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July 15, 2023 4:08 AM Subscribe
The Smithsonian has abruptly cancelled its Asian American literary festival, with no real explaination. "In a move that stunned the institution’s event partners and writers who value its sense of community, the program was canceled just weeks before it was to take place in August." Tens of thousands of dollars had already been spent by some attendees, flights had been made and visas had been acquired.
""According to emails shared with The Post, [Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center acting Director Yen-Sen] You notified [festival director and curator Lawrence-Minh Bui] Davis and his team on June 28 that “due to the current political climate,” Smithsonian leadership had requested that all upcoming exhibitions and multiday programs be reviewed under a policy known as Smithsonian Directive 603, which is meant to help identify any potentially sensitive or controversial content and prepare for potential responses from the public. You instructed Davis to work with operations staff to submit a draft memo for her approval by July 3, writing, “As I understand, APAC has a lot of experience with completing this process for past events so none of this should feel new.” Davis submitted the draft to operations staff on July 2, and it was sent to You for review on July 5.
That evening, You sent the email canceling the festival.""
(Wapo gift link)
""According to emails shared with The Post, [Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center acting Director Yen-Sen] You notified [festival director and curator Lawrence-Minh Bui] Davis and his team on June 28 that “due to the current political climate,” Smithsonian leadership had requested that all upcoming exhibitions and multiday programs be reviewed under a policy known as Smithsonian Directive 603, which is meant to help identify any potentially sensitive or controversial content and prepare for potential responses from the public. You instructed Davis to work with operations staff to submit a draft memo for her approval by July 3, writing, “As I understand, APAC has a lot of experience with completing this process for past events so none of this should feel new.” Davis submitted the draft to operations staff on July 2, and it was sent to You for review on July 5.
That evening, You sent the email canceling the festival.""
(Wapo gift link)
What a weird turn of events and how very sad for everyone who was planning on attending. I hope we get some more information or someone leaks a memo or something but this just stinks.
posted by Fizz at 4:56 AM on July 15, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by Fizz at 4:56 AM on July 15, 2023 [4 favorites]
The comments in WAPO thinks Smithsonian is bowing down to real/imagined pressure from the MAGA crowd.
Maybe hinted at in the article "Ching-In Chen, a poet who was curating a festival event featuring books by trans and nonbinary writers, said they learned the news only when colleagues shared You’s email with them."
posted by rocinante at 5:09 AM on July 15, 2023 [13 favorites]
Maybe hinted at in the article "Ching-In Chen, a poet who was curating a festival event featuring books by trans and nonbinary writers, said they learned the news only when colleagues shared You’s email with them."
posted by rocinante at 5:09 AM on July 15, 2023 [13 favorites]
I really have trouble believing the "we couldn't get our act together so we canceled because the event wasn't on track" narrative, simply there would in fact be a whole bunch of background emails from earlier this year saying "you need to know that if we don't meet X deadline we're risking the event itself" and there would be some junior staffer somewhere talking, even anonymously, to corroborate this. If the planning was chaotic and bad enough that they had to cancel at the last minute, someone somewhere would be talking about it.
Also, I've been part of the planning process for several international conferences. Canceling at the last minute is just...not something you really do. By a month out, there is so much in place that....well, it just doesn't make sense, that's all. It's difficult to think of circumstances where it would truly make sense for the Smithsonian to cancel at this point.
My money is on "a big donor or a politician or a far right figure threatened us, probably financially but possibly in a 'hold this event and we'll shoot it up' way" and they caved. Probably over the queer and trans events.
It is really grim to watch all these ostensibly liberal people just fold the minute the right starts hassling them. I knew at the time that their "solidarity" and "allyship" was all lies and brand-building, but it's grim to see them throw us to the wolves in real time.
posted by Frowner at 5:12 AM on July 15, 2023 [108 favorites]
Also, I've been part of the planning process for several international conferences. Canceling at the last minute is just...not something you really do. By a month out, there is so much in place that....well, it just doesn't make sense, that's all. It's difficult to think of circumstances where it would truly make sense for the Smithsonian to cancel at this point.
My money is on "a big donor or a politician or a far right figure threatened us, probably financially but possibly in a 'hold this event and we'll shoot it up' way" and they caved. Probably over the queer and trans events.
It is really grim to watch all these ostensibly liberal people just fold the minute the right starts hassling them. I knew at the time that their "solidarity" and "allyship" was all lies and brand-building, but it's grim to see them throw us to the wolves in real time.
posted by Frowner at 5:12 AM on July 15, 2023 [108 favorites]
My money is on "a big donor or a politician or a far right figure threatened us, probably financially but possibly in a 'hold this event and we'll shoot it up' way" and they caved.
I feel pretty sad and sick that this was my first thought as well. Cancelling at this stage feels less "we're not sure this is a good idea" and more "we have received several credible bomb threats".
posted by fight or flight at 5:15 AM on July 15, 2023 [30 favorites]
I feel pretty sad and sick that this was my first thought as well. Cancelling at this stage feels less "we're not sure this is a good idea" and more "we have received several credible bomb threats".
posted by fight or flight at 5:15 AM on July 15, 2023 [30 favorites]
My money is on "a big donor or a politician or a far right figure threatened us, probably financially but possibly in a 'hold this event and we'll shoot it up' way" and they caved. Probably over the queer and trans events.
Exact thought my wife and I were having after we read this article. And its so easy and predictable at this point to jump to this thought because we see it happening in virtually every other space of society.
These MAGA alt-right bigot shitheads just love to pretend that they're being harmed or offended but sure, we're the fucking snowflakes when they can't even tolerate seeing a fucking rainbow at a god damn superstore.
I really hope we get some more information or some leaks because I need to know whats up, even though its probably exactly what we're thinking.
posted by Fizz at 5:19 AM on July 15, 2023 [28 favorites]
Exact thought my wife and I were having after we read this article. And its so easy and predictable at this point to jump to this thought because we see it happening in virtually every other space of society.
These MAGA alt-right bigot shitheads just love to pretend that they're being harmed or offended but sure, we're the fucking snowflakes when they can't even tolerate seeing a fucking rainbow at a god damn superstore.
I really hope we get some more information or some leaks because I need to know whats up, even though its probably exactly what we're thinking.
posted by Fizz at 5:19 AM on July 15, 2023 [28 favorites]
...St. Thomas wrote: “Simply put, the program was cancelled a full month in advance... No publicity had been done and participants were notified immediately. It was a free event and so there was no issue of refunding tickets. We have nothing further on this.”
Wow. Wtffffff.
I want to believe in a slightly rosier conspiracy theory: they're being downright cruel in this dismissive messaging on purpose, to draw attention to themselves, because they're being gagged and want people to pay attention.
Like if they came up with a much better cover story, properly apologized to everyone, tried harder to smooth things over.... maybe fewer people would be questioning this.
Regardless of the why, this is crazy-making levels of awful.
posted by Baethan at 5:28 AM on July 15, 2023 [23 favorites]
Wow. Wtffffff.
I want to believe in a slightly rosier conspiracy theory: they're being downright cruel in this dismissive messaging on purpose, to draw attention to themselves, because they're being gagged and want people to pay attention.
Like if they came up with a much better cover story, properly apologized to everyone, tried harder to smooth things over.... maybe fewer people would be questioning this.
Regardless of the why, this is crazy-making levels of awful.
posted by Baethan at 5:28 AM on July 15, 2023 [23 favorites]
It's interesting (to me, maybe my expectations are off) that this is only coming out now, 10 days after it happened.
