Scotland’s Oldest Museum Hires ‘Curator of Discomfort’ to Confront ‘White Supremacy’

The iconic statue of the Duke of Wellington sports a traffic cone with a Black Lives Matte
ANDY BUCHANAN/AFP via Getty Images
Kurt Zindulka

Scotland’s oldest public museum has created the position of ‘Curator of Discomfort’ to take the museum out of its “institutional comfort zone” and confront historical and modern-day “white supremacy”.

On Monday, the University of Glasgow’s Hunterian Museum, which was founded in 1807, announced the creation of the post on social media, tapping left-wing activist Zandra Yeaman to head up the woke project.

In a blog post explaining the Curator of Discomfort position, Ms Yeaman said that it would focus on “looking at ways outside of traditional museum authority to explore the interpretation of contested collections and to design and deliver a series of museum interventions that takes the museum out of the institutional comfort zone”.

Yeaman added that she will embark on “exploring white supremacy as an economic and cultural system in which white western ideals control the power of the text, the material resources and ideas of cultural superiority”.

The newly installed curator went on to say that her goals will extend beyond merely attacking Scottish heritage — which she claimed honours people with “racist ideology” — but will also seek to dismantle “the structural (and institutional) racism that is perpetuated today and transforming comfortable narratives to include the uncomfortable unvarnished truth”.

She concluded by saying that in her efforts, she will seek to partner with “anti-racist activists, communities, academics, heritage institutions and heritage professionals” to “decolonise” Scottish society.

Last June, amidst nationwide Black Lives Matter furore, Yeaman, who was serving as the communities and campaigns officer for the Glasgow-based Coalition for Racial Equality and Rights (CRER), called for “anti-racist” education to be taught in Scotland’s schools.

“We cannot expect to resolve the racial inequalities persisting today without understanding the history that brought us to this point. This should be embedded throughout our education system,” she had said.

Elsewhere in Scotland, the University of Edinburgh announced on Tuesday that it will launch a review of its buildings for their connections to the slave trade. The university said that it will audit the school’s “relationship with its past” in order to align more with the diversity of the student body.

“The process will be highly consultative with students, staff, alumni and wider relevant stakeholders asked to take part. It will remain open to the widest possible sources of information and viewpoints,” a spokesman from the university claimed.

Last year, Edinburgh University removed the name of 18th century Scottish Enlightenment philosopher David Hume from one of its buildings over his now politically incorrect opinions on race.

The woke purge has extended throughout British academia, heritage bodies, and museums alike. In August, for example, the British Museum removed the bust of its founder, Sir Hans Sloane, from its pedestal amid BLM-inspired outrage over his ties to the slave trade.

The Natural History Museum followed suit, launching a review into supposedly “offensive” and “problematic” collections, including exotic birds collected by English naturalist Charles Darwin.

Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka

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