Nonprofit leaders often dread anti-racism work. It's a two-day retreat, a book club, a list of behavioral expectations — and it leaves us feeling raw, anxious, or stuck in our heads. What if that's not a personal failing, but a process problem? In this episode, Hillary Frances makes the case that anti-racism work gets derailed when we treat it as a problem to solve rather than a future to imagine. She shares what she’s learning about collective liberation — an approach to justice work defined not by what it dismantles, but by what it dares to envision. Then she sits down with Ben Garcia, Executive Director of the American LGBTQ+ Museum in New York City, who has spent 25 years building cultures of equity across museums of every size — and who brings both a practitioner's rigor and a science fiction reader's imagination to the work. Why intellectual self-policing makes anti-racism harder, not easier — and what has to shiftThe role of spirit and imagination in moving beyond anxietyHow Ben has led equity work with teams of 8, 60, and 250 — and what changes at each scaleThe specific question Ben asked his startup team that seeded their entire workplace cultureGuest: Ben Garcia (he/him) has worked for 20 years to help museums become places of welcome and belonging for all people. He started as a gallery guide and educator, moved on to exhibition development, and then served in middle- and upper-management administrative roles, before joining the American LGBTQ+ Museum as Executive Director. He has presented and published regularly on creating structural equity in museums through transparency, accountability, fair labor practices, and by adding missing voices and perspectives. Prior to joining the American LGBTQ+ Museum, Ben worked in various roles as an educator and administrator at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Skirball Cultural Center, and Hearst Museum of Anthropology. He then served as Deputy Director of the Museum of Us, and as Deputy Executive Director and Chief Learning Officer at the Ohio History Connection. He is versed in museum interpretation, operations, management, and fundraising. Ben led initiatives to return Indigenous ancestral human remains and belongings in San Diego and Ohio. He serves as a board member at Equality Ohio, working to get the Ohio Fairness Act passed. Ben graduated from the University of Massachusetts at Boston with a B.A. in Art and from Bank Street College of Education with an M.S. Ed. In Museum Leadership. He has shared his life since 1999 with his husband, Scott Fabianek, a UX/UI Designer and comic book artist. Ben is the child of a journalist and visual artist. He has six siblings, thirteen nieces and nephews, and a great-niece and nephew (as well as many beloved in-laws). He is a proud fantasy and science fiction nerd. Mentioned: brown, a. m. (2019). Pleasure activism: The politics of feeling good. AK Press. Get in touch