I too was shocked by the "tickets were free, so we don't owe anybody anything" line. This is the Smithsonian, they have a reputation to uphold not just with the public but with all the individuals and organizations they collaborate with now and might want to collaborate with in the future. They're basically broadcasting "partner with us at your own risk".
posted by trig at 5:42 AM on July 15, 2023 [30 favorites]
I too was shocked by the "tickets were free, so we don't owe anybody anything" line. This is the Smithsonian, they have a reputation to uphold not just with the public but with all the individuals and organizations they collaborate with now and might want to collaborate with in the future. They're basically broadcasting "partner with us at your own risk".
posted by trig at 5:42 AM on July 15, 2023 [30 favorites]
Given other aspects of The Way It Goes These Days, I suppose another possibility is that someone vital to the event or it's planning turned out to have done unacceptable things to others. And Smithsonian was clueless until someone outside pushed back. You'd expect different euphemisms for that, though.
posted by snuffleupagus at 5:53 AM on July 15, 2023 [14 favorites]
posted by snuffleupagus at 5:53 AM on July 15, 2023 [14 favorites]
Given that 62% of their funding comes from the government, I'd expect they were either directly threatened or worried about an upcoming appropriation round.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 6:09 AM on July 15, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 6:09 AM on July 15, 2023 [4 favorites]
Here we go: https://democrats-appropriations.house.gov/news/press-releases/republican-2024-interior-environment-funding-bill-endangers-americans-health
The current 2024 Interior bill from the Republicans allocates $960 million for the Smithsonian Institution, $185 million below 2023.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 6:16 AM on July 15, 2023 [15 favorites]
The current 2024 Interior bill from the Republicans allocates $960 million for the Smithsonian Institution, $185 million below 2023.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 6:16 AM on July 15, 2023 [15 favorites]
I’d bet against MAGA. Those people don’t really care about literary festivals in DC. They aren’t on the board of the SI for sure.
I’d guess something else - and so many possibilities. Israel/Palestine, an intra-Asian fight about affirmative action, something Taiwan/Mainland, something Uighur/Han, or Tibetan/Han, something else about influence of the CPC / mainland government, gender critical vs trans, something about Asian American women and their white husbands and boyfriends, etc.
posted by MattD at 6:24 AM on July 15, 2023 [9 favorites]
I’d guess something else - and so many possibilities. Israel/Palestine, an intra-Asian fight about affirmative action, something Taiwan/Mainland, something Uighur/Han, or Tibetan/Han, something else about influence of the CPC / mainland government, gender critical vs trans, something about Asian American women and their white husbands and boyfriends, etc.
posted by MattD at 6:24 AM on July 15, 2023 [9 favorites]
I’d bet against MAGA. Those people don’t really care about literary festivals in DC. They aren’t on the board of the SI for sure.
Eh, I think you underestimate how petty these shitheels can be. It's not about the thing itself, its about depriving others of something and enjoying the obstacles they create to make others lives more difficult. There's no bar too low.
posted by Fizz at 6:28 AM on July 15, 2023 [45 favorites]
Eh, I think you underestimate how petty these shitheels can be. It's not about the thing itself, its about depriving others of something and enjoying the obstacles they create to make others lives more difficult. There's no bar too low.
posted by Fizz at 6:28 AM on July 15, 2023 [45 favorites]
Not having MAGAs on the board makes protest action more likely because A) it's not something the userbase organically cares about and/or B) they haven't been able to subvert the process by stacking the board with fellow travellers. Then because it is something fairly high profile and something non-MAGAs care about they can inflict the cruelty of cancellation without push back.
posted by Mitheral at 6:35 AM on July 15, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Mitheral at 6:35 AM on July 15, 2023 [2 favorites]
Utterly spitballing...I offhand wonder if this isn’t somehow related/tied-into/in-retaliation-for last week’s revelation of China’s infiltration of several government email systems (thanks to a 0-day exploit of Microsoft’s cloud services)?
posted by Thorzdad at 6:37 AM on July 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Thorzdad at 6:37 AM on July 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
From Kate Hao, one of the festival planners:
i was on @SmithsonianAPA’s planning team for the 2023 Asian American Literature Festival. to date,posted by fight or flight at 6:45 AM on July 15, 2023 [51 favorites]
@smithsonian hasn’t given me or any of our partners a reason for the cancellation—but they DID decide to make demonstrably false allegations about our preparedness to the press.
we’ve been planning in earnest since the start of this year, and dreaming for even longer. this is the second time i’ve been a staffer for AALF (i also worked on the 2019 festival). to find out that the cancellation is being publicly blamed on us— i am confounded & infuriated.
i cannot emphasize enough how strange the circumstances of this cancellation have been. even as a core planner, i have been kept in the dark on the real rationale behind the cancellation. but i know with certainty that something bigger is going on at the Smithsonian—
look no further than @/changethemuseum on Instagram for testimonies from deeper within:
http://instagram.com/p/CurlT4mr-HR/… from yesterday; and
http://instagram.com/p/Cnhy2csOD42/… directly names APAC.
On the empirical -- events will show who was behind the cancelation.
However, thinking this is likely MAGA is a plain misunderstanding of what MAGA is ... a reactionary movement, seeking to protect some social or economic standing from some imagined or real (but arguably justified) attack.
MAGA people never had any social or economic standing in relation to literary festivals in DC. They aren't behind this cancelation just like they aren't trying to cancel Pride in Greenwich Village or advocating for English only policies in Miami.
posted by MattD at 6:48 AM on July 15, 2023 [2 favorites]
However, thinking this is likely MAGA is a plain misunderstanding of what MAGA is ... a reactionary movement, seeking to protect some social or economic standing from some imagined or real (but arguably justified) attack.
MAGA people never had any social or economic standing in relation to literary festivals in DC. They aren't behind this cancelation just like they aren't trying to cancel Pride in Greenwich Village or advocating for English only policies in Miami.
posted by MattD at 6:48 AM on July 15, 2023 [2 favorites]
Holy shit, from those Instagram links:
This is painful to write, but the silence and gaslighting are worse. We work at the Smithsonian, and we are suffering.posted by LooseFilter at 7:01 AM on July 15, 2023 [73 favorites]
Our unit director is a walking, talking red flag. There is no accountability or transparency. If anyone dares ask a question, they are met with a defensive posture and swiftly put in their place. We suspect this is why our staff meetings--already a rarity--no longer allow time for Q&A or open discussion.
The results of our annual employee perspective survey are being withheld from us, likely because we spoke truth to power. Our conference travel has been limited to one per year (if that) while the director has a seemingly limitless personal expense account.
Multiple colleagues have shared how the director uses relational aggression in one-on-one or small group meetings, where she passes on extremely negative feedback (often with no substance or evidence) that she's "heard" about the individual; this has the result of making us paranoid and isolated. Some of this feedback is downright cruel and amounts to little more than thinly veiled personal attacks. She has told multiple staff members that other units look down on ours, implying that we are failing to prove our worth. She relies heavily on manipulation and mind games.
Staff are fleeing to other jobs as quickly as they can; those who can't leave have "quiet quit." Some have reported a decline in mental health, nightmares about work, and lack of interest in activities that once brought joy. Dozens have spoken to the Ombuds. Some of us have found each other and have created our own extra-institutional support networks. When we do find each other, we are dismayed to realize that we each have a story where the director has lied to us, or has lied to others about us. We deserve better.
[...]
The Smithsonian continues to place people who are racist, problematic, hostile, and downright messy in leadership positions and does nothing to hold these leaders accountable even when 50-60% if staff submit HR complaints. The Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center once again has an interim director who yells at staff, commits retaliatory actions, gets drunk in public, and says racist things (asking mixed race and indigenous staff members about their "percentage" of identity).
On top of all this she undermines the difficult work the staff has done to create a vision of a museum that is inclusive and rooted in community, hiring white staff members to constantly question community-based programmatic goals and projects under the guise of operational management.
Worth nothing is that the interim director from 2015-2016 was also involved in litigation for corruption and assaulting a janitor. There is a trend of horrible leadership without any accountability. When will museum leadership like this actually be held accountable or is this field - and the Smithsonian Institutional especially - just broken and forever a toxic workplace?
Is this REALLY MAGAs like everyone is saying? Cancelling the event isn't going to make the Republican party more inclined towards funding the Smithsonian because they don't like funding anything and haven't for 40 years, so what cancelling the festival would do, I know not. I also would think that were there a specific threat, the Smithsonian could have hired more security or worked with the cops. Remember, they last ran the event in 2019 which was the high era of MAGA in DC and managed to pull it off without problems. The government now is presumably less hostile and MAGA are less thick on the ground so it should be even easier to do.
