I was honored to be be selected to speak at San Jose State's Information School last month.
San Jo is my hometown and it was super cool to be able to speak at SJSU!
I hope you enjoy this.
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Please join us!
Greetings Friends!
We hope you and yours are safe and well.
Hinchas Press and Librarians with Spines presents another stimulating session to help you through the pandemic!
Please join us in an engaging conversation about ethnographies, scholarship, identity, books, culture and more! Librarians with Spines editors, Yago Cura and Max Macias, Librarians with Spines Designer/Art Director Autumn Anglin Interview Judy Lee and Melissa Cardenas-Dow about their amazing work.
Judy and Melissa wrote an amazing chapter in Librarians with Spines Vol. 2 called:LWS2 - Remembering Consciousness is Power: Working to Center Academic Library Outreach in the Service of Social Justice, Asian and Pacific Islander American Ethnic Visibility, and Coalition-Building
December 7th, 2020 10am PST on Zoom!
Please register for free here:
Antiracist libraries acknowledge the fallacy of being neutral in the face of racism. Libraries are racist or antiracist. Just like individuals—libraries cannot just say they are ‘not racist.’ Being an antiracist library means that they are actively working to dismantle racism and white supremacy in their libraries and communities. Being antiracist also means they are working to dismantle the oppression of marginalized people.
Allowing bigots to perpetuate fear in the community is antithetical to the antiracist library. The antiracist library is an enemy to bigotry. The antiracist library is constantly reflecting on ‘neutral’ stances when it comes to ALL library policies. Collection development, meeting room policies, website design, user satisfaction analysis, usage metrics and all other library policies need to be antiracist, or they are racist. There is no in between.
So, when the library community says, “Libraries are for all!” We are really saying that they are also open for racists and other bigots. Bigots are NOT welcome in the antiracist library—ever.
Allowing racists, homophobes, and other bigots to meet at the library, or to even distribute ‘information’ by leaving material in the library creates a hostile environment for patrons and workers.
Antiracist libraries say, “Racists and other bigots are not welcome.” This makes clear that the library is not neutral—it is antiracist and it reinforces that the library sides with library workers and patrons who are marginalized by racism and other forms of bigotry.
Library patrons and worker rights to safety and not having to be terrorized by bigots are more important than the claims that hate speech and intimidation are forms of free speech. Antiracist libraries recognize this and are clear about it with their communities.
Libraries must decide if they are racist or antiracist. This disjunction is one of the most important questions of our time and impact ALL areas of the library world. If a library chooses to be antiracist, then it must live up to this ideal make it known that the library is the enemy of bigotry. It is your choice to make. Please choose wisely my Oregon library friends.
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| When | Tue Nov 3, 2020 3pm – 5pm Pacific Time - Los Angeles |
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| When | Thu Nov 5, 2020 3pm – 5pm Pacific Time - Los Angeles |
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There has been an awakening on Instagram this year--a political, social, and historical awakening that is helping to change thinking about race, racism, activism, social justice and more. The beautiful thing about this awakening is that it is being led by BIPOC. One of the most prominent accounts to follow on instagram is @BIPOC_in_LIS! This account brings together so many issues of people who are oppressed--not only in LIS and libraries, but also in education and in general society. Every day I am moved by her posts and also learn from them. @BIPOC_in_LIS can be thought of as a clearinghouse of information related to BIPOC in libraries. @BIPOC_in_LIS goes beyond BIPOC and posts about all sorts of oppressed groups and intersections!
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Greetings!
Librarians with Spines is proud to bring you another outstanding author showcase recording!
Dr. Miguel Juarez, Rebecca Hankins and Jina Duvernay (Librarians with Spines authors) interviewed Anthony Bishop and Kael Moffat (Librarians with Spines authors) on 8/24/2020.
Topics discussed:
Many other LIS topics relevant to students, librarians, library workers and others.
Here is the link!
