Firing Learned Volunteers For Not Being Unwhite Enough
Jerry Coyne blogs about the latest in neo-racist world-gone-mad-ism: the Art Institute of Chicago dismissing its docents (volunteer art guides) for not meeting "diversity" goals:
The Art Institute of Chicago (AIC), one of the world's finest art museums, harbors (or rather, harbored) 122 highly skilled docents, 82 active ones and 40 "school group greeters." All are volunteers and are all unpaid. Their job is to act as guides to the Museum's collection of 300,000 works, which they explain to both adults and schoolchildren. I've seen them in action at the Museum, and they're terrific.Despite the lack of remuneration--they do this to be helpful and because they love art--their training to be docents is extremely rigorous. First, they have to have two training sessions per week for eighteen months, and then "five years of continual research and writing to meet the criteria of 13 museum content areas" (quote from the docents' letter to the Director of the AIC). On top of that, there's monthly and biweekly training on new exhibits. Then there are the tours themselves, with a docent giving up to two one-hour tours per day for 18 weeks of the year and a minimum of 24 one-hour tours with adults/families. Their average length of service: 15 years. There are other requirements listed by the Docents Council in the ChicagoNow column below (first screenshot).
Many of the volunteers--though not all--are older white women, who have the time and resources to devote so much free labor to the Museum. But the demographics of that group weren't appealing to the AIC, and so, in late September, the AIC fired all of them, saying they'd be replaced by smaller number of hired volunteers workers who will be paid $25 an hour. That group will surely meet the envisioned diversity goals.
This is entirely a matter of race and "optics," though you wouldn't easily discern that by reading the back-and-forth communications between the AIC and the docents. The latter, of course, strenuously object to being let go, and in their letter to the AIC point out their many contributions to the Museum. (The AIC, in a hamhanded gesture, offered them two-year free passes to the AIC as a measly "thank you".)
The lack of ethnic diversity apparently comes from the fact that this is volunteer work that takes a ton of time, and disadvantaged minorities aren't often blessed with the time or resources for such work. The AIC says they've tried to diversity the docents but have apparently failed (listen to the radio show below).
It's all a mess, but I know this: it's grossly unfair and inimical to the education of museum-goers. More than 1200 years of work put in by the current docents, and all that expertise: gone in an instant. Ask yourself first, do they need to [diversify]? I don't know the answer, though surely some minority docents might have different points of view about art, a reason implied by the AIC's response in the Tribune. (But ask yourself what the reaction would be if all the docents were black or Hispanic and they hired whites to get a "white point of view"? Personally, I'm not sure race is crucial in giving expert talks about the Museum's exhibits.) But the AIC did try to diversity the docents--and failed. They're to be commended for that because, after all, surely it would look better to have a diverse group of docents. They just weren't able, given the demographics, to accomplish that.
Note this:
"Many of the volunteers--though not all--are older white women, who have the time and resources to devote so much free labor to the Museum."
And this:
Ask yourself what the reaction would be if all the docents were black or Hispanic and they hired whites to get a 'white point of view'?
I have been on docent-led tours of museums throughout my life, and the only things I've ever cared about is that they have knowledge of and passion for the art -- and convey things I might not have known or thought of, making my museum visit that much richer.
Oh, and a side note: How heartbreaking and awful to all these docents who put their time and hearts into this -- and to the museumgoers who will lose their expertise and passion.
"The AIC, in a hamhanded gesture, offered them two-year free passes to the AIC as a measly "thank you"."
HA! It sounds like someone in administration was also a part of the diversity hiring instead of hiring people because they have the necessary skills.
Giving a free pass (really 2 years instead of a lifetime?) to someone who could explain most, if not all, of the museum to visitors is just plain lame.
I've worked with volunteer docents, albeit not at that museum; and they are the best, the brightest and most importantly, the most passionate about the museum they volunteer for.
