Undergraduate internships at the Smithsonian’s Latino Museum Studies Program at the Smithsonian’s National Latino American Museum have been opened to students of all races, following the settlement of a lawsuit that said the program was discriminatory. CNN the reports
The suit was filed in February by the Texas-based United States Alliance for Equal Rights against the museum’s director, Jorge Zamanillo, and Crosby Kemper, director of the Institute for Museum and Library Services. The lawsuit said the program had not hired any non-Latino interns since it began operating in 2022.
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“When the alliance sued,” the American Alliance for Equal Rights said Wednesday, “the museum said the internship was for ‘Latina, Latino and Latino-identifying undergraduates’ and ‘focused on increasing the representation of Latino and Latino museum professionals.'”
However, after learning of the lawsuit, Zamanillo and Kemper filed a brief stating that “the National Latino American Museum does not consider an applicant’s race or ethnicity as a factor in awarding internships” and “does not collect data on race.” or the ethnicity of the Internship Program applicants”.
The program’s website now reflects that summary in bold, and the program’s scoring rubric will be updated to state that “providers should not prioritize selection based on race or ethnicity.”
The lawsuit against the museum’s internship program was led by Edward Blum, a 71-year-old legal strategist and activist who, through a group he founded called Students for Fair Admissions, won a Supreme Court battle against Harvard University and the University. North Carolina effectively ended affirmative action admissions policies at American universities.
“Every student interested in this area of museum studies should have the opportunity to intern regardless of their race,” Blum said in the statement. “Corporations, law firms, academia and cultural institutions must end illegal programs and policies.”
A museum spokesman said CNN The newly added language “defines what was already our practice,” adding, “The National Latino American Museum reaffirmed its long-standing commitment to equal opportunity for all internship applicants, regardless of race or ethnicity.”