Maybe it's a donor pull but I don't think a conservative tycoon would be donating big bucks to the Smithsonian and not, say, the Museum of the Bible. These institutions under Biden are pretty publicly LGBTQ and minority friendly, if I was conservative and was for some reason still donating I would have pulled my support the second I saw those Pride flags and not waited all the way until I saw the syllabus for the Asian book festival of all things. It could have happened, but it's just weird to think about.
If the festival was pulled due to sexual content as everyone assumes, it's because the Smithsonian leadership itself holds those views. There's also a strong chance it's something that MattD suggested--content related to foreign policy or somebody getting their ass cancelled. If I had to bet, there was something about China in there that the US government found unnerving and that's why the review came down. (There's also the outside chance that the post-COVID quality of the staffing was so poor that they forgot to prepare.)
Anyway, that's a lot of words for the shortest takeaway: they fucked. Really quite sad.
posted by kingdead at 7:08 AM on July 15, 2023 [5 favorites]
Maybe it's a donor pull but I don't think a conservative tycoon would be donating big bucks to the Smithsonian and not, say, the Museum of the Bible. These institutions under Biden are pretty publicly LGBTQ and minority friendly, if I was conservative and was for some reason still donating I would have pulled my support the second I saw those Pride flags and not waited all the way until I saw the syllabus for the Asian book festival of all things. It could have happened, but it's just weird to think about.
If the festival was pulled due to sexual content as everyone assumes, it's because the Smithsonian leadership itself holds those views. There's also a strong chance it's something that MattD suggested--content related to foreign policy or somebody getting their ass cancelled. If I had to bet, there was something about China in there that the US government found unnerving and that's why the review came down. (There's also the outside chance that the post-COVID quality of the staffing was so poor that they forgot to prepare.)
Anyway, that's a lot of words for the shortest takeaway: they fucked. Really quite sad.
posted by kingdead at 7:08 AM on July 15, 2023 [5 favorites]
My money is on "a big donor or a politician or a far right figure threatened us, probably financially but possibly in a 'hold this event and we'll shoot it up' way" and they caved. Probably over the queer and trans events.
SI doesn't have an extensive track record on this because they've historically been very conservative, but what's there isn't admirable.
Maybe it's a donor pull but I don't think a conservative tycoon would be donating big bucks to the Smithsonian and not, say, the Museum of the Bible.
FWIW, David Koch is a major donor to the Smithsonian.
posted by ryanshepard at 7:09 AM on July 15, 2023 [19 favorites]
SI doesn't have an extensive track record on this because they've historically been very conservative, but what's there isn't admirable.
Maybe it's a donor pull but I don't think a conservative tycoon would be donating big bucks to the Smithsonian and not, say, the Museum of the Bible.
FWIW, David Koch is a major donor to the Smithsonian.
posted by ryanshepard at 7:09 AM on July 15, 2023 [19 favorites]
MAGA people never had any social or economic standing in relation to literary festivals in DC. They aren't behind this cancelation just like they aren't trying to cancel Pride in Greenwich Village or advocating for English only policies in Miami.
This is complete and utter bullshit. Just in the DC area alone, there have been several anti-LGBTQ protests, some of which have been attended by the Proud Boys, the violent terrorists that are considered the actual foot soldiers of the MAGA movement. And that's even before we get to the multiple bomb threats in liberal areas that includes Fairfax County (just outside of DC); Tempe (Arizona), and Indianapolis.
posted by Glegrinof the Pig-Man at 7:13 AM on July 15, 2023 [43 favorites]
This is complete and utter bullshit. Just in the DC area alone, there have been several anti-LGBTQ protests, some of which have been attended by the Proud Boys, the violent terrorists that are considered the actual foot soldiers of the MAGA movement. And that's even before we get to the multiple bomb threats in liberal areas that includes Fairfax County (just outside of DC); Tempe (Arizona), and Indianapolis.
posted by Glegrinof the Pig-Man at 7:13 AM on July 15, 2023 [43 favorites]
There was a queer and trans event planned as part of this festival. Queer and especially trans events are intensely targeted. Individual trans people are targeted online by major national figures. Any kind of funding associated with anything trans is an obsession with the far right and something that the leaders use to whip up violence and funding from the average MAGA types.
People don't need to, like, care about Asian American writing to get intensely worked up about any Asian American writing that involves trans people.
If you are not paying attention to what is happening to trans people - and to queer people generally, but most intensely to trans people - you are missing out on one of the most important building blocks of fascism. Probably the best way to raise money and stoke violence on the far right is to produce some narrative about how trans groomers are targeting our children, corrupting our schools, sneaking their perversities into our pure literature, etc. Once that story is out there, you lose funding and you're at risk of nazi protests outside your doors, online attacks, possible mass shootings, etc.
When I saw that there was a trans event at this festival, that's what made me think of the far right.
Also, also, also, remember that GOP politicians hate any kind of publicly funded cultural project that isn't just flag waving baloney - it doesn't have to be literature about racial identity, it can be anything that they think is useless because it doesn't inculcate patriotism and servility.
I mean, it could be crap internal politics, of course, but someone threatening their funding at the grand level if they hold an event about Asian Americans AND queer and trans Asian Americans, or just threatening to sic their right wing media buddies on the Smithsonian - that's where my mind goes first.
posted by Frowner at 7:48 AM on July 15, 2023 [69 favorites]
People don't need to, like, care about Asian American writing to get intensely worked up about any Asian American writing that involves trans people.
If you are not paying attention to what is happening to trans people - and to queer people generally, but most intensely to trans people - you are missing out on one of the most important building blocks of fascism. Probably the best way to raise money and stoke violence on the far right is to produce some narrative about how trans groomers are targeting our children, corrupting our schools, sneaking their perversities into our pure literature, etc. Once that story is out there, you lose funding and you're at risk of nazi protests outside your doors, online attacks, possible mass shootings, etc.
When I saw that there was a trans event at this festival, that's what made me think of the far right.
Also, also, also, remember that GOP politicians hate any kind of publicly funded cultural project that isn't just flag waving baloney - it doesn't have to be literature about racial identity, it can be anything that they think is useless because it doesn't inculcate patriotism and servility.
I mean, it could be crap internal politics, of course, but someone threatening their funding at the grand level if they hold an event about Asian Americans AND queer and trans Asian Americans, or just threatening to sic their right wing media buddies on the Smithsonian - that's where my mind goes first.
posted by Frowner at 7:48 AM on July 15, 2023 [69 favorites]
And while it's not as up front, there's a lot of anti-Asian drumbeating right now, especially about China but more generally as well. On the right, there's all kinds of "covid was a Chinese lab leak" covid was a bioweapon" lies going around.
The thing is, all you need is one person with an intense hatred to get something like this rolling, because the far right has fun doing this stuff. You take one person who really, really hates the idea that we would have an Asian-American literary festival and that person pulls in their racist, transphobic, hatefilled connections for a good time. These people are k*w* frms writ large - they seek out opportunities to hate and hurt because it's their idea of a good time.
This could perfectly well be simple racism, just simple racism that is directed by a a few people - I don't think we're at a point in American fascism where "Asian-American literary festivals are unAmerican threats" is a position you can espouse publicly, but there are certainly people who think that way behind the scenes, and a few motivated rich ones could definitely start a campaign.
These people aren't dumb; they can strategize at least as well as you or I spitballing on metafilter on a Saturday morning.
posted by Frowner at 7:56 AM on July 15, 2023 [25 favorites]
The thing is, all you need is one person with an intense hatred to get something like this rolling, because the far right has fun doing this stuff. You take one person who really, really hates the idea that we would have an Asian-American literary festival and that person pulls in their racist, transphobic, hatefilled connections for a good time. These people are k*w* frms writ large - they seek out opportunities to hate and hurt because it's their idea of a good time.
This could perfectly well be simple racism, just simple racism that is directed by a a few people - I don't think we're at a point in American fascism where "Asian-American literary festivals are unAmerican threats" is a position you can espouse publicly, but there are certainly people who think that way behind the scenes, and a few motivated rich ones could definitely start a campaign.
