SRRT (Social Responsibilities Round Table)

You are receiving this email either because you attended one of the inclusive description workshops that I conducted for Collections Trust in Autumn 2023, you are on the Cultural Heritage Terminology Network Mailing List, or the UK Heritage x Palestine Action Group Mailing List. As you may have seen, Collections Trust released a statement today, accompanied by a tweet, announcing their removal of the Inclusive Terminology Glossary from their resources page in response to a right-wing newspaper article (attached) about the Palestine section which was followed by a series of email complaints from members of the public to Collections Trust over the past 24 hours. Whilst I am unphased by the biased reporting in The Telegraph, the statement issued by Collections Trust is a threat to my professional reputation and a stab in the back from an institution that has paid me to do work for them. Although Collections Trust have not contributed to or funded the creation of the Glossary, they have not been transparent about the fact that they hired me to give three workshops last year, all of which were fully booked and had a waiting list, and that they had enquired about hiring me for more workshops this Spring.

Although Section 1.9 on Palestine was added to the Glossary in December 2023, it is hardly as controversial as The Telegraph article has portrayed, and it does not state that "Hamas are freedom-fighters". By design, the Glossary is a live, collaborative document. I have attached a copy of the original wording in the Glossary regarding the sections on Hamas and Apartheid, which were misconstrued by The Telegraph. I am disappointed that Collections Trust did not take the time to verify the claims made in the newspaper article or contact me prior to making a statement, and I have written to them expressing my concern and requested a public apology, but I need your support. Collection Trust's decision to disregard the Glossary gives credence to accusations of anti-Semitism that have been directed at me. The article omitted any reference to Section 4.1 in the glossary, History of anti-Semitism, an important resource for recognising historic and contemporary prejudice against Jewish people, and failed to acknowledge that the "controversial" entries that were cited from the Palestine section come from the Jewish-led heritage project, The Promised Land Museum: The Jewish Museum of the Palestinian Experience. 

All I ask is that you take a few minutes to email the Collections Trust Team using the addresses below, or via Twitter, asking them to issue a public apology to me and to relist the Glossary, given the importance of this resource. The Inclusive Terminology Glossary along with the other resources I provide through CHTNUK are valuable professional tools for the decolonisation of language in the heritage sector and have proved useful to hundreds of heritage workers across the UK and beyond, and have been endorsed by multiple heritage organisations. If you attended one of my Collections Trust workshops, please also emphasise the value of the sessions that I delivered. I would urge Collections Trust to verify the claims about my work that are stated in The Telegraph article and to read the guidance related to Palestine and anti-Semitism for themselves. They should take accountability for the personal attacks that their statement has incited too, including comments of racial abuse and suggestions that I should be raped by Hamas. As a young woman of colour working tirelessly to make the sector a more inclusive place, this is a very isolating experience. 

Please share this message with your own networks and feel free to forward me any other resources or contacts that might be useful at this time.

I'd suggest that you write to the following email addresses:

Thank you,

Carissa