A statement of solidarity from former workers of SFMOMA

— Originally released on Tuesday, June 23rd, 2020

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In solidarity with the No Neutral Alliance, the Nure Collective, and Taylor Brandon, we, a multi-racial group of black, brown and white former SFMOMA workers, condemn the museum’s racist censorship of Taylor Brandon and call on the museum to fulfill the demands made by Taylor and No Neutral Alliance. We share this statement to show the extent of harm that SFMOMA has inflicted through discrimination stemming from anti-Blackness, racism, Islamophobia, transphobia, and ableism and hope that this statement can serve as a flag of solidarity and compassion to other current and former art workers, particularly those who work at SFMOMA. We demand that the museum be accountable to this harm, its workers, and its patrons, and urge all art organizations to learn from the mistakes that SFMOMA has made. Furthermore, we ask that all SFMOMA art workers who are in solidarity with No Neutral Alliance refuse to work or allow business to continue as usual, and that all artists and collaborators who have been asked to work with the museum boycott until these demands are met.

The recent appalling treatment of Taylor Brandon is not an isolated incident at SFMOMA and is in line with the deep-seated white supremacy of the museum and its leadership, reflected in the programming and ongoing treatment of staff and community. Discrimination towards BIPOC, disabled, queer and trans staff is built into the leadership structures of the institution, and for years staff have been explicitly and consistently condemning and documenting oppression, while demanding transformative action at the museum. Workers who attempted to offer guidance to the museum’s largely white leadership on issues of Diversity & Inclusion have been rebuffed at every turn, treated as naive, hysterical, or threatening and often forced to leave — ultimately reinforcing the abusive power dynamic racist leadership directs toward their BIPOC, disabled, queer and trans staff.

Yet the current leadership team has failed to enact real change. Among other things, this catastrophic failure of leadership on all levels has taken the shape of bad faith engagement with racial equity issues structured so as to preserve the status quo. This pattern is not new and is one that many institutions rely upon to uphold power structures. The pattern looks like this:

• An organization is made aware of or called out for oppression of its workers by its workers
• An organization develops a Strategic Plan to address the oppression
• An organization enacts the Strategic Plan as a gesture of reform and progress by: Diversity hiring for insecure roles; Tokenizing the identities of BIPOC and trans workers, artists and community members, as well as the cultural objects and works of art representing them, for public facing virtue signaling; Appropriating social justice language; Implementing surface level diversity training
• An organization then exploits the labor of the diversity hires while simultaneously inflicting harm and perpetuating environments of insecurity for marginalized workers
• The workers again speak up against the organization
• The worker leaves the organization either by choice or by force and the cycle begins again

The tactics for control across institutions including SFMOMA are built on this pattern. Any attempts at challenging a museum’s hierarchical structure, racist programming, or inaccessible resources is met with placating bureaucratic systems or outright denial. The gaslighting of the latter is enraging enough, but the weaponization of Human Resource administrations to feign compassion and actionable change reinforces a culture of silencing and powerlessness for the worker.

The environment at SFMOMA in particular is hierarchical, competitive and steeped in white fragility. The nuance of racial, gendered, and ability-based bias and discrimination is continually compounded for staff. The way in which this manifests for workers receiving or witnessing discrimination is through a subtle, yet overt psychological warfare. The worker is put in a position to make choices, moment by moment, between speaking out against institutional oppression or keeping their job. This choice, in actuality, means making the impossible decision between abandoning oneself, identity, and community, or maintaining a false sense of material security within capitalism.

While we understand this is an institutional problem that does not merely change with getting rid of a few bad apples, we recognize how members of senior staff specifically tasked with addressing what the museum calls “equity and diversity” have failed to take substantive action, instead largely silencing and placating marginalized workers and perpetuating a culture of harm and harassment. Thus we hope to hold these staff members, Neal Benezra, Nan Keeton, Ann von Germeten, Chad Coerver, Megan Brian, Noah Bartlett, Marisa Robisch, Cary Littlefield, as well as the rest of the Director’s Cabinet responsible for the harm they have caused through their actions and inaction. Responsibility for determining the direction of the institution also falls on the Board of Directors who hold the greatest financial power, and Curatorial Leadership who have continually stymied change. We name these groups and individuals in order to make clear that institutions cannot change when these same faces continue to direct the work being done. All should be held accountable for maintaining white supremacy at the museum and enacting continual harm. We want to be clear that this harm is not isolated to executive staff, and the most consistent and direct harm of workers is enacted, perpetuated and condoned by management throughout all departments at SFMOMA.

We call on the museum to meet the demands of No Neutral Alliance as follows:

• A call for the resignation of Neal Benezra
• That SFMOMA re-examine and properly handle complaints made to HR by current SFMOMA employees regarding racial bias, bias against employees with disabilities, bias against LGBTQ+ identifying employees, gendered bias and sexual harassment
• That SFMOMA creates a Black-oriented program directed by a local Black arts professional to help with the creation, implementation and ongoing support of the program and the Black people within it. This program must be implemented in the second quarter of FY21
• That SFMOMA make an initial donation of $3000 to the George Floyd Memorial Fund, Memorial Fund for Tony McDade, and Anti Police-Terror Project (Oakland) in the amount of $1000 each. The donation amount of $3000 must be a recurring quarterly donation to Black-led advocacy organizations, for a full year
• That SFMOMA begins the creation of a new strategic plan that provides the public with quarterly updates and metrics regarding SFMOMA’s progress on actions #2-#4

In conjunction with the demands made by No Neutral Alliance we also demand the following:

• That gender neutral bathrooms be implemented on both staff and public-facing floors within a 30-day period
• That senior and executive staff salaries during the pandemic be capped at the highest union rate and that the difference be reallocated to payroll for all employees laid off and furloughed due to COVID-19 (including back pay for the time since layoffs began)
• That the museum follow through on their plan (written into the most recent union contract) to create a paid apprenticeship program within Art Handling, Framing, Fabrication and Exhibitions Technical departments that prioritizes BIPOC, disabled, queer and trans workers
• That the HR review process of past complaints of discrimination and harassment called for by No Neutral Alliance must include: Review and redress not just complaints by current staff but relevant complaints made against any current staff; A dedicated mechanism for current and past staff to submit complaints that may not have been documented formally through HR; Restorative plan should include compensation for former staff who have made complaints of discrimination and harassment
• That a transparent, formal process for handling and addressing visitor complaints be developed

We unequivocally support the demands of Taylor Brandon and the No Neutral Alliance, and are deeply grateful (as SFMOMA should be) for their willingness to guide the museum in a process of radical transformation and accountability that those in power have been unwilling or unable to undertake on their own. The museum’s current leadership does not possess the knowledge, skills, or humanity to steer the institution toward an anti-racist future. They have shown us this repeatedly. We again urge all current staff to refuse to work or engage in business as usual and all artists to boycott SFMOMA as a gesture of outrage against institutional oppression. We stand in solidarity with all workers and especially the sweet, intelligent, hardworking SFMOMA staff members who continue to attempt to create a culture of lightness, love, and liberation within the museum. Accountability is an attempt for a better future where all people can feel empowered, seen, and loved. We urge SFMOMA and all institutions to move forward with us toward a collective liberation.

—xSFM0MA workers

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