American Alliance for Equal Rights Files Lawsuit Against Smithsonian Institute's National Museum of the American Latino

AAER Alleges the Latino Museum Studies Program Violates the U.S. Constitution

AUSTIN, Texas, Feb. 23, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the American Alliance for Equals Rights (AAER) filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia alleging the Smithsonian Institute's Latino Museum Studies Program Violates the U.S. Constitution.

The complaint is attached.

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As the complaint highlights, when considering applications and hiring interns, the National Museum of the American Latino has promised to "focus on … increasing the representation of Latina and Latino museum professionals in the field."

AAER notes the Museum has delivered. Two years into the program, the Museum has never hired an intern who identified as non-Latino.

When selecting interns, the Museum prefers Latino applicants over everyone else. In the very first sentence of the job description, the Museum states that the internship is "designed to increase hands-on training opportunities for Latina, Latino, and Latinx-identifying undergraduate students."

"The program," according to the Museum, "seeks to catalyze change in a field where only 5% of key museum positions are filled by people who identify as Latina, Latino, or Latinx." And the Museum hopes to "change [that] field" by "increasing the representation of Latina and Latino museum professionals."

Statements by the Museum's key staff—including the Museum's Deputy Director, who "serve[s] under the Director," confirm that the internship discriminates against non-Latinos. As the Deputy Director recently stated, the internship "is designed to prepare the next generation of Latino museum leaders with the skills, insights and networks they need to succeed." It is meant to "build a diverse museum workforce." And it is "an opportunity for [the Museum] to work with young Latinas and Latinos." Marcus Voss, the internship's "program lead" at Arizona State University, echoed the Deputy Director's sentiments, stating that "the Smithsonian Latino Museum Studies Program … ensures viable career pathways for our Latinx students."

Since the internship started, the Museum has hired two classes of interns: one in 2022 and another in 2023. In both years, not a single intern identified as black, Asian, or white. During the same two-year window, at least 25 interns—nearly 90% of participants—self-identified as Latino. No intern identified as non-Latino, according to the lawsuit.

AAER asserts that the U.S. Fifth Amendment contains an equal-protection guarantee that binds the federal government and is just as strict as the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause.

Edward Blum, president of AAER stated, "Important programs like these that restrict participation to only certain races and ethnicities are unfair and illegal."

Blum added, "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 determining factor."

Blum concluded, "Significant majorities of Americans of all races and ethnicities oppose these kinds of racial classifications and preferences in our public policies. It is our hope the Smithsonian Institution ends these discriminatory programs and allows all students, regardless of their skin color compete for these important internships."

Contact:
Edward Blum
703-505-1922
[email protected]

SOURCE American Alliance for Equal Rights