Partner Ellen Messing Quoted in Boston Globe on Issues of Racism in the MFA
The Boston Globe recently ran an article publicizing the extreme discord among many of their employees, in particular their security guards. In recent years, Museum of Fine Arts in Boston has been the subject of many complaints regarding racial discrimination in the workplace. While the museum hosts a staff that is more 70% white, people of color make up more than half of their security team and say they are often treated like second class citizens. One woman in particular likened her experience working at the MFA to the novel “The Help,” saying that the guards at the museum are “the lowest one on the totem pole, other than the cleaners.”
Although MCAD has not validated many of the staff complaints, MRW partner Ellen Messing was quoted in the Globe article as saying, “You would have to conclude at a minimum that there is a fair amount of disaffection among the staff with their jobs and that there is a sentiment that they’re not being treated equally and fairly among the security staff.” Attorney General Maura Healy and former Attorney General Scott Harshbarger have launched an independent investigation into the claims, but it remains to be seen if the museum will change its practices.