While volunteer work is just that "volunteer" I wouldn't mind seeing the museum being sued over this.
charles at October 10, 2021 9:41 PM
Firing volunteers to hire others? So this museum has money to burn apparently and not sure who you will get when the duties are 2 one hour tours per day. 50 a day isn't much.
Considering how the Smithsonian went all woke if this is more an indoctrination takeover. Here's George Washington an evil white slave owner who also killed indigenous, that's all.
Joe J at October 10, 2021 10:00 PM
Well, they are paying $25 an hour now, so it won't be volunteer anymore. I think paying people for their work is a good thing.
This actually demonstrates the problem with a lot of jobs which are primarily done by white women. White women as a group are able to work for less money because they are more likely to have families that will support them... White parents who will pay for education, and White husbands who will support them as adults. They then are able to work for free or for little pay.
The groups these women work for are forever asking why they can't get more men or minorities to work for them. It's because they don't frickin' pay enough for the amount of education needed and work put in.
It's a problem in teaching (the strict requirements were discussed in another post), where the amount of education needed is a Master's, but the pay is low compared to the education needed... minorities getting their Masters want to go into more lucrative fields.
I see it in a lot of village organizations, where a lot of the choirs, sports clubs, and other social groups are collapsing because the work used to be done by housewives, and women now have full time jobs of their own and are not available.
I'm wondering if $25 an hour will be enough to retain these volunteers... if they need classes twice a week for 18 months and then 5 years of writing and research? My prediction is they will have a lot of young minorities who are college aged or in their 20s, who do this until their real careers take off.
NicoleK at October 10, 2021 10:02 PM
You aren't allowed to comment on this unless you been to the place. If you call it a museum, you haven't been there.
Eckerton at October 11, 2021 2:06 AM
Hey Eckerton, ever heard of "freedom of speech"? It's an actual thing. The drooling dementia patient in the white house hasn't cancelled it yet.
dee nile at October 11, 2021 4:29 AM
...by the "logic" of the Woke, the aaht on the walls is the cultural heritage of the white women... These are the people resegregating college dorms, after all.
Need a string of guests to show up and request specifically white docents for just this reason.
"I wouldn't *dream* of forcing a POC to celebrate a white colonialist culture that is alien to them..."
Ben David at October 11, 2021 5:26 AM
Conservatives often refer to the extreme Left (the ideology that currently runs the Dem party and many American institutions) as 'Marxist'....it does draw on Marxist ideas to some extent, but it is really closer to Fascism., especially the National Socialist incarnation of that ideology, given the obsession with race and ethnicity.
True Marxists would have been concerned with the *class* background of the docents, not their race.
David Foster at October 11, 2021 6:00 AM
"It's a problem in teaching (the strict requirements were discussed in another post), where the amount of education needed is a Master's, but the pay is low compared to the education needed..." ~NicoleK
In the US teacher pay isn't low. Not even compared to the education requirements. Which is why hiring new teachers historically hasn't been an issue for US school districts. Supply vastly outsizes demand. The recent staffing issues are due to administrator's nutty and nonsensical covid regulations, not pay.
That said I can't argue schools spend their money well. A common classroom has a revenue of ~$250k/year. Over 50% of that goes to non-classroom overhead, a terrible waste. An appropriate level of total overhead would be 5%-10%. Administrators are devouring school budgets and destroying students.
Ben at October 11, 2021 6:58 AM
ever heard of "freedom of speech"
If a kid who's never been north of Charlotte complains to a bar in Nashville about the latest tenors at the Metropolitan Opera, how concerned should they be at Kennedy Center?
Eckerton at October 11, 2021 7:09 AM
My prediction is they will have a lot of young minorities who are college aged or in their 20s, who do this until their real careers take off.
Yes. And when the money runs out, and they face a financial crunch, they'll end those jobs and...return to volunteers.
I R A Darth Aggie at October 11, 2021 7:56 AM
I have been to it... I'm confused as to what is so un-museum-y about it?
