Jared Evan
A group of employees at the Guggenheim Museum who were seeking to make the institution “accountable for systemic racism and a toxic work environment” have been accused of creating a toxic working environment themselves by bullying their peers, according to sources the NY Post spoke to.
“A Better Guggenheim” formed by current and former employees, sent trustees a letter claiming that executives had created a “culture of institutional racism” at the museum, according to the NY Times.
The museum has approved a plan to address “complaints of entrenched racism within its walls”, as the NY Times described, which was pushed by the activist group. In August, the museum announced to its staff a two-year initiative to create policies for reporting discrimination and developing diversity programs, according to Richard Armstrong, the museum’s director.
However, a new report from the NY Post shows, the diversity seeking activist employees created their own toxic environment.
Among the complaints are fears of having personal conversations and meetings taped by the group and uploaded to social media, the sources told the Post.
The Post reported: “It feels sinister,” said an employee of the museum who did not want to be identified. “They are terrorizing employees and compromising the work that people are doing to address the issues and diluting the real cause. It’s a joke that it’s called ‘A Better Guggenheim.’”
The Guggenheim employee told The Post that members of ABG have secretly recorded staff meetings without consent and posted them on social media. “A lot of people have been disgusted” by that, said the employee. “It’s just damaging to everyone.” The employee also said the group has exerted such “intense pressure” on employees to join their cause that some employees had been left in tears.
At least 169 former and current staffers signed a June 29 letter supporting the group when it called for “restorative justice” for a black guest curator who was allegedly mistreated by museum staff, however many employees complained in emails to management that their initial support was being “repurposed” and used by the group to suggest that they have widespread support, a second source told The Post, adding that ABG currently consists of “half a dozen” current and former employees.
The source from the NY Post contradicts the NY Times claim that ABG consisted of “nearly 100 current and 100 former employees” The post report concealed the employees who spoke out against the strong arm tactics of the leftist rabble-rousers but apparently, some of the whistleblowers were African American.
