Black people are always canaries in the coal mine. Kelli Morgan told y'all. "Traditional" "core audience" always means "white." It's foundational to many museums and too many are happy to codify it on the job. It's why I was forced to leave museums and likely will never return. https://twitter.com/LoriLeeByrd/status/1360611504203190273

Newfields is not an exception. Venerable is not an outlier. There is no quiet part loud. This is THE part. The only part. And if you weren't aware of that until now you have some internal work to do.

Every day Black people are abused and mistreated terribly in museums. Your coworkers. People you likely think are your friends. But what you don't know is we can't fully trust you. Especially when you co-sign the foolishness. When you don't actively resist it. When you ignore it.

My pinned tweet describing my treatment by the Beach Museum of Art and Kansas State University is mild in comparison to what I was subjected to. And before that by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. And myriad museums and galleries I've visited and collaborated with. It's systemic.

Dr. Kelli Morgan said it best:

"If white folks and governments will not do what it takes to dismantle white supremacy once and for all, we will tear it all down. Racist monuments around the country have been torn down at a rapid pace, and museums need to be next."

I love art with everything I have. Working to uplift Black artists and Black students spoke to my very soul. I truly believed I had found my life's work, a calling. Except for the subsistence wages, I loved that work. And white supremacy destroyed that. It's crushing.

Not one system tasked with "helping" when we're mistreated and terrorized in workplaces did anything positive. Each one made it worse, operating as designed when we're the victims. We enter these spaces in good faith and little by little they chip away at us. And no one cares.

It feels like I bleed on the TL at least every few months. I've raised the alarm about these spaces for decades. Before it became cool and profitable for white people to do so. I have nothing to show for it except poverty and meaningless backchannel well-wishes from cowards.

Even outside of museums the abuse continues. You use me in your books, essays, and talks without notice or compensation. You learn from my scholarship and remix it to secure bags. You cite my intellectual property as if it's your own. You take with no regard to my well-being.