These people aren't dumb; they can strategize at least as well as you or I spitballing on metafilter on a Saturday morning.
posted by Frowner at 7:56 AM on July 15, 2023 [25 favorites]
Is there any problem in modern America that doesn't revolve around MAGA Republican politics? These are the same people who flipped their shit over "Cowboy Poetry" and that was pre-Trump. These are the same people who will commute across state lines to protest a neighborhood library's drag queen story time.
The entire point of fascism is that there is no disagreement too petty to be solved by terrorism and genocide.
posted by Skwirl at 8:00 AM on July 15, 2023 [27 favorites]
The entire point of fascism is that there is no disagreement too petty to be solved by terrorism and genocide.
posted by Skwirl at 8:00 AM on July 15, 2023 [27 favorites]
>"The thing is, all you need is one person with an intense hatred to get something like this rolling, because the far right has fun doing this stuff."
For instance, ever looked into the origins of the huge, multi-year hate campaign that was Gamergate? All that was triggered by the disjointed, accusatory break-up letter of a spurned ex-boyfriend. Like, anyone with even an ounce of emotional intelligence could see that it all was just unhinged ramblings of a jilted lover but the domino effect of that is still having death threats and costs against innocent people today
posted by Skwirl at 8:06 AM on July 15, 2023 [28 favorites]
For instance, ever looked into the origins of the huge, multi-year hate campaign that was Gamergate? All that was triggered by the disjointed, accusatory break-up letter of a spurned ex-boyfriend. Like, anyone with even an ounce of emotional intelligence could see that it all was just unhinged ramblings of a jilted lover but the domino effect of that is still having death threats and costs against innocent people today
posted by Skwirl at 8:06 AM on July 15, 2023 [28 favorites]
A dysfunctional and abusive leader preemptively caving in to perceived right-wing pressure would combine both of the theories under discussion here.
posted by mediareport at 8:08 AM on July 15, 2023 [36 favorites]
posted by mediareport at 8:08 AM on July 15, 2023 [36 favorites]
Given how much experience the Smithsonian at large has in terms of hosting international festivals, something is clearly really off- I grew up in Baltimore and frequently attended various cultural/international Smithsonian events, and can't think of any getting canceled last minute. Dark times indeed, whatever is behind it (I imagine potentially multiple causes).
posted by coffeecat at 8:15 AM on July 15, 2023 [6 favorites]
posted by coffeecat at 8:15 AM on July 15, 2023 [6 favorites]
Koch was giving to the dinosaur exhibit. I just can't imagine that there are a ton of old pale male conservatives who would be throwing their support behind an Asian American book festival or who would be so offended by this one particular festival that they'd pull support from other areas. I think the gay exhibit, the African-American museum, and the planned women's/Latino history museums would have already rung that particular bell.
Maybe this book festival was somehow being targeted by MAGA social media? The last I saw they were on the Sound of Freedom ticket conspiracy and were not interested in book talks but I don't keep up with their trash very well, so I might have missed a whole thing.
What I'm saying is that despite the hostile climate, I'm not even sure if the MAGA nationalist crowd even knew this event existed. The depressing possibility is that Smithsonian leadership itself is anti trans or they were so thrown by the idea of having to deal with anti trans protestors or threats that they folded at the first hurdle and cancelled the whole thing because they didn't want to cancel just one panel. But I still kind of expect a "No, guys, we're xenophobic" explanation, which won't help at all.
posted by kingdead at 8:20 AM on July 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
Maybe this book festival was somehow being targeted by MAGA social media? The last I saw they were on the Sound of Freedom ticket conspiracy and were not interested in book talks but I don't keep up with their trash very well, so I might have missed a whole thing.
What I'm saying is that despite the hostile climate, I'm not even sure if the MAGA nationalist crowd even knew this event existed. The depressing possibility is that Smithsonian leadership itself is anti trans or they were so thrown by the idea of having to deal with anti trans protestors or threats that they folded at the first hurdle and cancelled the whole thing because they didn't want to cancel just one panel. But I still kind of expect a "No, guys, we're xenophobic" explanation, which won't help at all.
posted by kingdead at 8:20 AM on July 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
I'm not comfortable with the race in this thread to conclude that this is a MAGA thing - not because I don't think it's a likely scenario (it is), but because it's not the only one, the American right isn't the only player that likes to throw around its weight, and there's zero reason to jump to conclusions about where to channel anger right now when the next few days will probably bring more information.
posted by trig at 8:33 AM on July 15, 2023 [18 favorites]
posted by trig at 8:33 AM on July 15, 2023 [18 favorites]
FWIW, David Koch is a major donor to the Smithsonian.
for the record, David Koch died in 2019
posted by chavenet at 8:36 AM on July 15, 2023 [15 favorites]
for the record, David Koch died in 2019
posted by chavenet at 8:36 AM on July 15, 2023 [15 favorites]
I worked for the Smithsonian for a few years last decade, in a completely different area.
The people I worked with were all pretty cool but it was kind of shocking how much systematic foul play was going on way up above me. I don't want to dox myself with too many details but let's just say there was a lot of dishonest accounting and classification of my employment status. The revelations quoted above about toxic management and unlimited expense accounts for them while regular workers get almost nothing is all too believable based on my limited experience with this org.
posted by SaltySalticid at 8:37 AM on July 15, 2023 [33 favorites]
The people I worked with were all pretty cool but it was kind of shocking how much systematic foul play was going on way up above me. I don't want to dox myself with too many details but let's just say there was a lot of dishonest accounting and classification of my employment status. The revelations quoted above about toxic management and unlimited expense accounts for them while regular workers get almost nothing is all too believable based on my limited experience with this org.
posted by SaltySalticid at 8:37 AM on July 15, 2023 [33 favorites]
there's zero reason to jump to conclusions about where to channel anger right now when the next few days will probably bring more information.
though from the Instagram stuff it seems like there is a real management problem that has been ignored for years; at least some of the anger can be channeled in that direction
The Smithsonian continues to place people who are racist, problematic, hostile, and downright messy in leadership positions and does nothing to hold these leaders accountable even when 50-60% if staff submit HR complaints. The Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center once again has an interim director who yells at staff, commits retaliatory actions, gets drunk in public, and says racist things (asking mixed race and indigenous staff members about their "percentage" of identity).
posted by chavenet at 8:39 AM on July 15, 2023 [6 favorites]
though from the Instagram stuff it seems like there is a real management problem that has been ignored for years; at least some of the anger can be channeled in that direction
The Smithsonian continues to place people who are racist, problematic, hostile, and downright messy in leadership positions and does nothing to hold these leaders accountable even when 50-60% if staff submit HR complaints. The Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center once again has an interim director who yells at staff, commits retaliatory actions, gets drunk in public, and says racist things (asking mixed race and indigenous staff members about their "percentage" of identity).
posted by chavenet at 8:39 AM on July 15, 2023 [6 favorites]
Is that really Smithsonian mgmt doing the placement, or some higher-up in the US Government with Smithsonian influence?
posted by Rash at 8:45 AM on July 15, 2023
posted by Rash at 8:45 AM on July 15, 2023
It seems that if this were being cancelled due to a threat of violence (which I don't discount in the abstract), that would be mentioned in the cancellation notice—I don't see how the kind of people who would violently disrupt this would have the sway to compel SI's silence. Events have been cancelled in the past due to threats of violence, and those threats were mentioned in the cancellation notices.
But if it's about money—someone who can control the flow of money to SI in the future—that person wouldn't even need to tell them to keep quiet about it. Anyone in SI who's got the slightest political sense would know better than to antagonize a funder by implicating them.
Admittedly we do have connections between fascist politicians and violent extremists in the USA. It would be explosive if a politician called up SI and said "cancel this event or I sic the goon squad on you."
posted by adamrice at 8:53 AM on July 15, 2023 [2 favorites]
But if it's about money—someone who can control the flow of money to SI in the future—that person wouldn't even need to tell them to keep quiet about it. Anyone in SI who's got the slightest political sense would know better than to antagonize a funder by implicating them.
