Responding to Current Events

MAAM condemns such violence, racism, and misogyny. We stand in solidarity with and endorse the statements made by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center and many other cultural organizations. As museums, it is our role to support our Asian, Asian American, and Pacific Islander colleagues. We should always be listening to their stories, their accomplishments and their struggles. But now, we should be lending our support and offering a safe space for our colleagues to talk.

Smithsonian APA Center’s Statement and List of Resources by Smithsonian museums: http://smithsonianapa.org/stand/ (Videos, exhibitions, educator resources)

• Stop AAPI Hate web site: https://stopaapihate.org
• Asian American Advancing Justice web site:  https://www.standagainsthatred.org
• Launch Learning page (with additional links): http://www.launchlearning.org/in-solidarity-with-the-asian-american-community/
• The Cut (from New York magazine), How to help combat anti-Asian American violence: https://www.thecut.com/2021/03/atlanta-spa-shooting-how-to-help-where-to-donate.html
• Anti-Asian Violence Resources: https://anti-asianviolenceresources.carrd.co/

Other Sources:

• Stop AAPI Hate, @StopAAPIHate
• Asian Americans Advancing Justice, @AAAJ_AAJC
• Hollaback, @iHollaback (bystander intervention resources available)

We can do better by leveraging positions of privilege to help our most vulnerable colleagues and visitors. We can do better by being anti-racist. We can better support our colleagues of color. We can do better by having conversations, sharing resources, and educating ourselves.

Let us foster excellence together. Our communities can thrive, but only if we can collectively strive to be a better society by holding each other accountable. Challenge assumptions, share resources, spark discussion.

 

Calls to Action

How you can help right now:

• (FROM NYCMER) “If you are able, consider donating to local groups on the ground pushing for transformative justice like Reclaim the Block, Black Visions Collective, and the North Star Health Collective; and nationally like the Equal Justice Initiative, The Bail Project, Black Lives Matter, and Southern Poverty Law Center.”
• Learn more about Fighting Police Abuse with the ACLU’s Community Action Manual
• Register to vote and encourage others to do the same.

Here’s what we can do within the museum field: 

The National Museum of African American History Talking about Race web portal represents a useful resource for organizations struggling with how to engage in these conversations with visitors,  staff, and community members. https://nmaahc.si.edu/about/news/national-museum-african-american-history-and-culture-releases-talking-about-race-web

• (From Museum Educators Roundtable): “Integrate anti-racist and culturally responsive pedagogy into your practice; reading, or rereading, Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire or Culturally Responsive Teaching by Geneva Gay”
• (From Museum Educators Roundtable) “Read “Activating Diversity and Inclusion: A Blueprint for Museum Educators as Allies and Change Makers” by Wendy Ng, Syrus Marcus Ware, and Alyssa Greenberg from the JME issue 42.2″
• Train staff and volunteers in bystander intervention
  • American Friend Service Committee: https://www.afsc.org/bystanderintervention
  • Hollaback! Bystander Resources
• (From Museum Educators Roundtable): Download the Museums as Site for Social Action Readiness Assessment
• (From Museum Educators Roundtable): Partner with local racial and social justice groups in your community and pay them for their expertise
• Review AAM’s Facing Change Working Group Report with your staff yourmuseum’s DEAI working group or advisory board.
  • What We Learned
  • Five Insights
    • Unconscious Bias and Personal Work
    • Definitions of Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Inclusion
    • Inclusion for Effectiveness and Sustainability
    • Value of Systemic Change
    • Empowered, Inclusive Leadership at all Levels

On a personal level as a museum professional:

• On a personal level, look inward: audit your work, consider your privilege, and think about where your influences and ideologies come from.
• Recognize how injustices affect Black, Asian, Middle-Eastern, Latinx, and Indigenous colleagues differently than white colleagues.
• Give space to colleagues of color. Allow them to mourn, and center their experiences over your own.
• Support minority-owned businesses and restaurants

More from Museum Educators Roundtable:

• Talk with kids, students, coworkers, family, and friends about race;
• Join or start reading and discussion groups like Building Antiracist White Educators, centered around racial equity

Helpful Pages (Originally shared by Southeastern Museums Conference-SEMC)

Museums and Race
A movement to challenge and re-imagine institutional policies and systems that perpetuate oppression in museums.
https://museumsandrace.org/

Mass Action Toolkit
This collaborative project seeks to align museums with more equitable and inclusive practices.
https://www.museumaction.org/

The Empathetic Museum 
The qualities of 21st century museums are impossible without an inner core of institutional empathy: the intention of the museum to be, and be perceived as, deeply connected with its community.
http://empatheticmuseum.weebly.com/

The Incluseum
The Incluseum advances new ways of being a museum through dialogue, community building and collaborative practice related to inclusion in museums
https://incluseum.com/