I have a thread to share about unethical journalism and the bias and racism that has obfuscated the story of my scholarship and its political legacy. It is the larger story of how @TheAtlantic & other publications have failed the American public then & continue to do so. Pls RT.
In 2019, I created an exhibition on the Basquiat painting Defacement (The Death of Michael Stewart). The experience creating at the Guggenheim was w/o question the most racist experience of my entire life. It went viral. Not one publication covered this.
It's hard to explain how a recorded account of events w/one of the world's leading experts of Basquiat, arguably the most popular artist on the planet, that has been seen by a quarter of a million people does not make news -- unless you're protecting the offending institution.
Recently, Helen Lewis from The Atlantic reached out to me for a story that she was working on, literally demanding that I speak to her. You don't have to take my word for it -- below is a screenshot of her initial DM to me. I w/o question declined this -- and here are my messages
Everything about her outreach & subsequent behavior was bullying/presumptive/unethical/unprofessional/ arrogant and dangerously wrong. Wrong b/c not only is a journalist never supposed to approach a subject in this manner, she is missing key & essential receipts that she will get
will never get*
Here is my response to Helen in which I told her to go "fuck herself" and why. I cc'd @adriennelaf, the executive editor of @theatlantic. I did this b/c so often the masthead claims that they have no idea that this OOC behavior happens. Not only did they know, they co-signed it.
Helen sent me another email, w/@TheAtlantic's EE still cc'd on it. Helen then double downed & stated, "I plan to quote parts of our correspondence so far...you mentioned over IG that your message to me was "not a quote or response" but we haven't agreed to any such conditions."
I reiterated that Helen Lewis, with the Executive Editor of @TheAtlantic cc'd, could go fuck herself and why, w/my email response below.
There is a great deal wrong and disturbing about this & I can speak about this as a trained journalist, researcher and historian. Her request began w/a demand -- "I plan to discuss YOUR experience." She is at an expertise and knowledge deficit, as well as an ethical one.
What's more trouble is that Helen pitched, that we know of so far, two totally different articles to a number of ppl. I'm sure more will come out as this story unfolds, but she Helen wrote in one email "one of the cases I am planning to cover is the resignation of Nancy Spector"
Helen's request, cont: "Might I also speak to someone from your organization to get a sense of how the events unfolded from your perspective." The story she pitched to me, made clear in the screenshots of her emails attached in the thread, is a totally different story.
This is totally unethical b/c it is lying. It is a duplicitous framing of the story and its intent, and that is a disturbing manipulation of ppl into consenting to a story, in part to do harm, b/c she is more or less asking them about my experience.
A lot of what happened at the Guggenheim was kept extremely close to the vest and I can tell you, in some cases only myself, Joan Young and Nancy Spector were privy to it. Thankfully, I have all of my emails & the Guggenheim was unable to confiscate them.
It is also highly suspect and disturbing that a POC pitched a story about the culture of retaliation and racism at the Guggenheim & @TheAtlantic punted that, but allowed @helenlewis w/no expertise in race, museums, art etc to write this story??
Their story is not mine to tell, but the story of @TheAtlantic's story of this story is highly highly troubling, and this is just what we know -- right now.
And this matters A LOT, @TheAtlantic's journalistic and leadership failings on this chapter of history, 2019 -- present. B/c the press turned a blind eye it had huge, wide reaching consequences that still reverberate for a number of ppl. Their stories aren't mine to tell BUT--
Due in part to @TheAtlantic and other outlets' refusal to engage ethics or cover the story beyond the Guggenheim's press releases, it emboldened a level of harm & retaliation that included job losses, reputational harm & career destabilization that is still on-going for many ppl
who tried their best to get this story to the public in its full truth. @TheAtlantic declined this service, duty and responsibility to their readers and the historical record and they continue to do so. Helen Lewis has merely picked up where 2020 left off.
I do not need a journalist to speak for me, and I have carefully never publicly spoken about my experience -- save for the thread which @TheAtlantic did not cover -- b/c it deserves a thorough analysis that is more than a reported piece. And, I have too many receipts.