Admittedly we do have connections between fascist politicians and violent extremists in the USA. It would be explosive if a politician called up SI and said "cancel this event or I sic the goon squad on you."
posted by adamrice at 8:53 AM on July 15, 2023 [2 favorites]
One doesn't need "cancel THIS EVENT or BAD CONSEQUENCES"...one only needs "your events are going to be under scrutiny going forward and this will impact your funding", and the article seems to say that's what is happening. We all know what kind of "scrutiny" cultural events are under right now.
posted by Frowner at 8:58 AM on July 15, 2023 [17 favorites]
posted by Frowner at 8:58 AM on July 15, 2023 [17 favorites]
It seems that if this were being cancelled due to a threat of violence (which I don't discount in the abstract), that would be mentioned in the cancellation notice—I don't see how the kind of people who would violently disrupt this would have the sway to compel SI's silence. Events have been cancelled in the past due to threats of violence, and those threats were mentioned in the cancellation notices.
That was my thought as well. Like, a rational director would include something in the statement about "credible threats of violence against participants that we are not prepared to handle" which sucks, but is totally believable, and that explanation then shifts blame to entities that would be responsible for security and why aren't they able to handle it. Threats of defunding or international political intrigue seem more like something you'd want to sweep under the rug and not discuss.
But the whole toxic director thing throws a wrench in that - the situation gives me vibes of "I am THE BEST director and my authority will not be questioned and to preclude questioning of my authority I will not give you peons the reasoning behind my decisions" so it could be anything.
posted by LionIndex at 9:03 AM on July 15, 2023 [5 favorites]
That was my thought as well. Like, a rational director would include something in the statement about "credible threats of violence against participants that we are not prepared to handle" which sucks, but is totally believable, and that explanation then shifts blame to entities that would be responsible for security and why aren't they able to handle it. Threats of defunding or international political intrigue seem more like something you'd want to sweep under the rug and not discuss.
But the whole toxic director thing throws a wrench in that - the situation gives me vibes of "I am THE BEST director and my authority will not be questioned and to preclude questioning of my authority I will not give you peons the reasoning behind my decisions" so it could be anything.
posted by LionIndex at 9:03 AM on July 15, 2023 [5 favorites]
For some reason I get “sorry page not found errors” wherever I try the Instagram links up thread . I appreciate the copy/pasted comment about the director and management culture, but I’m wondering if there are other informative tidbits?
posted by congen at 9:25 AM on July 15, 2023
posted by congen at 9:25 AM on July 15, 2023
I thinks it’s just the cold war at home. You can look for magas and maybe even find them but the democrats are all in on the new cold war too, this is increasingly the new reality.
posted by rodlymight at 9:57 AM on July 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by rodlymight at 9:57 AM on July 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
for the record, David Koch died in 2019
hell yeah
posted by Gymnopedist at 10:45 AM on July 15, 2023 [18 favorites]
hell yeah
posted by Gymnopedist at 10:45 AM on July 15, 2023 [18 favorites]
congen,
In the comments of the IG post that begins with "this is painful to write, but the silence and gaslighting are worse. We work at the Smithsonian, and we are suffering, there were 4 people who stated they were former employees of SI and could corroborate the atmosphere; 1 of whom said he retired last year after working in SIE (Exhibits); another left year after working at NMAH and stated "I made a comment on a different Change post, naming names in my former museum, and the Director (Anthea Hartig) found out and was so incensed, she actually held a meeting about me and wanted to know how I could be punished.... I could never have posted if I was still inside."
Based on the IG post that specifically names the APAC's interim director's reprehensible behavior which was posted in January 2023 (contents of this post can be found at after the '...' at this mefi comment, it's plausible that the 'leadership' of APAC Director dership and internal dynamics of SI management led to the cancellation (and using the political climate as cover) but it could also be in combination with external threats.
posted by fizzix at 11:00 AM on July 15, 2023 [4 favorites]
In the comments of the IG post that begins with "this is painful to write, but the silence and gaslighting are worse. We work at the Smithsonian, and we are suffering, there were 4 people who stated they were former employees of SI and could corroborate the atmosphere; 1 of whom said he retired last year after working in SIE (Exhibits); another left year after working at NMAH and stated "I made a comment on a different Change post, naming names in my former museum, and the Director (Anthea Hartig) found out and was so incensed, she actually held a meeting about me and wanted to know how I could be punished.... I could never have posted if I was still inside."
Based on the IG post that specifically names the APAC's interim director's reprehensible behavior which was posted in January 2023 (contents of this post can be found at after the '...' at this mefi comment, it's plausible that the 'leadership' of APAC Director dership and internal dynamics of SI management led to the cancellation (and using the political climate as cover) but it could also be in combination with external threats.
posted by fizzix at 11:00 AM on July 15, 2023 [4 favorites]
for the record, David Koch died in 2019
His money lives on, as you might expect.
posted by ryanshepard at 11:27 AM on July 15, 2023 [9 favorites]
His money lives on, as you might expect.
posted by ryanshepard at 11:27 AM on July 15, 2023 [9 favorites]
The MAGAs regularly attack public libraries and public schools even though they don't use either one. I have a friend who is the director of a library branch that was featured on Libs of Tik Tok for having a program for trans kids. They had to close for days due to the threats. I seriously doubt anyone threatening the public library in a small northwestern coastal town had ever been to that library before. These people are not behaving rationally but are just enjoying one rage orgy after another across the US.
posted by hydropsyche at 1:01 PM on July 15, 2023 [25 favorites]
posted by hydropsyche at 1:01 PM on July 15, 2023 [25 favorites]
Maga is not about economics or even necessarily social standing. It's about rabid, frothing, incoherent rage at a changing world. It's about abusing power to make themselves feel important, hurting others instead of bettering themselves. These people are told to loathe and fear us, and they do.
Culture war isn't just a term. These people have been conditioned to wage war on everything from foreigners to drugs to illiteracy and holidays. Take a really good look at the laws that are being passed, the rights that are being removed, the safety and freedom that is being deliberately suppressed.
This event apparently checks all the fascist hate boxes: gay, queer, trans, foreign, literary, intellectual, artsy, creative. Sure it's possible the SI has other things going on. But pretending that maga wouldn't target this is deeply optimistic. The other side can't have a culture if you slash and burn everything not Florida approved
posted by Jacen at 1:09 PM on July 15, 2023 [11 favorites]
Culture war isn't just a term. These people have been conditioned to wage war on everything from foreigners to drugs to illiteracy and holidays. Take a really good look at the laws that are being passed, the rights that are being removed, the safety and freedom that is being deliberately suppressed.
This event apparently checks all the fascist hate boxes: gay, queer, trans, foreign, literary, intellectual, artsy, creative. Sure it's possible the SI has other things going on. But pretending that maga wouldn't target this is deeply optimistic. The other side can't have a culture if you slash and burn everything not Florida approved
posted by Jacen at 1:09 PM on July 15, 2023 [11 favorites]
The eagerness to hypothesize who the bad guy is here has big “show me the man and I’ll show you the crime” energy. Generally it’s better to hypothesize the identity of the culprit only after you see something that qualifies as evidence.
posted by PaulVario at 2:29 PM on July 15, 2023 [11 favorites]
posted by PaulVario at 2:29 PM on July 15, 2023 [11 favorites]
Generally when maga types shit on an event, there are plenty of posts doing organizing and rallying their followers to show up. Link some receipts, if there are any.
posted by ryanrs at 2:53 PM on July 15, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by ryanrs at 2:53 PM on July 15, 2023 [5 favorites]
The thing is, this event was held 2017-2019 under what was presumably a hostile administration and against the backdrop of constant local protest and counterprotest involving MAGAs, white supremacists, and phobics of every stripe. And the content was still basically every single thing a MAGA despises, it's not like it was about churchgoing and submissive wifehood back then and this year it's about pansexuality and drag.
