'Challenge whiteness’, London Museum tells employees in diversity push

28 March 2025, 14:35

Staff at the London Museum have been ordered to address their “whiteness” in a push for greater diversity, equity and inclusion.

Employees, the museum says, can challenge their 'whiteness' by asking themselves a series of questions written in a pamphlet it has distributed to staff.

'Am I making space and time for important conversations about race equity? How are we continuing to challenge embedded whiteness?' a key question reads.

The pamphlet instructions are part of its equity, diversity and inclusion strategy as the institution seeks to earn the label of 'genuinely anti-racist'.

According to the museum's pamphlet, its 'culture and ways of working' support 'institutional forms of racism,

The museum argues that if staff 'work differently' and 'promote less hierarchical working', it will 'challenge inequity'.

Staff can also 'encourage everyone to bring their whole selves to work'.

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Other questions they can ask themselves include: 'How am I contributing to advancing race equity in my daily work?”

'How will I know I am nurturing a safe space for everyone?', reads another.

The museum defines 'whiteness' as 'ideas, ways of working and normative values that can support, directly or indirectly, the continuation of racial inequalities and a lack or racial diversity in institutions', The Telegraph reports.

Employees have been urged to tackle these concepts with the help of the pamphlet.

In academia, theorists have produced a body of work on the concept of 'whiteness' and the invisible structures that they say produce and reproduce white supremacy and privilege.

The London Museum has committed to making sure its research addresses 'the issues of diversity affecting our society, our collection and our own organisation'.

Last year, the Church of England came under fire for advertising for an 'anti-racism' officer in a bid to 'deconstruct whiteness'.

British employers typically have a set of diversity policies during the hiring process.

But in the US, President Donald Trump has waged a war on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) hiring, describing the policies as "dangerous, demeaning, and immoral".

The London Museum has been approached for comment.