Building Skills for Individuals

Back to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, & Accessibility

As individuals, there are a number of steps we can take to make change and build a more inclusive and equitable field and world. This includes understanding implicit bias and microaggressions and learning to interrupt and address them in ourselves and others.

Understanding implicit bias and microaggressions

Implicit bias is when you act on the basis of prejudice or stereotype without intending to do so. Implicit associations often don’t align with our declared beliefs. Everyone has implicit biases, so we must take steps to identify them so we are more conscious about how we act.

• A good place to start is by taking an implicit bias test through Harvard University’s Project Implicit

• Start thinking about ways to combat your biases in this article from the Harvard Business Review.
  

Microaggressions are “the kinds of remarks, questions, or actions that are painful because they have to do with a person's membership in a group that's discriminated against or subject to stereotypes”. Learn more about microaggressions and how they relate to implicit bias in this Vox article What Exactly is a Microaggression.

Advocating for change

Much of DEIA work is advocating for those around you to see the world from a different perspective. No matter our job title or years in the field, every one of us can become an agent for change in the field. Recognizing our agency and inherent power is critical in successful advocacy.

• From Systemic Exclusion to Systemic Inclusion: A Critical Look at Museums by Chris Taylor examines what we mean by workplace inclusion by drawing on examples from the Minnesota Historical Society.

• Building a Diversity Plan is a useful starting place when considering a formal DEIA program at an institution.

Racial Justice Resources

Organizations to donate to:

• NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund
• Color of Change
• Mijente
• The Bail Project
• Minnesota Freedom Fund
• George Floyd Memorial Fund
• Black Lives Matter
• Black Visions Collective
• Reclaim the Block
• Campaign Zero
• Communities United Against Police Brutality
• American Civil Liberties Union
• Run with Maud
• Louisville Community Bail Fund
• Also see 26 Organizations You Can Donate to That Support Emerging Black Artists, Thinkers, and Change-Makers (A great article about Black arts organizations too)

Books:

(We would encourage people to not use Amazon if they plan to purchase any of these resources. Their history of problematic and racist labor policies and development of faulty facial recognition technology makes us all less safe and actively causes harm to BIPOC. We encourage people to find BIPOC-owned local bookstores or go to bookshop.org to support independent bookstores)

• Michelle Alexander. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. 2010.

• Dolly Chugh. The Person You Mean to Be: How Good People Fight Bias. 2018.

• Robin DiAngelo. White Fragility: Why it's so hard for white people to talk about racism. 2018. (See https://slate.com/human-interest/2019/09/white-fragility-robin-diangelo-workshop.html, acriticism of the book which discusses how well it achieves the goals of anti-racism.

• Jennifer Eberhardt. Biased : Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do. 2019.

• Ibram Kendi. Stamped from the Beginning: The definitive history of racist ideas in America. 2016.

• Ibram Kendi. How to be an antiracist. 2019.

Articles/Presentations:

• Balachandran, Sanchita. 2016 AIC Annual Meeting: “Race, Diversity, and Politics in Conservation: Our 21st Century Crisis”. Accessed 10 June 2020.
• Bloomfield, Tharron. Engaging indigenous participation: toward a more diverse profession. Museum Management and Curatorship. Volume 28, 2013 – Issue 2.
• Being Black in the arts and heritage sector: Paper conservator Ashleigh Brown offers a reflection. Accessed 20 June 2020.
• Umolu, Yesomi. On the Limits of Care and Knowledge: 15 Points Museums Must Understand to Dismantle Structural Injustice. Accessed 25 June 2020.
• White anti-racism: living the legacy - access 24 June 2020
• Le, Vu. Nonprofit AF. Have nonprofit and philanthropy become the “white moderate” that Dr. King warned us about. Accessed 25 June 2020.
• Moore, Porchia. The Incluseum. Cartography: a Black woman’s response to museums in the time of racial uprising. Accessed 25 June 2020
• Caswell, Michelle. Identifying and dismantling White supremacy in the archives. Accessed 25 June 2020.
• American Alliance of Museums. Racism, Unrest, and the Role of the Museum Field. Accessed 25 June 2020
• HHR Art law. Can a tax-exempt arts organization take a political position. Accessed 25 June 2020.
• Museum as Site For Social Action toolkit
• Museopunks, Episode 27: Museums are Not Neutral
• McIntosh, Peggy. White privilege: unpacking the invisible knapsack. Accessed 25 June 2020.
• How White Managers Can Respond to Anti-Black Violence
• How to Start Making Real Change in Your Organization
• Beware of Burnout: Sustainable strategies for activism
• The Labor of Diversity by Nicole Ivy

Websites:

• National Museum of African American History and Culture: Talking about race
• Museums and Race
• Museum Hue
• Visitors of Color
• AAM resources and articles on diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility
• The Incluseum
• Museum As Site for Social (MASS) Action
• Museums Are Not Neutral
• The Empathetic Museum

Reading lists and resources compiled by other arts organizations:

• Art Equity resource list
• Art Institute of Chicago racial justice resources
• University of Connecticut anti-racism resources
• Anti-racism resources
• Building a Foundation for Action: Anti-Racist Historic Preservation Resources

A bibliography on Race and Visual Representation in European Culture c.1300-1700, begun by Patricia Simons which has a section on Critical Race Theory: *[1]

Reading lists and resources compiled by AIC members: