Stop AAPI Hate!
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When Someone Claims The Right to Terrorize their Fellow Citizens
There is a split in libraries. The split is on the question if Nazis and other racists can use their rights to terrorize their fellow citizens and still be welcome in our libraries. Racist 'free speech' is a tradition that has been used to create an atmosphere of hate a violence against POC in the US. Of course this is not how this discussion is framed, nor how it is approached in the library community--which is immersed in a culture of Whiteness. It is described as a matter of "Free Speech." I would agree, but I would clarify this by stating it is a matter of White people's right to terrorize their fellow citizens by using speech which creates an environment of terror for POC in the US. "Jews will NOT replace us!" is terrifying enough for me to hear, but then I think of the utter terror and alarm it must be raising in my Jewish friends--I share their terror. "All lives matter!" Yelled at my Black friends who are holding a sign...
#Terrorism, #Libraries and #POC in the US
Libraries and the Fight Against Terrorism Libraries can and should be an important weapon against terrorism. "Librarians are soldiers in the war against ignorance!" Racism is fundamentally ignorance which leads to hate. This is a call out to all librarians to help end the ongoing terrorism against people of color in the US. People of color in the US live under a state of domestic terrorism. This terrorism is conducted via many official channels. The education system, law enforcement, healthcare, judicial system and other aspects of the state have been and are used against people of color in the US. The terrorism we experience on a daily basis meets ALL the criteria below: "Domestic terrorism" means activities with the following three characteristics: Involve acts dangerous to human life that violate federal or state law; Appear intended (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) to influence the policy of a government by ...