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| Image source: Millenial Grind |
[Please note--this is not an extensive, comprehensive definition--it is my working definition.]
I'm sure you have probably heard the term antiracist recently. It is a current trend for organizations and businesses to use the term antiracist in their Diversity, Equity and Inclusion documentation and activities.
But what does the term Antiracist really mean?
Not being racist is NOT antiracism. In fact, nobody in the americas can escape being racist in some way.
Being antiracist is actively working toward creating a society that does not view individuals as representations of their entire people.
Being antiracist is being actively engaged in bringing about this change in your organization. We must root out the idea that certain groups of people are superior, by their nature, and force structural change in our workplaces, organizations and society.
Here is what Ibram X. Kendi says about it in his book How to be Antiracist:
"To be antiracist is to think nothing is behaviorally wrong or right -- inferior or superior -- with any of the racial groups. Whenever the antiracist sees individuals behaving positively or negatively, the antiracist sees exactly that: individuals behaving positively or negatively, not representatives of whole races. To be antiracist is to deracialize behavior, to remove the tattooed stereotype from every racialized body. Behavior is something humans do, not races do."
Acknowledge and understand that we exist in a society that has been shaped by racist ideas, policies, practices, laws and organizations. Anyone who has been raised in the Americas has been raised in a world that is based on skin color, and revolves around the concept of whiteness. Whiteness here being, the idea that people from Europe are the most important, most intelligent and highest form of beings on the planet. Therefore, being as white as possible leads to the aforementioned characteristics and importance. The farther away one is from whiteness lends itself to negative characteristics being slavish, inhuman and stupid and being less important among many others.
To acknowledge this, is to become conscious that one must have biases and unconscious beliefs as a result of being raised in the Americas. This must lead to critical self-reflection.
Being aware that one must have racial biases and in effect, be racist to a certain extent, if one were raised in the Americas is the first step to becoming antiracist. One must critically reflect on one's ideas, behavior, body sensations and relationships with BIPOC if one wants to advance towards antiracism. Only when someone becomes conscious of their behavior and ways of thinking, can they then work on fixing that behavior and thought.
Being antiracist also means actively listening to criticism when others call out your racism. This is such an important aspect of being an antiracist!
I would say you can't be an antiracist if you don't do this.
I've had friends call me out and my first bodily feeling was anger, denial and mistrust. But after backing away for a bit to reflect and really listen to the critical words and ideas about my racist behavior and way of thinking, I was able to hear their message of love to me. And it really is a message of love if someone feels the need to call you out on something. If they didn't care about you, then they wouldn't say something. I've been able to see problem areas related to racism in my life because of my loving friends who have helped me see where and what I need to work upon.
Being anti-racist requires that the we act when we see policies, behavior or ideas that racialize behavior. This means that we also analyze the structures that we operate within. The organizations we work, live and die within have been created in a world that is explicitly racist. We have come a long way, but it is time to dismantle racism, the policies that uphold racism, the ideas, the actions and the beliefs that are the infrastructure of racism is what we are going for here.
We can all do our part, whether it is calling out racist behavior in the supermarket, or analyzing deep organizational policy for racialized ideas, concepts, practices and procedures EVERYONE can do something towards making our society an antiracist society instead of a racist society.
"Anti-racism is the active process of identifying and eliminating racism by changing systems, organizational structures, policies and practices and attitudes, so that power is redistributed and shared equitably." - NAC International Perspectives: Women and Global Solidarity
Keeton--Austin History Center's African American Community Archivist and Librarian was instrumental in organizing and launching Growing Your Roots, the four-day statewide African American genealogy conference earlier this year. But in this case, Keeton is all about the present – specifically about African Americans living through this same pandemic that's sending the AAABF to Zoom this year. She believes their stories matter, and she's collecting them for the Black COVID-19 Index, an independent project she initiated to gather stories, images, audio, and video created by African Americans in response to the coronavirus and these times. Source: Austin Chronicle
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| A librarian with a spine hard at work! |
