Art Institute of Chicago Sacks Suburban White Women

Have you ever wondered where it all leads? All the wokeness, the political correctness, the insidious Critical Race Theory?

It leads to this sort of racism from the left: 

On Sept. 3, Veronica Stein, the newly appointed Woman’s Board Executive Director of Learning and Engagement at the Art Institute of Chicago fired about 150 volunteer docents. Not because they were doing a poor job. Not because of Covid restrictions. Not because the museum was closing.

She sacked them because of their race and social status: Seems too many of the volunteer docents were prosperous white women. You know, loathsome do-gooders, reeking of white privilege, who gave generously of their time and talent.

The Institute will make do without volunteers for three years while they train a more diverse squad.

These volunteers were described in a Chicago Tribune editorial, “Shame on the Art Institute for Summarily canning its volunteer docents,” as “the mainstay of the venerable cultural institution for decades and the main provider of fine, learned tours to Chicagoans, tourists, students form Chicago Public Schools and myriad other visitors to our great museum.”

You see, the Art Institute of Chicago, like so many other institutions - courts, museums, hospitals, libraries - relies on volunteers to greet the public, guide them through the exhibits and answer questions the public may have about the collections. In courthouses, they conduct student tours. In hospitals, they perform many duties as well as fundraising millions.

Who has the time and inclination to volunteer? Often it’s suburban white women. Many are retired or not employed in full-time paying jobs. These are ladies who believe they have a calling to “give back” to their communities. They carry on a proud American tradition of volunteerism that dates back to the colonial period.

Yet because of their skin color, these Chicago docents are no longer wanted. Of course, as volunteers, they have no recourse or legal protections. They can’t claim to be victims of racism or ageism because they are not paid. 

Adding to their indignity, Stein fired the volunteers by an impersonal letter, described in The Tribune this way:

Once you cut through the blather, the letter basically said the museum had looked critically at its corps of docents, a group dominated by mostly (but not entirely) white, retired women with some time to spare, and found them wanting as a demographic.

You would think cultural institutions would be happy to have people who want to donate their time to lead tours, greet visitors, serve as unpaid goodwill ambassadors, regardless of skin color.

You would be wrong.

An online magazine, chicagonow.com denounced the firings this way:

In the woke vernacular, she (Stein) tells the…volunteer docents that they will be replaced by paid, part-time “educators” to be chosen on the basis of “an income equity-focused lens.”…Critical race theory pokes its head up at one of Chicago’s most respected and valuable institutions. Good intentions gone terribly wrong, further eroding Martin Luther King’s goal of a color-blind society and the decades of work by so many Americans to make it so.

This lack of respect for women who work without pay is disgraceful and discriminatory.

If you’re in a hospital bed, do you really care about the color of the skin of the person who delivers your flowers? If you’re touring a museum, do you care about the race of your guide? If you’re in line at a soup kitchen, do you care who’s handing you a plate of nutritious food? Do you care about the race of your kid’s Cub Scout leader? Her soccer coach?

Imagine, for a moment, what would happen if these volunteers went on a nationwide strike. They won’t, of course. They’re too busy doing good in their own communities.

Volunteers get precious little recognition for the work they do. But to fire them because of their race? That’s unconscionable.

The Art Institute of Chicago should be ashamed of itself. This is one more reason we should be wary of CRT and other racist philosophies spreading quickly across society.

Nothing good comes from judging folks by their skin color. Just ask the former docents of the Art Institute of Chicago.