Yet back then, it was worth holding, and now, under seemingly eased conditions, it's not. Something isn't adding up.
posted by kingdead at 3:04 PM on July 15, 2023 [10 favorites]
Yet back then, it was worth holding, and now, under seemingly eased conditions, it's not. Something isn't adding up.
posted by kingdead at 3:04 PM on July 15, 2023 [10 favorites]
Conditions aren't in any way eased. Right wing attacks on trans people and their rights have overwhelmingly escalated in the past year.
posted by hydropsyche at 4:57 PM on July 15, 2023 [16 favorites]
posted by hydropsyche at 4:57 PM on July 15, 2023 [16 favorites]
My money is this was an inside scandal at Smithsonian that they're trying to bury under prosaic language.
posted by Lord Chancellor at 5:21 PM on July 15, 2023 [11 favorites]
posted by Lord Chancellor at 5:21 PM on July 15, 2023 [11 favorites]
If it were MAGA or some other public reactionary group that caused this, they would also be the first to claim credit and broadcast their victory all over the place.
If no one is claiming credit for it, then there's something going on internally.
posted by meowzilla at 6:06 PM on July 15, 2023 [16 favorites]
If no one is claiming credit for it, then there's something going on internally.
posted by meowzilla at 6:06 PM on July 15, 2023 [16 favorites]
Or it's the big-name donors not wanting to broadcast their influence.
posted by subdee at 7:06 AM on July 16, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by subdee at 7:06 AM on July 16, 2023 [1 favorite]
I mean, funding misappropriation could be an issue depending on how they do their budgeting - if they have a big pot of money for literary festivals, for instance, the director could have spent it or promised it somewhere else and want to conceal that. This could be mostly bad administration (eg, she wants to spend it on or has spent it on something reasonable) or it could be cronyism (she would rather spend it on a pal's pet project) or political (she would rather or is being pressured to spend it on something politically unpleasant).
That would mean that their reporting is either public but opaque or not public; it would be or else become very visible in this year's reporting if anyone had access to all of it, which people often do because it's public funds. You'd also have to be very, very sure that your accountants wouldn't talk - that means everyone down the chain who'd work with that report, which would be a limited group but wouldn't just be the director's personal buddy.
Or they could have fucked up the visas if a lot of key speakers are coming from outside the US - it's really difficult to get cultural visas and maybe they'd be too embarrassed to admit it. But again, I'd expect the speakers to be aware that they had started the visa process and not received their visas six weeks before the event and I think that would raise their suspicions enough to talk.
Or it could be purely internal spite/racism - the director just doesn't like the people involved and doesn't like the project and canceled it off her own bat purely to be a shit.
But my personal money is on the comment in the article: Internal correspondence shared with The Washington Post indicated that the event had been under routine review for controversial content just before the cancellation, though it is not clear whether or to what extent that may have contributed to the decision.
Somebody in the background with power or an important ear hated the event for race or gender or race and gender reasons, or the SI knows that they are under greater scrutiny now and decided that they had to get ride of anything potentially controversial. Again, you don't need 10,000 screaming MAGAs, you just need one big donor or one politician on a relevant committee. Joe Billionaire isn't going to go on twitter and gloat that he got this canceled; he's just going to work his agenda in the background the way he always does. Very few extremely wealthy donors are out there explaining their designs to the public to rile up opposition.
posted by Frowner at 7:24 AM on July 16, 2023 [10 favorites]
That would mean that their reporting is either public but opaque or not public; it would be or else become very visible in this year's reporting if anyone had access to all of it, which people often do because it's public funds. You'd also have to be very, very sure that your accountants wouldn't talk - that means everyone down the chain who'd work with that report, which would be a limited group but wouldn't just be the director's personal buddy.
Or they could have fucked up the visas if a lot of key speakers are coming from outside the US - it's really difficult to get cultural visas and maybe they'd be too embarrassed to admit it. But again, I'd expect the speakers to be aware that they had started the visa process and not received their visas six weeks before the event and I think that would raise their suspicions enough to talk.
Or it could be purely internal spite/racism - the director just doesn't like the people involved and doesn't like the project and canceled it off her own bat purely to be a shit.
But my personal money is on the comment in the article: Internal correspondence shared with The Washington Post indicated that the event had been under routine review for controversial content just before the cancellation, though it is not clear whether or to what extent that may have contributed to the decision.
Somebody in the background with power or an important ear hated the event for race or gender or race and gender reasons, or the SI knows that they are under greater scrutiny now and decided that they had to get ride of anything potentially controversial. Again, you don't need 10,000 screaming MAGAs, you just need one big donor or one politician on a relevant committee. Joe Billionaire isn't going to go on twitter and gloat that he got this canceled; he's just going to work his agenda in the background the way he always does. Very few extremely wealthy donors are out there explaining their designs to the public to rile up opposition.
posted by Frowner at 7:24 AM on July 16, 2023 [10 favorites]
Like, the Elon Musks of the world are the exception - people with a lot of money who boast and brag about their bigoted beliefs. Most of them keep quiet. Elon Musk types are also the exception in that they can't plan for shit. The Thiels and other discreet rich people can plan their cultural agendas at least as well as mefites spitballing.
"I am a major donor and I will pull money from organizations that do race-based events or events with trans speakers because I think those events are bad and those people should not be able to speak in public" is not a really sophisticated plan, either.
posted by Frowner at 7:27 AM on July 16, 2023 [6 favorites]
"I am a major donor and I will pull money from organizations that do race-based events or events with trans speakers because I think those events are bad and those people should not be able to speak in public" is not a really sophisticated plan, either.
posted by Frowner at 7:27 AM on July 16, 2023 [6 favorites]
Even if it's a right wing donor threat to pull funding, that points to some issues with leadership at the very least not being suited for the time we live in, because publicizing that threat instead of buckling might end with the SI receiving more funding from donors outraged at the threat. At the very least the leaders of organizations like this should have been making plans to get out of relying on the funding of reactionaries for a few years at this point, and IMO they have a moral duty even at the cost of losing their own funding to call the threats out so as to make the tactics less effective on the next targets instead of encouraging them to keep trying.
posted by jason_steakums at 8:28 AM on July 16, 2023
posted by jason_steakums at 8:28 AM on July 16, 2023
I mean if we're just making claims based on gut feeling and birds-eye plausibility then we could also say that China was upset about Taiwan/HK/Uyghur/queer/MeToo/... content and the US decided to give them this as a gesture ahead of the Yellen talks last week and Kerry talks this week. There's as much evidence for that at the moment as there is for anything else, you know? And maybe a better fit in terms of style.
There's no shortage of proven fucked up MAGA and right-wing action going on right now to be accurately furious about. Surely we can wait a bit longer for actual information before we decide what actually happened in this case. Jumping to attribution regardless of evidence is more MAGA style than Mefi. (There's a reddit thread on r/AsianMasculinity that's going with "there are rumors that it's punishment by leftists over our perceived opposition to affirmative action", because why not just go with our biases, right?)
Meanwhile this story doesn't seem to have been picked up anywhere outside of some aggregators. I hope it's because people are investigating, and not because no one cares.
posted by trig at 8:30 AM on July 16, 2023 [7 favorites]
There's no shortage of proven fucked up MAGA and right-wing action going on right now to be accurately furious about. Surely we can wait a bit longer for actual information before we decide what actually happened in this case. Jumping to attribution regardless of evidence is more MAGA style than Mefi. (There's a reddit thread on r/AsianMasculinity that's going with "there are rumors that it's punishment by leftists over our perceived opposition to affirmative action", because why not just go with our biases, right?)
Meanwhile this story doesn't seem to have been picked up anywhere outside of some aggregators. I hope it's because people are investigating, and not because no one cares.
posted by trig at 8:30 AM on July 16, 2023 [7 favorites]
It's an awful but intriguing mystery, people are going to talk about it, but I wouldn't say people are making actual claims or jumping to attribution in here, in general it's all very clearly speculation. That has its own issues, but there is a big difference between people talking about various theories in a small Metafilter comments section and agendas being pushed into the popular discourse on Reddit. There's something to be said for having this kind of conversation in a smaller, more tightly knit group that's generally much more responsible and considerate with their words than most places I can think of online.