Helen was desperate to use a nonresponse, despite me asking her why she & her pub did not cover this story when it happened. Helen &Adrienne had no response to that yet that's what they have the authority to write about, b/c it's their experience. The experience of failure.
the failure of @TheAtlantic @NYMag @NYTimes @barronsonline @artnews @artnet @hyperallergic to properly report this story, ethical engage and cultivate sources instead of circling their wagons to protect the Guggenheim is the story, and only story, they are qualified to examine.
I responded to Helen's Girl Boss response, screenshot'd below. @AdrienneLaF was still cc'd & I directly addressed her. I know Adrienne from the Ferguson days & the editorial decisions that she made which denied the humanity of that period, inform this exchange & Helen's boldness.
Adrienne did not respond to the questions of ethics, timing and why they did not hire the WOC who pitched them the story in 2020. Instead, the fact checker for @TheAtlantic reached out today, sending a message that ethics be damned, they will bulldoze their way through it.
I have made the decision to post my messages to @TheAtlantic b/c I want ppl to see the unhinged and deranged desperation of a publication which willfully kept the story from the public, basically co-signing bullying & ignoring their failures to the public they serve.
There is an entire story & history of the curatorial letters that is missing and I know, b/c I was in contact w/many of them before & after. They are and continue to be a moral failure of the entire museum world, but there is no way in hell I would ever share that w/Helen Lewis.
Helen has poured over this transcript and plans to talk about it heavily. However, when will @TheAtlantic address their readership and explain how & why they didn't cover it in 2020? Do not give them credit for turning in their homework 2 years late.
abetterguggenheim.com
While the art world was writing letters emboldened by a Guggenheim curatorial letter which used my name w/o my permission, I was doing the work. I was, in a pandemic, driving across the 5 boroughs, making sure activists had what they needed on the front lines. Receipts below.
Where was @TheAtlantic when I was doing the actual work to help those who were doing the work of risking their lives, in a pandemic, to march and protest in the streets? Where were they?
While they sat on Zoom calls, sharing reading lists, using the fact that a man had been murdered as an opportunity to pitch jobs, I was w/the ppl who ACTUALLY made change happen, delivering over $30K to activists in over 10 cities across America. @TheAtlantic did not cover this.
Many of you were there & helped me. @jeannakadlec helped keep 5 Black trans women housed & @ellenpao & others gave money that helped those w/the least who ALWAYS show up first, while they risked their lives for a country that has since erased them. @TheAtlantic did not cover this
If you are an activist or funder that was involved in that bail fund run of 2020, please do not give @TheAtlantic any direct quotes. They declined to do their job by reporting on these stories then & their laziness and malfeasance should not be enabled or rewarded.
Shame on your writer, your executive editor and your publication @nxthompson. There is no defense nor excuse how a story as morally mangled and ethically compromised even got started, given the back story. Your publication forfeited an opportunity to share a complete story (cont)
with the public, and in real time. Instead, your editors and masthead gave this bullying hack the confidence and institutional co-sign to manipulate ppl into participating in a piece that she -- and The Atlantic -- do not have the ethical fortitude or authority to write.
The irony is not lost @nxthompson, that, as the world unpacks the imperial and violent legacy of one British White woman using her immense power an institution to steal things and disfigure the historical record of said atrocities, here goes another BWW doing a parallel thing.
There is a story here, but it is the utter failing of The Atlantic to properly frame and tell this story when it came to their desk, or any time afterwards. A publication which aimed for the political legacy of a woman whose work you benefit from & did not engage @nxthompson
Correct me if I'm wrong @nxthompson, but I believe that like every institution that Is Listening and Learning, you too had your own hiring spree of Black and other POC writers, given the situation over at The Atlantic in response to 2020?
My political legacy is such that it has subsidized the courage of entire industries, and even you stand on my work. There is no article w/o my work, and any thorough engagement of facts and a timeline can confirm that. I am owed a resoundingly public & loud apology, @nxthompson
And your publication owes the public an acknowledgement that this article does not pass ethical standards, unless you want to tell me and the public that this bullying and lying are permissible standards to the way that you do business at The Atlantic, @nxthompson.
The field of journalism must start speaking up. Under no circumstances is Helen Lewis's behavior and tactics okay & as @angiejamie said this exchange "represents... the public's erosion of trust " I cannot be the only person saying this is unethical. Journos have to speak up.
Just so that we are clear:
news.gallup.com/poll/355526/am…
I would love to be in touch about this thread @UWJournEthics
