Network Talk: Auto-Censorship & Institutional Racism

Video, Resource ⋅ July 1 2020

Auto-Censorship & Institutional Racism

Dr. Lorenzo Baber and Chaédria LaBouvier

Network Talk

Download talk transcript

From the hashtag #blackintheivory to debates about newsroom diversity, we are witnessing a conversation on the complexity of institutional racism. Professionals of color are asked to contribute reporting, research, curatorial insight, and cultural analysis at the highest levels in our newsrooms, universities, and cultural institutions, while simultaneously experiencing institutional racism by being undermined, underpaid, and silenced.

What are the professional risks of speaking out, and how does this opacity impact the journalistic narratives, academic research, and cultural commentary that is published and platformed? Dr. Lorenzo Baber (@doczo) and curator Chaédria LaBouvier (@chaedria), in conversation with Data & Society Newsroom Outreach Lead Smitha Khorana, take a deep look at “auto-censorship” and how the pressure to conform is perhaps the most salient form of censorship.

Cataloguing these stories is a nascent form of research as we collect data points about the breadth, scope, and mechanisms of structural racism.

This talk was recorded Wednesday, June 24, 2020.

About the Speakers

Dr. Lorenzo Baber is the Associate Professor in School of Education at Loyola University, Chicago. His primary research agenda focuses on the impact of socioeconomic background and ethnicity on identity development and academic outcomes for postsecondary students. He is particularly interested in investigating the persistent educational achievement gap between minority and majority students at Predominantly White Institutions.

Chaédria LaBouvier is an American Curator & Journalist. In 2019, LaBouvier became the first Black person, woman, and the first curator of Cuban descent to curate an exhibition for the Guggenheim in New York with her exhibition, Basquiat’s Defacement: The Untold Story. She is also the first Black author of a Guggenheim catalogue, and, at 33 years old, the youngest independent curator to organize an exhibition in the museum’s 80 year history.

Resources

Publications referenced in this talk:

Looking for Zora, Alice Walker
The Scholar Denied: W. E. B. Du Bois and the Birth of Modern Sociology, Aldon Morris
Who Benefits?: A Critical Race Analysis of the (D)Evolving Language Of Inclusion in Higher Education, Jessica C. Harris, Ryan P. Barone, and Lori Patton Davis

Media Coverage of Chaédria LaBouvier’s Basquiat exhibition at the Guggenheim:

Chaédria LaBouvier Won’t Be Erased By Guggenheim’s Racism, Essence
Guggenheim’s First Black Curator Denounces Museum’s Treatment, The Observer
Curator Says Museum’s White Supremacy Silenced Her, AFROPUNK
Behind Basquiat’s ‘Defacement’: Reframing a Tragedy, The New York Times

Publications by Dr. Lorenzo Baber:

Social Justice and Museums:

Social Justice & Museums Resource List