I don't think speculating that this could possibly be thrown on the pile of shitty right wing culture war stuff is going to make anyone in here more upset with the people perpetrating the right wing culture war than they already are and I don't think finding out that it was actually something else entirely is going to end with Mefi truthers insisting that's a lie, you know? And talking about the available evidence about the leadership problems at the SI and how that might play in is not going to create a blind fury at the leaders of the SI here.
posted by jason_steakums at 8:48 AM on July 16, 2023 [2 favorites]
I don't think speculating that this could possibly be thrown on the pile of shitty right wing culture war stuff is going to make anyone in here more upset with the people perpetrating the right wing culture war than they already are and I don't think finding out that it was actually something else entirely is going to end with Mefi truthers insisting that's a lie, you know? And talking about the available evidence about the leadership problems at the SI and how that might play in is not going to create a blind fury at the leaders of the SI here.
posted by jason_steakums at 8:48 AM on July 16, 2023 [2 favorites]
As a queer trans Asian American who has experienced terrible abusive leadership from nonprofit settings, while I see MAGA as a potential thing, I find it weird that there are more comments being focused on that rather the words from the employees themselves who have talked about the toxic leadership. Being shot in the back by your colleague and boss in this kind of work is very likely because of how white supremacy functions in liberal settings. I don't know if the people commenting here have firsthand experience with this work, but that's enough to destroy anything.
I think it's more important to listen to what is being said by the affected, it seems more like a case of organizational racism and whiteness built into the leadership.
posted by yueliang at 8:55 AM on July 16, 2023 [27 favorites]
I think it's more important to listen to what is being said by the affected, it seems more like a case of organizational racism and whiteness built into the leadership.
posted by yueliang at 8:55 AM on July 16, 2023 [27 favorites]
And talking about the available evidence about the leadership problems at the SI and how that might play in is not going to create a blind fury at the leaders of the SI here
I definitely agree with that, and think that deserves a lot of serious attention regardless of what happened here. At least one of the Instagram posts above is from half a year ago (if I'm reading the dateline correctly) - it looks like people have been affected by the problems described for a long time.
I do feel this thread has a lot of passionate and determined attribution of the cancellation to MAGA pressure, and I get it and have also been swept away by my personal intuitions any number of times, but I think remembering the problems with jumping to conclusions is important.
I hope this gets picked up and discussed in more outlets, so that there'll be more pressure to find out what's going on and more attention to issues with the SI leadership in general.
posted by trig at 9:06 AM on July 16, 2023 [2 favorites]
I definitely agree with that, and think that deserves a lot of serious attention regardless of what happened here. At least one of the Instagram posts above is from half a year ago (if I'm reading the dateline correctly) - it looks like people have been affected by the problems described for a long time.
I do feel this thread has a lot of passionate and determined attribution of the cancellation to MAGA pressure, and I get it and have also been swept away by my personal intuitions any number of times, but I think remembering the problems with jumping to conclusions is important.
I hope this gets picked up and discussed in more outlets, so that there'll be more pressure to find out what's going on and more attention to issues with the SI leadership in general.
posted by trig at 9:06 AM on July 16, 2023 [2 favorites]
The main sponsor for this event seems to have been the AARP, of all people.
Maaaaaaybe it was part of that that cultural phenomenon where everyone was so freaked out by Trump that they wanted to publicly let it be known that they were against whatever he was for. After he left, maybe the AARP guy was like "Wait a minute, I'm Huffington Puffington the Fourth! Why was I giving to the New Black Panthers again? Cancel that queer Asian YA authors' salon, Smithers!" But I doubt it.
yueliang might be on the right track here. Having done a little nonprofit work, my experience is that they are both performatively woke AND extremely racist at the same time. I can easily see this being a toxic environment where a leader felt threatened and called down a review on their own event because a group they didn't like (trans, wrong gender, wrong sort of Asian, not Asian enough) was growing too powerful for their liking. That's my bias, though.
posted by kingdead at 9:11 AM on July 16, 2023 [4 favorites]
Maaaaaaybe it was part of that that cultural phenomenon where everyone was so freaked out by Trump that they wanted to publicly let it be known that they were against whatever he was for. After he left, maybe the AARP guy was like "Wait a minute, I'm Huffington Puffington the Fourth! Why was I giving to the New Black Panthers again? Cancel that queer Asian YA authors' salon, Smithers!" But I doubt it.
yueliang might be on the right track here. Having done a little nonprofit work, my experience is that they are both performatively woke AND extremely racist at the same time. I can easily see this being a toxic environment where a leader felt threatened and called down a review on their own event because a group they didn't like (trans, wrong gender, wrong sort of Asian, not Asian enough) was growing too powerful for their liking. That's my bias, though.
posted by kingdead at 9:11 AM on July 16, 2023 [4 favorites]
Maybe I should make myself more clear -- I am deeply uncomfortable with the level of speculation that is on this thread that doesn't seem to be rooted in being focused on the employees, and further pushes down and centers whiteness in both speculation and comments, which already reproduces the pain these employees are feeling. I think it's important to interrupt that.
If you want another example of the Smithsonian making deeply entrenched and problematic hiring decisions, and how internalized racism plays out at nonprofits, look at Nancy Yao.
posted by yueliang at 9:22 AM on July 16, 2023 [16 favorites]
If you want another example of the Smithsonian making deeply entrenched and problematic hiring decisions, and how internalized racism plays out at nonprofits, look at Nancy Yao.
posted by yueliang at 9:22 AM on July 16, 2023 [16 favorites]
Someone (according to Google, possibly a lawyer with the VA Legal Aid Justice Center) has filed a FOIA request to the Smithsonian.
posted by trig at 1:57 PM on July 16, 2023 [9 favorites]
posted by trig at 1:57 PM on July 16, 2023 [9 favorites]
Mod note: A few deleted. Let’s keep the thread on track and refrain from further derailing things.
posted by travelingthyme (staff) at 3:23 PM on July 16, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by travelingthyme (staff) at 3:23 PM on July 16, 2023 [1 favorite]
The Smithsonian, right now, is a hot mess. I personally know a number of people who have departed in recent years because it's become an oppressive, paranoid, self-censoring, weaponized-white-supremacy place to work. Yes, their dependence on Congressional appropriation has had a massive chilling effect as the MAGA wing of the GOP grows and leans on its principles of questioning everything that feels too "woke," which of course includes good, professional, inclusive, historical and cultural work. Then, too, the fact that the GS jobs in the organization are the kind people hold on to for life means that a lot of reactionary and go-along-to-get-along careerists are wielding power in fiefdoms. Recent major embarrassments like hiring and then un-hiring serial abuser Nancy Yao , losing the great Ngaire Blankenburg after touting her hire as a triumph of progressive curation, and buckling under to MAGA hawks for exhibits like Whiteness, which featured labels about White Culture at NMAAHC show that it is an institution at odds with itself and under fire in the current political crisis. It's a bloated behemoth being buffeted by the winds of uncertain and politicized public funding, at odds with itself, experiencing internal strife and friction, and pretty much a microcosm of the nation's own fucked-up relationship with itself right now.
If you had stars in your eyes about the Smithsonian's purity or intellectual honesty or stalwart practice, it's time to let them go. Yes, they have Kermit, and Abe's hat, and the Eagle, and all that stuff. But they are being riven by the tensions of our time as surely as the halls of Congress themselves, and very good people are getting ground in the gears.
tl;dr write your Congressperson and tell them you want to see progressive, inclusive work across all Smithsonian museums. Because they damn well need some of those letters to stop empowering the fearful rear guard.
posted by Miko at 9:36 PM on July 16, 2023 [17 favorites]
If you had stars in your eyes about the Smithsonian's purity or intellectual honesty or stalwart practice, it's time to let them go. Yes, they have Kermit, and Abe's hat, and the Eagle, and all that stuff. But they are being riven by the tensions of our time as surely as the halls of Congress themselves, and very good people are getting ground in the gears.
tl;dr write your Congressperson and tell them you want to see progressive, inclusive work across all Smithsonian museums. Because they damn well need some of those letters to stop empowering the fearful rear guard.
posted by Miko at 9:36 PM on July 16, 2023 [17 favorites]
Taken from a comment in the comments section of the Washington Post article: "the festival partners have released an open letter condemning the cancellation and calling on the Smithsonian to be accountable for the harm caused. There's more information there, though the real reason behind the director's decision to cancel is still unclear."
