Author: Andrea Widburg Via American Thinker
One of the most disturbing things about our already unsettling times is the way that the left is forcing ugly binary choices on Americans.
The most obvious example is how the phrase “All lives matter” is being twisted to mean “I hate blacks” or “I’m a white supremacist.” The latest manifestation of the charge that refusing to recognize black supremacy is, without more, proof that someone is a white supremacist comes from San Francisco. The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (“SFMOMA”) has forced out its senior curator for the crime of refusing to ban white artists entirely from the museum’s collection.
If you happen to find modern art attractive, SFMOMA is an excellent place to see it. The building is itself a decent example of contemporary architecture, and the collection offers solid examples of late 20th-century and early 21st-century art. And of course, because it’s a San Francisco institution, SFMOMA has been all over the Black Lives Matter movement.
At the very top of its home page, right under the “we’re closed because of the Wuhan virus” announcement, the museum promises that it has “Ongoing Commitments to Diversity and Inclusion.” On the page dedicated to that promise, the museum assures everyone that it’s been talking a lot about “diversity, equity, and inclusion” because the country is steeped in “fundamental systemic racism built into museums and this country’s origins.” One of the many things SFMOMA promises to do is require “anti-racist and implicit bias training for all staff” (along with contemplating “gender-neutral restrooms”). The museum also promises a full racial analysis of all people working for it.
It turns out, though, that “diversity, equity, and inclusion” do not extend to white people. Instead, whites are to be the victims of systemic discrimination, whether as artists or employees. Reason details how Gary Garrels, a senior curator, was forced out of the museum because he has said that deliberately excluding white artists is itself be a form of wrongful discrimination:
Until last week, Gary Garrels was senior curator of painting and sculpture at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA). He resigned his position after museum employees circulated a petition that accused him of racism and demanded his immediate ouster.
.... Garrels, of course, as a good Democrat, accepted his sin of white privilege and meekly acquiesced to his ouster:
In a statement announcing his decision to step down, Garrels apologized for the harm his words caused, only slightly disputing the absurd charge against him. “ I do not believe I have ever said that it is important to collect the art of white men,” he said, according to artnet.com. “I have said that it is important that we do not exclude consideration of the art of white men.” Full Article @ American Thinker
Gary Garrels, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s Longtime Chief Curator, Resigns Amid Staff Uproar
Garrels, one of the country's most prominent curators, said that not collecting the work of white men would amount to "reverse discrimination."
Garrels, who worked at SFMOMA from 1993 to 2000 and then again beginning in 2008, is one of the most prominent curators in the country, and certainly the most high-ranking museum official to leave their post amid the current reckoning over racial justice and systemic inequality.
Earlier this week, Garrels was confronted by an employee at an all-staff Zoom meeting about previous comments he had made regarding the museum’s collecting priorities. (In a widely shared Instagram post on the account @changethemuseum, an employee recounted that the senior curator, who is white, ended a presentation about new acquisitions by artists of color by saying, “Don’t worry, we will definitely still continue to collect white artists.”)
At the meeting, Garrels said that the museum could not avoid collecting the work of white men, which would amount to “reverse discrimination.” Soon afterward, a group of former employees who have been advocating for change at the museum created a petition calling for his resignation, which had been signed by 180 people as of publication time. Full Article @ artnet.com
Black Privilege
Racism gallops across the American landscape hourly, daily, weekly, monthly and throughout the year. Everyone assumes that whites cause racism, and blacks suffer victimhood from this phenomenon. But if you travel to Africa, blacks dislike whites and even kill them. In South Africa, the current black government leaders call for ridding that country of all four million whites.
Everybody acknowledges the existence of socioeconomic privilege in which wealthy people have more opportunities than poor ones, but white privilege makes the racist assumption that skin color is a principal factor. As defined in Wikipedia (and there are numerous references on the page), white privilege is "a term for societal privileges that benefit white people in western countries beyond what is commonly experienced by non-white people under the same social, political, or economic circumstances." It is past time to confront the politically correct Left with the issue of Black privilege, as shown by the following public figures
1. Let's Talk about Black Privilege
2. Florida professor cites 'black privilege' amid
George Floyd protests, prompting calls for his firing3. White Privilege Versus Black Privilege In America
4. It's Past Time to Acknowledge Black Privilege
5. 'White Privilege' Is Not What Is Holding Blacks Back Today
Collection Of Commentary ; Black Privilege