To ALA or Not?

Someone on a list I'm on recently posted that they were hesitant to renew their ALA membership because of the recent ALA press release scandal.  You can read about it on Librarian in Black here: http://librarianinblack.net/librarianinblack/alastatements/. The person who posted asked the group what they thought about renewing their memberships.  Below is my response.

I'm not a member of the ALA, but I work with them on issues concerning Equity, Diversity and Inclusion.  I'm on the ALA EDI implementation Work Group and I try to represent marginalized people who can't afford membership or conference participation (among other things).  

I would say that ALA has been made progress due in large part to work by people like Melissa Cardenas-Dow, Trevor Dawes, Martin Garner and many others who are strongly committed to EDI in ALA and in libraries in general. 

I would also say that the constituency should scrutinize candidate's actual work on EDI.

In my blog post on the 2015 ALA election I explicitly state that there was only one real candidate who seemed to address EDI.   

https://lowriderlibrarian.blogspot.com/2015/03/ala-election-candidate-analysis-from.html

That candidate was JP Porcaro...

It seems that, up until recently, the ALA has not really taken this issue seriously. They have focused on programs that teach marginalized people how to operate in oppressive systems without creating any real change. Instead, there should be a focus on changing the structural barriers and structural racism that exist within the organization. This kind of structural racism has caused the ALA to make little to no progress in the area of ethnic representation in the library field.  Look here for some information on this:  https://lowriderlibrarian.blogspot.com/2014/09/little-to-no-progress-in-ethnic.html .

ALA is too expensive, is too financially restrictive and is too exclusive for many librarians to participate in a genuine and engaged manner. ALA is making slow progress in this area, but it is making progress. I would say that ALA is listening and things are changing slowly.  

Some things that would help ALA create change:

• Strong leadership who emphasize the importance of, and the dedication to ED,I as an organization
• Putting more money toward EDI and making it a real priority in the organization
• A more diverse (in all areas) membership to increase new ideas and development of the organization
• Structural change that makes the organization more accessible to people who can't go to conferences and who can't pay full membership dues 
• More discussion before making press statements that seem to support fascism
• A more meaningful relationship with membership. 
• It should be something more than just getting a copy of American Libraries in the mail every so often
• Less of a European hierarchical infrastructure and more of a participatory flat infrastructure 

ALA  and libraries in general seem to be a very classist organizations with the majority of librarians who are 2nd generation of deeper middle class. This impacts work in areas such as community engagement, programming and staff relations. This also impacts areas like LIS research--where there is nary a study on White-supremacy and Information in the US; where the area of Culture and Information Literacy has been hardly touched.  

I am hopeful ALA is changing in the areas mentioned above. 

I'm tired, but there is still a long way to go!

Respectfully, 

Max Macias 

Ethnic Leaders Must Create Change

The reason there has been no real advancement in Education for ethnically diverse people is because leaders do NOT create change within a system that is White-Supremacist, oppressive and hostile to non-European Americans.

What our leadership programs do, is to show students how to 'succeed' in the present White-Supremacist educational system.  By success, they really mean that students can take a place within this oppressive system and provide continuity in a system of violence, intimidation and murder.  

So, the cream of the crop, our best of the best are MOST OFTEN turned into overseers, who continue on and legitimize the present system.  These students legitimize it by taking their place in the system and telling other students that they too can 'succeed,' but they must act 'professional,' not be radical and keep telling others that, "change takes time!"  

How much time is it going to take?:

For them to stop killing our kids, no matter what type of degree we or they have?

For them to treat us like human beings and allow us to grow?

For us to realize that the present system is based on UNREPENTANT Genocide, Land-theft and Slavery AND that this system is NOT sustainable.

We need change and we need it now--not in some distant time.

If we continue on merely taking our place within a system that creates oppression, depression, that allows for the murder of our children, that allows for our children to be locked up in prison and disenfranchised,  that MAINTAINS the current system, then our grandchildren will be asking the same questions that are asked today.

How could this happen?

Why haven't things changed?

What are we going to do?

There is something we can do right now--we can NOT become like the oppressor, not take our place (as instructed to do so)in the grand killing machine that is the US, and to train students to create change themselves.

Change won't happen by conducting research that will please the dominant culture, but by creating real change via direct action and REAL discussion.  How much research do you need to know you live in a system that is horribly sick with issues it has not confronted and solved?

We don't need weak leaders. 

There are so very few of us in higher education, we can't let our 'successes' continue on in this manner.

We need real change and we need it now!