Museum Educators Roundtable Board of Directors Release Solidarity Statement

by Christopher Blay June 1, 2020
Placard reading “community control of police now” used at Baltimore protests in 2015. Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Sharon Marie Black

Placard reading “community control of police now” used at Baltimore protests in 2015. Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Sharon Marie Black.

The Museum Educators Roundtable, an organization formed in 1969 to foster “professionalism among museum educators by encouraging leadership, scholarship and research in museum-based learning,” issued a statement yesterday in solidarity with protesters around the country and the world in response to the death of George Floyd and others. The statement is as follows:

“The Museum Education Roundtable stands alongside those protesting violence against Black people in Minneapolis and around the country. Museum educators are bridges to and producers of cultural knowledge. We care for our communities intellectually but also emotionally, socially, and physically. As such, we have a responsibility to address structural injustice, oppression, racism, and abuses of power. Museums are not neutral, and neither are those who work in these privileged institutions.

“We are angered by and mourn the killing of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and countless others. We stand with those condemning the violence against and ongoing oppression of Black people in the United States. Our thoughts, words, and actions are with anyone organizing to dismantle systems of oppression. 

“These are only the most recent instances emerging from centuries of violent, structural racism in the United States. To end this cycle of injustice, we all must come together to recognize the insidious nature of white supremacy and the ways it has infiltrated every aspect of our lives, including and especially our cultural institutions. 

“We encourage our members and readers to take action and have compiled the following resources for folks seeking an entry point. As a Board, and within a museum field, that is predominately white, we must center our Black, Indigenous, and racialized colleagues, partners, and visitors. We have privilege inherent to aspects of our identities and power in our position within the cultural landscape.”

Protests began in Minneapolis after George Floyd, an African American man, died there in police custody a week ago on May 25. Since then protests and demonstrations have expanded to many cities across the U.S., and to some other countries as well.

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Formed in 1969, the Museum Education Roundtable fosters professionalism among museum educators by encouraging leadership, scholarship and research in museum- based learning. MER provides leadership in professional development for a broad and diverse audience of museum practitioners and educators.

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