Where does ethnic pride cross into politics? Sacramento museum staff report keffiyeh ban

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A disagreement about what employees of the SMUD Museum of Science and Curiosity can wear and what issues they can support through their attire has been unfolding online and is a point of concern for leaders within Sacramento’s Arab community.

It started with an Instagram post that reports the experience of an Arab museum employee who was asked to remove their keffiyeh, a traditional headdress, because management deemed it at odds with their policy on maintaining a respectful work environment.

The employee was told to “reconsider their clothing choice” by a museum director, according to the post by the account named Change the Museum.The account has over 53,000 followers and its profile states: “Pressuring US museums to move beyond lip service proclamations by amplifying tales of unchecked racism.” The post shares the observations of an anonymous person who says they work for the Museum of Science and Curiosity.

Chris Gordon, who represents museum employees through the Communications Workers of America Local 9421, said the post is “pretty accurate” to what was reported to the union.

Gordon spoke on behalf of the museum employees and declined to connect The Sacramento Bee with specific staff members. MOSAC’s internal policies do not allow employees to discuss lawful business matters with anyone outside the organization.

If an employee were to discuss matters without the approval of the executive director, Gordon said the policy states that MOSAC will “do legal remedies for unauthorized use or disclosure of confidential information.”

The keffiyeh was originally worn by Bedouins, nomadic people living in Middle Eastern deserts. It would later become synonymous with Palestinian political independence and resistance, NPR reported. A keffiyeh, for Palestinians, is a “symbol of (their) cultural and national identity,” but it can also be worn to “assert a political statement,” according to Vox.

The employee donning their keffiyeh wasn’t wearing the garment as a political statement, Gordon said. They wore their keffiyeh as a cultural item, which the employee explained to management.

“In the workplace, like any other place, should be free of discrimination or retaliation for wearing cultural items,” Gordon said.

A museum representative responded to inquiries about what occurred by providing a statement.

“We are deeply saddened to see anonymous and unfounded allegations on social media about perceived discrimination,” the statement says. “Our highest priority is to provide a safe and respectful environment where all members of the public, as well as employees with widely diverse backgrounds, feel welcome and inspired to learn.”

The museum representative did not elaborate when asked which allegations were “unfounded,” nor did they address specific incidents from the post.

The allegations

The Arab staff member wearing the keffiyeh was first approached by lower management, Gordon said. As it was explained to the union, the keffiyeh offended a member of the museum’s executive branch.

That manager offered the staff member to speak with the director who was offended about their keffiyeh, which he said the staff member agreed to do, but the conversation “never materialized.” The Arab staff member was then told to remove their keffiyeh.

Days later, other employees wore keffiyehs to express solidarity with their coworker and to “stand up for Palestinians who are being dehumanized, starved, and bombed relentlessly,” the post states. Each employee wearing a keffiyeh was later pulled into “private meetings and interrogated.”

They were forced to give “history lessons” to justify their keffiyehs, the post states. These conversations resulted in the “divulging (of employees’) personal connections to genocide and diaspora without warning or a third party present.”

The Instagram post references that employees inquired about other political attire like “climate activism, pride, or ‘I stand with Ukraine’ pins.” The post says that management stated that sort of embellishment would be deemed acceptable on a “case-by-case basis.” Gordon said that staff are still wearing those types of accessories.

A museum representative responded to an inquiry about this discrepancy with a statement that said their “non-discrimination policy” applies to “all forms of political expression and is not on a “case-by-case basis.”

Gordon said that the staff lacks clarity on what attire is unacceptable, unless it’s brought to their attention by management.

“It is very vague on what is political,” Gordon said. “There’s no examples of what’s allowed and what’s not.”

Museum employees, according to the Instagram post, were emailed “without context” a copy of a new policy “prohibiting ‘clothing, apparel, or other visible symbols that make a political statement’” after these incidents.

The museum representative did not clarify when this policy was created or what triggered the email. They did, however, provide the museum’s “Policy on Respectful Work Environment.”

“In order to continue to create a safe, respectful, inclusive and thriving environment that is welcoming for all staff and visitors, staff will not be allowed to wear or display clothing, apparel, or other visible symbols that make a political statement while on MOSAC property,” the policy reads.

Following the conversations with management and the policy email, the same employee who first donned the keffiyeh was “walked out” of the museum after they wore a pink head scarf to work, the Instagram post states. The employee was told they were “making a mockery of the policy.”

Gordon said that the employee was paid for their shift.

The museum representative did not address an inquiry about the pink scarf, but they did defend the organization’s treatment of staff.

“The online allegations of discrimination and resulting commentary are in sharp contrast to who we are as an organization, how we operate, and how we treat our guests and employees,” the statement reads.

Community response

Barring an employee from wearing a keffiyeh puts a restriction on “their freedom and freedom of expression,” said Yassar Dahbour, the chair of the Palestine American League.

Dahbour, who wears a keffiyeh on occasion, said the headdress expresses his heritage. It’s a part of his identity. In the winter, he’ll even wear one to keep warm. To prohibit employees from wearing one does not allow an individual to express themselves, he said.

“Cultural expression should never be equated with political allegiance,” Dahbour said. “It’s especially outrageous at a time with heightened emotions, considering what’s happening in Gaza. Arabs in this country feel that their voices aren’t being heard.”

On Oct. 7, Hamas, a Palestinian militant group, launched an attack on military outposts and communities in southern Israel, resulting in the death of 1,400 Israelis. Since then, Gaza has been repeatedly bombed by the Israeli military. Over 30,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza. That’s an incomplete count, NPR reported, with thousands of people “unaccounted for — either missing under the rubble, buried hastily in side streets or decomposing in areas that can’t be safely reached.”

Additionally, over 13,000 Palestinian children have been killed, which is more than 40% of the population in Gaza, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund USA.

The United Nations said the Israel-Hamas war is causing a “risk of genocide against Palestinian People.”

“People are having a harder time,” said Layli Shirani, a senior civil rights attorney for the Sacramento Valley/Central California office of the Council on American Islamic Relations. “...These events, these losses, this amount of gratuitous violence, in which we have a government that has been complicit, it creates a lot of emotional and cognitive dissonance in American citizens like myself.”

The museum said that with “conflicts happening throughout the world” and “the political season that is upon us” it is important that “we all respect each others’ beliefs and not use the workplace as a platform to promote them.”

“Such messages at work can detract from productivity and our focus on STEM learning, and the goal of this policy is so employees can focus on their job duties and work together as a unified team to accomplish our mission,” the statement reads.

This isn’t the first incident where an individual has been asked to remove their keffiyeh in the state, Layli said. With ongoing violence in Gaza, she said there’s been an uptick of instances of discrimination against Palestinian or Muslim people.

For example, in Vermont, three Palestinian college students were shot, leaving one paralyzed from the waist down. Two of the students were wearing keffiyehs.

“(Arabs) have been the target of many hate crimes,” Dahbour said. “This just adds more to it. For a workplace, if anything, they should be encouraging diversity and inclusion.”