In composing (fragments of) a play, we wanted to heed these warnings while also giving us the chance to re-narrate, reflect, and translate our personal institutional histories in the context of their broader political, social, and economic systems. By not naming our names, we are not only protecting ourselves and each other. Above all, we want to draw attention to these systems that sustain and are sustained by institutional racism and hierarchies. As noted earlier, the scenes are composed of modified and rephrased versions of events or conversations that actually happened in our workplaces. There are certainly similarities with people and situations\u2014and these are of course not coincidental either\u2014but we want to inhibit the urge for an unmasking and instead encourage a desire for connection: Do you recognize the ignorance? Can you relate to the discomfort? Have you filed a complaint? Have you experienced a moment when colleagues suddenly turned into adversaries?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>References<\/strong><\/p>\n<div style=\"text-indent: -2em; padding-left: 2em;\">\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ahmed, Sara. 2007. \u2018A Phenomenology of Whiteness\u2019. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Feminist Theory<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> 8 (2): 149\u201368.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Alexander, M. Jacqui, and Chandra Talpade Mohanty, eds. 1997. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Feminist Genealogies, Colonial Legacies, Democratic Futures<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. New York: Routledge.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Douglas, Mary. 1986. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How Institutions Think<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. New York: Syracuse University Press.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mills, C. Wright. 1973[1959]. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Sociological Imagination<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Harmondsworth: Pelican Books.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mohanty, Chandra Talpade. 1995. \u2018Feminist Encounters: Locating the Politics of Experience\u2019. In <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Social Postmodernism: Beyond Identity Politics<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, edited by Linda Nicholson and Steven Seidman, 68\u201386. Cambridge Cultural Social Studies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sullivan, Shannon, and Nancy Tuana, eds. 2007. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Race and Epistemologies of Ignorance<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. SUNY Series, Philosophy and Race. Albany: State University of New York Press.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong><em>Anonymous:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe authors of this contribution are all practitioners in the museum field. Each of them encompasses multiple roles and identities which include head of department, researcher, project staff, commissioned\/invited artist, guest scholar, fixed-term staff, exhibition guard, natural scientist, poet, BIPoC, white, outreach worker, anthropologist, ethnographer, member of an anti-racism working group, member of a self-organized group, member of an art collective, PI in a research project\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"autor":[650],"class_list":["post-10948","undoingraceandracism","type-undoingraceandracism","status-publish","hentry","autor-anonymous"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/boasblogs.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/undoingraceandracism\/10948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/boasblogs.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/undoingraceandracism"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/boasblogs.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/undoingraceandracism"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boasblogs.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/boasblogs.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/undoingraceandracism\/10948\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10959,"href":"https:\/\/boasblogs.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/undoingraceandracism\/10948\/revisions\/10959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/boasblogs.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"autor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boasblogs.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/autor?post=10948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}