[This is an unusually long blog post—sorry.]
BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) are in an abusive relationship with the colonial culture.
We are constantly told to assimilate,
act 'professional,' be perfect, be natural and authentic...I could go on,
won't.
The point is, the abuser—colonial
culture knows that we, BIPOC, can never really assimilate, act ‘professional’,
be perfect, be natural and authentic—and we might as well add smile 24 hours a
day.
The aforementioned ‘professional’ refers
to colonial culturally indoctrinated people demanding BIPOC act, read, write and
be white to be ‘professional.’ All the
while knowing that we cannot—because the colonial culture will not accept us as such--no matter how we behave.
BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People
of Color) are put into a double bind constantly in the US.
This happens from the time we enter elementary school at age 5 into our
professional careers and beyond.
Here is the definition of a double
bind:
A double
bind is a dilemma in communication in which an individual (or group)
receives two or more conflicting messages, with one negating the other. In some
circumstances (particularly families and relationships) this might be
emotionally distressing. This creates a situation in which a successful
response to one message results in a failed response to the other (and vice
versa), so that the person will automatically be wrong regardless of response.
The double bind occurs when the person cannot confront the inherent dilemma,
and therefore can neither resolve it nor opt out of the situation. Source
· (a) “Do X, or I will
punish you”;
· (b) “Do not do X, or I
will punish you.”
Colonial culture
demands that BIPOC be authentic and ‘speak their minds!’ All the while knowing that when BIPOC do
speak their minds that they will be castigated and not be allowed to
participate socially, intellectually or professionally within the system.
A perfect example of this double
binding is the recent OLA Quarterly Journal’s publication of their EDI (Equity, Diversity
and Inclusion) edition which had a racist article as an outro.
Even
the title is offensive:
Yes, but ... One Librarian’s Thoughts About Doing
It Right
By Heather McNeil
Deschutes Public Library
The article lambasts indigenous scholar
Dr. Debbie Reese for their work on critiquing colonial classic children’s
literature and for daring to critique the voting on an award the author had previously
participated in as a judge. McNeil goes
on to assert that Dr. Reese displays a particular ignorance to children’s book
awards, how they work and BIPOC’s place in ALA (and it’s subsidiaries) and in
the awards. McNeil seems to imply the
Dr. Reese cannot opine about the awards and that they should stick with awards
that go to BIPOC. Also, nowhere does McNeil
address Dr. Reese as Dr. Reese. McNeil feels
they have the right to call them Debbie, instead of Dr. Reese. I won’t even go on about that…
To imply that the committee should
consider the ethnicity or diversity of the author or illustrator, and not award
those who have been awarded before, reflects a lack of knowledge about the
criteria for the Newbery and Caldecott. Other awards were created for the
purpose of a specific ethnicity, whereas the Newbery and Caldecott consider the
entire volume of that year’s publications without considering an author’s or
illustrator’s previous awards or ethnicity. Source
This is the double bind world BIPOC
exist within. We are asked to honestly
critique our profession, collection development, racism, sexism and all the
other types of oppression, but when we do—we are punished. Usually this punishment is in public and is
meant to shame the ‘offender.’
That is what this article was—it was
an attack on critiques by BIPOC and instruction on how to ‘do it right’ by a
white woman.
McNeil goes on to also attack Reading
While White. And also instructs other white
people on how to ‘do it right.’ We need our white allies and accomplices to be able critique freely.
We need critiques of work by BIPOC
and people from other oppressed groups!
We need them to be able to speak freely and to be able to critique
without being told how to do so by white people.
I am not white—my experiences and life
are different than yours. My critiques will be different than yours. Where you may see nothing wrong at all, I may see something that can help. White people need to listen to BIPOC to get a fuller picture of how racism works.
Denial is the friend of racism.
These past 9 months I've made it a
point not to argue with white people about what is racist and what is
not.
In fact, I try not to talk to white
people about race whenever I can avoid it.
It is physically, mentally and
spiritually unhealthy for me to try to do so.
However, this article was so
offensive I had to respond and did so by writing
Here is the text of my email to the
list about the article. I had previously
written that it was a great issue and congratulated the authors on work
well-done.
Except for the article
by Heather McNeil, in which they attack indigenous
scholar Dr. Debbie Reese
and other scholars who are doing anti-racist work!
In fact, I find it
deeply offensive to be spoken down to by a white woman
of privilege about how
to do EDI and anti-racist work 'right.'
Or maybe that article is
written for white people,,,?
I'm confused.
Your article belittled
Dr. Reese and others in the field who have moved beyond begging for inclusion
and also moved beyond the corpus of
traditionally white
racist literature for children in the US.
This
literature does much to
reproduce the racism that permeates our country.
We are in dire need of
AUTHENTIC representation and AUTHENTIC critiques of the traditionally white
racist literature that we swim in and were raised
within. The best people to do these critiques are
BIPOC and people from other oppressed groups.
Your article is an attack on these scholars.
Dr. Reese's
groundbreaking work is a harbinger of what is to come.
BIPOC are constantly
told how they should speak, behave, think and believe by white people and those
days are now numbered...
This article is
disturbing, offensive and racist.
It is sad because there
are some other really good articles in this issue.
Max Macias
There was then a flutter of mostly
supportive and some non-supportive emails from librarians from around Oregon.
Many agreed with my critique and went
into great detail about how the article was a shining example of white fragility.
I was the only one who got a warning
though.
This was my response.
I I am currently in the process of scheduling a meeting with
the state librarian to discuss my warning, my complaint above and what I might
be able to do to help OLA with their issues.
There are a few
things left to talk about.
Why no apology from McNeil?
There has been an apology by the OLA President, who was the guest editor of this issue. I could go on about how the editor missed opportunities, but Elaine is a great leader and I will not attack an ally who is owning their mistakes and who lives up to their leadership role fully. OLA are working with Oregon Humanities, but my fear is that while Oregon Humanities has BIPOC who work with them, Oregon Humanities is too white to help us create any real change. OH will moderate a conversation at the upcoming OLA conference—which has the theme of EDI.
Things we can do:
·
Bring Dr.
Reese to keynote an OLA conference. We
should also pay Dr. Reese for a pre-conference workshop on Children’s Literature
for Oregon librarians.
·
Bring Robin
DiAngelo for a White Fragility pre-conference workshop for Oregon librarians. I went to their all-day pre-conference workshop
at NCORE this last year and it was amazingly practical and valuable.
·
Managers and
directors—have your staff read White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo.
·
The State
Library should create a list of culturally appropriate selections to help
librarians who have to watch their budgets closely make culturally appropriate
selections wherever their library may be.
·
Hire Communion Counseling to help BIPOC
librarians and staff recover from the trauma of racism and help white allies
understand racism and it’s impact on BIPOC.
·
Hire more BIPOC
librarians and staff.
·
Have strong
data analytics so that your decisions can use information that can override
biases and other weaknesses of thinking.
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