posted by gudrun at 1:41 PM on July 17, 2023 [7 favorites]
posted by gudrun at 1:41 PM on July 17, 2023 [7 favorites]
That letter is excellent; thanks for posting it, gudrun. The list of demands at the end is must reading, including "full honoraria...as promised" and "Immediate resignation by Acting Director Yao-Fen You and immediate implementation of a staff-driven search for a new permanent director who can begin to repair trust with community and partners." Also, this paragraph:
Additionally, we are deeply troubled to discover that a driving factor behind the festival’s cancellation might have been the Smithsonian’s desire to censor trans and nonbinary programming. A program intended to celebrate trans and nonbinary authors, as they face unprecedented levels of violence, book bans, and anti-trans legislation, was set to take place at the festival. The Washington Post article reported that the Acting Director instructed the planning team to submit a report under Smithsonian Directive 603 to identify potentially sensitive or controversial content, which she received on July 5. The timing of the cancellation, hours after the submission of that report, which noted the trans and nonbinary program, raises disturbing questions. We condemn in the strongest terms any attempt to censor any part of our community, especially our deeply vulnerable trans and nonbinary members. There is no Asian American community without its trans and nonbinary members; there is no Asian American literature without trans and nonbinary writers.
posted by mediareport at 4:21 PM on July 17, 2023 [7 favorites]
Additionally, we are deeply troubled to discover that a driving factor behind the festival’s cancellation might have been the Smithsonian’s desire to censor trans and nonbinary programming. A program intended to celebrate trans and nonbinary authors, as they face unprecedented levels of violence, book bans, and anti-trans legislation, was set to take place at the festival. The Washington Post article reported that the Acting Director instructed the planning team to submit a report under Smithsonian Directive 603 to identify potentially sensitive or controversial content, which she received on July 5. The timing of the cancellation, hours after the submission of that report, which noted the trans and nonbinary program, raises disturbing questions. We condemn in the strongest terms any attempt to censor any part of our community, especially our deeply vulnerable trans and nonbinary members. There is no Asian American community without its trans and nonbinary members; there is no Asian American literature without trans and nonbinary writers.
posted by mediareport at 4:21 PM on July 17, 2023 [7 favorites]
Apparently the cancellation was a vindictive response to an internal dispute, so that checks out w/r/t the general tenor there.
posted by Miko at 5:53 AM on July 19, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Miko at 5:53 AM on July 19, 2023 [2 favorites]
a vindictive response to an internal dispute
At the end of the day, this was one of only two real possibilities. From the Smithsonian's (institutional reputational, as well as individual reputational for the administrators) point of view, giving no explanation at all looks bad enough that pretty much any explanation, even a craven one like "we feared for the safety of our attendees" or "we were concerned about the socially incendiary nature of the programming" looks better. That they didn't do either of those (or any of the many other possible semijustifiable blame-shifting maneuvers) suggests that it's not close enough to the truth for them to get away with it, which means that the real reason is either (a) even more humiliating than leaving everyone speculating and their attendees bewildered, or (b) something which, for larger reasons, they can't say at all. Those basically boil down respectively to two more specific possibilities: (a) the drama is entirely internal, and all they'd do is confirm everyone's suspicion that they 100% fucked this up, or (b) the cancellation is for sensitive and thus undisclosable international-relations reasons (probably with China).
Situation (b) never seemed all that likely: China doesn't usually get that tetchy about scholarly and academic activity outside of China, even if it's critical of the regime, and (a) is both an endemic problem of organizations and in line with the Smithsonian's own general dysfunction.
posted by jackbishop at 6:29 AM on July 19, 2023 [4 favorites]
At the end of the day, this was one of only two real possibilities. From the Smithsonian's (institutional reputational, as well as individual reputational for the administrators) point of view, giving no explanation at all looks bad enough that pretty much any explanation, even a craven one like "we feared for the safety of our attendees" or "we were concerned about the socially incendiary nature of the programming" looks better. That they didn't do either of those (or any of the many other possible semijustifiable blame-shifting maneuvers) suggests that it's not close enough to the truth for them to get away with it, which means that the real reason is either (a) even more humiliating than leaving everyone speculating and their attendees bewildered, or (b) something which, for larger reasons, they can't say at all. Those basically boil down respectively to two more specific possibilities: (a) the drama is entirely internal, and all they'd do is confirm everyone's suspicion that they 100% fucked this up, or (b) the cancellation is for sensitive and thus undisclosable international-relations reasons (probably with China).
Situation (b) never seemed all that likely: China doesn't usually get that tetchy about scholarly and academic activity outside of China, even if it's critical of the regime, and (a) is both an endemic problem of organizations and in line with the Smithsonian's own general dysfunction.
posted by jackbishop at 6:29 AM on July 19, 2023 [4 favorites]
Would not want to be the person who ordered this vindictive response to an internal dispute if lawsuits start coming in from people who were already financially committed to this having the rug pulled out last minute. I mean, I would not want to be that person for many reasons, but also this one.
posted by jason_steakums at 9:11 AM on July 19, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by jason_steakums at 9:11 AM on July 19, 2023 [1 favorite]
Apparently the cancellation was a vindictive response to an internal dispute
Is there a source for this?
posted by trig at 9:53 AM on July 19, 2023
Is there a source for this?
posted by trig at 9:53 AM on July 19, 2023
Personal communication, but I’m not going to out anyone.
posted by Miko at 7:05 PM on July 19, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Miko at 7:05 PM on July 19, 2023 [2 favorites]
Well I guess that's better than MAGA threats or an asshole big donor.
Miko, is there a sense this is specifically a Yen-Sen You problem, or is the Smithsonian's broader leadership also garbage?
posted by ryanrs at 12:04 PM on July 20, 2023
Miko, is there a sense this is specifically a Yen-Sen You problem, or is the Smithsonian's broader leadership also garbage?
posted by ryanrs at 12:04 PM on July 20, 2023
(BTW the acting director's name is Yao-Fen You; Yen-Sen seems to be a typo in the OP)
posted by trig at 12:59 PM on July 20, 2023
posted by trig at 12:59 PM on July 20, 2023
I’m not sure you could say the whole leadership is garbage, but that it’s a big messy many-headed place with lots of poor entrenched leadership mixed in, and a lot of politics, and that maybe the secretary’s office isn’t effective at reforming things. If anyone could be.
posted by Miko at 7:29 PM on July 20, 2023
posted by Miko at 7:29 PM on July 20, 2023
WaPo: Smithsonian literary fest flagged ‘sensitive’ topics before cancellation
Less than a month before the Smithsonian’s Asian American Literature Festival was to begin, staffers prepared what they considered to be a routine memo discussing programs involving “potentially sensitive issues” that they knew the host institution would want to be aware of in advance.posted by jenfullmoon at 2:59 PM on July 23, 2023 [1 favorite]
Among the matters cited in the memo obtained by The Washington Post: a panel about book bans, and two events featuring queer, trans and nonbinary writers.
Hours later, the acting director of the Smithsonian Institution’s Asian Pacific American Center, Yao-Fen You, informed organizers that she had decided to cancel the entire festival because of “unforeseen circumstances.” In the days following, the Smithsonian offered little explanation beyond some concerns with the draft status of the program and the audiovisual setup.
The Smithsonian denies that the memo, or any of the subjects it raised, factored into the cancellation. “We want to stress that this hard decision was made in the best interest of the festival and its participants and had nothing to do with content,” wrote Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III and Undersecretary of Museums and Culture Kevin Gover in a statement sent to participants by email and posted on social media Thursday. “The Smithsonian remains committed to sharing the histories and narratives of all Americans, including those in the Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander and LGBTQ communities.”
In an email to The Post on Friday, You said: “The reason for not moving forward at this time was that the administrative systems required for a successful Smithsonian festival for both the presenters and the audience were not ready.” She wrote that incomplete purchase orders prevented the Smithsonian from securing audiovisual services and other key contracts.
Asian American Writers To Resurrect Abruptly Canceled Literature Festival In D.C.
posted by chavenet at 8:30 AM on July 29, 2023 [8 favorites]
posted by chavenet at 8:30 AM on July 29, 2023 [8 favorites]
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