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After several conversations w/ colleagues like @Brigitte_Vezina @AndeeWallace and @foe I'm drawn to think that we need to make a statement on how some representations --even when depicting "diversity"-- are utterly problematic and disrespectful. I'm looking at you #Europeana2020
A keynote speaker that has published a book with this cover is not being "diverse". #Europeana2020 This is an awful representation of people of color and it's embedded in so many layers of racism and othering that I don't know where to begin.
It speaks to some of the problems that the European GLAM sector has in acknowledging their own histories of colonialism. How often do we hear European colleagues saying "oh we really don't have that many issues with traditional knowledge?", as if colonization didn't happen.
Why not invite some of the folks that can really speak to those problems? There's amazing people out there like @ChaoTayiana @AbiraHussein @OpenRestitution @SaywhatNathan @WhoseKnowledge that could have said a thing or two about how you confront organizational racism...
Those are the keynotes that we need at every event and also at #Europeana2020, people that actually have been working to change the way in which organizations have systematically excluded, marginalized and harmed BIPOC and Indigenous people. Not insensitive corporate speak.
