Rijksmuseum Removing Racially Charged Terms From Artworks’ Titles and Descriptions
AMSTERDAM — The Rijksmuseum is in the process of removing language that could be considered offensive from digitized titles and descriptions of some 220,000 artworks in its collection. Words that Europeans once routinely used to describe other cultures or peoples, like “negro,” “Indian” or “dwarf” will be replaced with less racially charged terminology.
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Our main concern is to get rid of the insulting descriptions online,” she said. “Until now we’ve found 132 descriptions with the word ‘negro’ in them, and it’s quite easy to change that. But there are other words like Hottentot — it’s a name given by Dutch people to the Khoi people in South Africa, and a Dutch word that means ‘stutterer.’ It’s very insulting, and it’s really important to change that as soon as possible.’’
She also cited “Mohammedan,’’ an archaic word for a Muslim often used by Westerners, as a term to be revised.
Now, she said, “we’re dealing with the more difficult cases,” including when a work’s creator used an offensive word in its title. The museum will also keep the original titles listed in its online database to provide historical context, Ms. Gosselink said.