NicoleK at October 11, 2021 8:29 AM
"Yes. And when the money runs out, and they face a financial crunch, they'll end those jobs and...return to volunteers." ~IRA
The only question is when the volunteers will return. After being run off from a free job by racists most people aren't too interested in donating their labor again. Also, after a few years people have found other pursuits to invest their time in.
Ben at October 11, 2021 8:47 AM
Did the docents have keys to the place? Or would it be feasible for them their jobs without any official connection to the museum? That would be an appropriate slap in the face to the woke racists who fired them.
jdgalt1 at October 11, 2021 9:46 AM
*to continue
jdgalt1 at October 11, 2021 9:47 AM
"First, they have to have two training sessions per week for eighteen months, and then "five years of continual research and writing to meet the criteria of 13 museum content areas"
Standards will be lowered. A lot.
Fear of competency is a hallmark of the woke.
Baker at October 11, 2021 1:29 PM
I've been there, Eck. It's an art museum, one of the best.
In fact, the Art Institute describes itself on its Web page as a museum: "Located in downtown Chicago, the Art Institute is one of the world’s great art museums, housing a collection that spans centuries and the globe." Who are we to correct the Art Institute itself?
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Depends. How knowledgable about opera is that kid? How much does he know about the tenors in question? How much influence with opera goers nationwide does he have?
By the way, Eck, Nashville is further north than Charlotte.
Conan the Grammarian at October 11, 2021 4:14 PM
They could protest... By using those passes and just... Informally do the docent thing (docenting?)
How do you fire volunteers from a public place when their volunteer work is sharing information??
But the AIC is spectacular... Or it was on the four million trips I took there during my school years.
Anon at October 11, 2021 8:24 PM
Seems to me that one of the museum/galleries in DC did this same thing a couple of years ago. Can't recall which. Maybe the Hirshhorn?
The ingratitude is just stunning.
ruralcounsel at October 12, 2021 9:27 AM
Go ahead, idiots. Throw away everything western Europe brought you. Go back to the Stick Age, secure in the knowledge that even as you starve, there is no such thing as "equality" - or, "fairness", a concept invented for children and the slow.
Radwaste at October 12, 2021 11:23 AM
NicoleK at October 10, 2021 10:02 PM
That reminds me of this 1997 MM column:
https://www.spokesman.com/stories/1997/jun/27/expose-children-to-new-ideas-attitudes/
First half of her response (there was a paragraph missing, so I put it back):
"Gentle Reader: Like you, Miss Manners remembers when voluntary service was something for which people volunteered, rather than were sentenced to do.
"But a lot has happened since then, notably the attitude that it is foolish to work for free. It is not only modern greed that created this, but a long-term general dismissal of the value of volunteer work because it was done by unsalaried women.
"Surely the function of a mandatory educational system is to expose the young to ideas, fields, attitudes and information they might not otherwise encounter, or might even take pains to avoid. No doubt many of them do as little as possible for the service requirement and resolve never to return - but isn’t that true of much else they are supposed to be learning?
"Reverse psychology is all very well, but Miss Manners doubts that removing the algebra requirement, for example, would inspire otherwise dilatory students with an interest in algebra. She therefore hopes that in spite of your son's disillusionment, you will stop short of condemning the effort of schools and religious organizations to teach through requiring one to donate services to the community..."
Lenona at October 12, 2021 1:15 PM
Granted, given what the Gentle Reader was talking about, that wasn't the occasion for MM to raise the subject of people who just don't HAVE the time to work for free and therefore should not be expected to. Or, for that matter, the sexism behind the tradition of expecting uneager women to do volunteer work when uneager men were not.
But, as NicoleK pointed out, when more women than in previous generations are demanding jobs with wages that actually reflect their degrees - and the call for diversity keeps growing - it won't look well if an affluent institution hoards its money instead and only takes affluent volunteers.
Lenona at October 12, 2021 1:32 PM
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