PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release:
March 27, 2024
Contact:
Edward Blum
703-505-1922
edwardjayblum@gmail.com
Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of the American Latino settles lawsuit, promises internship will be open to all ethnicities.
(Austin, Texas) The Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of the American Latino said it wouldn’t discriminate “based on race or ethnicity” when selecting undergraduate interns for the Latino Museum Studies Program—a prestigious internship in Washington, D.C. In a settlement released yesterday, the Museum pledged that its internship would be “equally open to students of all races and ethnicities.” The Museum also promised not to “use racial or ethnic classifications or preferences in selecting awardees for the Undergraduate Internship.”
When the Alliance sued, the Museum said the internship was “for Latina, Latino, and Latinx-identifying undergraduate students” and focused on “increasing the representation of Latina and Latino museum professionals.” The Museum selected zero non-Latino interns in 2023, and it had no written instructions telling reviewers not to preference Latino applicants. Now, the Museum will implement the following reforms:
- The Museum will add the following statement to its website: “The Undergraduate Internship is equally open to students of all races and ethnicities, without preference or restriction based on race or ethnicity. The Museum does not use racial or ethnic classifications or preferences in selecting awardees for the Undergraduate Internship.”
- The Museum will add the following instruction to the internship’s scoring rubric: “The Undergraduate Internship is equally open to students of all races and ethnicities. Reviewers should not give preference or restrict selection based on race or ethnicity.”
Figure 1: Before the Alliance sued the Smithsonian
Figure 2: After the Alliance sued the Smithsonian
As Alliance president Edward Blum previously stated, “Every student who is interested in this area of museum studies should have the opportunity to compete for an internship without their race being a factor.”
Blum noted, “Corporations, law firms, academia, and cultural institutions must end these kinds of unlawful, racially exclusive programs and policies.
The complaint is attached.