My Heroes Call Out

My heroes call out to me from across time

Some call out from hundreds of years ago

I can hear some from just yesterday

My heroes call out to me and make my heart strong

They are our alternative narrative

Calling out our history

Calling out our enemies

Calling out our allies

Calling out our resistance

My heroes call out to me and I listen

They are part of what makes our culture great

They are the true Americans

Calling out hatred makes us stronger

My heroes call out that shit

What if Huey P. Newton hadn't called out?

What if Rosa Parks hadn't called out?

What if John Trudell hadn't not called out?

What if Malcolm X hadn't called out?

What if Audre Lorde hadn't called out?

What if Larry Itliong hadn't called out?

What if we don't call out?

My heroes call out to me


 

Cultural Appropriation is Inappropriate!

There is currently a discussion on the librarian Facebook group ALATT concerning cultural appropriation.

You should hear some of the rationalizations!

Everything from the insulting: "Let me tell you a secret: All Culture is appropriated!"

Then people go on to say, "Yes--like agriculture, rock n roll..." and other absurd comparisons.

This seemingly funny statement, is passive aggressive to the extreme.

These statements belittle people's feelings about their heritage and culture.  This is especially true then aspects of their culture are used in inappropriate manners such as when White people run 'Native American' sweat lodges that allow anyone who pays to come sweat and pray--that is fucking absurd and spits in the face of indigenous tradition!

You may be asking yourself, "Why is Max getting all bent out of shape about this?"

Please watch this video for a better understanding:

I hope more librarians become more empathetic and will listen to people when they say to stop doing things that hurt them, or are offensive or insulting.

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 that says, "Black Lives Matter!"

HKCL Central Library

These might just be words, but given the context--they are not just words of expression.  They are expressing something--the desire to intimidate a segment of our citizenry (The Jew statement), and the desire to mitigate the murder of black people almost daily, by stating "All lives matter!"  in response to the plea for help to end this violence against Black people.

POC encounter micro and macro-aggressions daily.  I often wonder if it is a battle worth fighting.  Daily, I begin to ponder the virtues of separatism.  My kind of separatism would be the kind where people of all walks of life could live together in good human relations.  The other 'people' could live somewhere else--those other people would be the racists.  I know this is an overly simplified idea, but I can't see how it isn't more valid than what POC have today.

POC in the US today:

• Are imprisoned a greater rates than White people.
• Are murdered by law enforcement and vigilantes.
• Have to worry about sending their kids out of the house because of racist violence.
• Will be persecuted as criminal in preschools.
• Will be put into a pipeline to prison program by virtue of their skin color.
• Live under a state of siege.

EVERY time I go to the store, or go to work, or anyplace for that matter-- I worry about if I will get pulled over and what will happen.

This is NOT simply a matter of "Free-Speech!"

This is about how POC are allowed to live under such terror daily.

Who allows it?

You, me, anyone who is not fighting against this terrorism.... If you are neutral--then you are supporting this terrorism.  It is NOT something one can be neutral about.

I get it--the US is a society that is built upon unrepentant genocide, land-theft and slavery.  It is something we all grew up knowing.

And WE cannot continue to be okay with that.

This is part of the history that some people want covered up.

We can't cover this up.  We can't repress this.

Just like a drug addict, or someone who is mentally ill and in denial--repression will create pathologies.  Maybe like people shooting one another for no real reason on a regular basis...

Librarians have a place in this fight.

We have a place because we work in an industry that is a purveyor of Whiteness--Whiteness is the notion that White people and White Culture are more important than ANYTHING or ANYONE else--AND we can do something about it.

We can balance out our collections so that don't just have books by rapists  who are forefathers of freedom, but from people who are genuinely concerned with freedom and liberty.  Not just the liberty to kill and steal from those who are weaker than us, but the true liberty of good human relations without violence.

Maybe you don't see this discussion from my point of view, or maybe you can't.

Maybe I'm too crude a writer to get the message across--so I will try to put it simply.

Please empathize with POC in the US.  Empathize with our pain, with the terror we are forced to live within daily, with the fear of incarceration and becoming a political prisoner or a prisoner/worker slave or of getting murdered by the police.  Empathize with the fear we have when we have send our kids out into a world that fundamentally rejects them.

Please try to understand we don't want to hurt you or kick you out of our lands.

But we do want you to leave if you are a racists.

Librarians can offer antifa programming, cultural awareness, truth and reconciliation talks (after proper development), anti-Whiteness programming and other such events.  Our collections can be enhanced with Anti-Racist and Anti-Whiteness purchases.  Our hiring can be more diverse and inclusive of different pathways to librarianship.

Please don't let people come into our library space--sometimes one of the only sanctuaries from this terror--and ruin it by making racist statements, having hate meetings and requesting the library purchase material that espouses a philosophy that I be 'gotten rid or....'

Some Racist Librarian Bullshit...

This is in response to David Lee King's blog post on:

http://www.davidleeking.com/ugly-beliefs-free-speech-and-libraries/  

What kind of drivel is this?

And look at the photo--a photo of a white dude with duct tape on his mouth!!!!

Poor White Dude who can't spout his hate!

Fuck David Lee King! " We stand for the principle that government and public information shouldn’t depend on the whims of the moment.” Quote from Joseph Jane's article that D quoted. It isn't a fucking 'whim' you asshole--maybe to SOME White people Genocide is a whim, the desire for genocide is a whim, or maybe it is that the potential victims are stating a whim that they don't like to be threatened. It isn't neutral if you are backing the ONE side--the white side. Fuck your founding fathers and their rapist bullshit. Fuck Nazi 'free speech.' It sure would be nice if people like mr. King would fight for POC's rights just as much as he is fighting for Nazi rights.

#UnconsciousRacism

#FuckYouAndYourSocialMediaSavvyAsshole

#EthnicStudies + LIS education = Change

We need critical information studies now!

EthnicStudies Readings + LIS education = some good shit. 

Are there any Ethnic-studies based LIS classes in the US? 

I draw much of my inspiration and my thinking is different than most of my colleagues because of my exposure to writers like #Acuña #Fanon#Newton #Baldwin #Peltier #Churchill #RobertFWilliams #MalcolmX#SubcomandanteMarcos #bellhooks and others...

We need something like this to help create change in LIS.

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 

Whiteness in Libraries

Whiteness in US Libraries

[Note--this is a blog post.  These ideas can and will be further developed.  These ideas are sketches of what I am thinking at the moment.  Feedback is encouraged and welcome.]

US schools and libraries serve as points of diffusion for Whiteness.  

Whiteness, as used in this post is defined as the concept that European people and European culture are more important than other people and other cultures.  

Whiteness is purveyed uncritically in libraries.  This shucking of Whiteness is done under the guise of objectivity, of adhering the the 'marketplace' of ideas.  But this so-called neutrality is really an adherence and capitulation to the Whiteness paradigm.  

Children of color hear the message of Whiteness--"European people and European culture are more important than other people and other cultures.  

Children of color live in a world of discrimination and bias in US schools.  

Some think US culture is not European. But US culture is derived from European culture and is fundamentally White-supremacist. 

I don't say this lightly.  Whiteness is embedded in our culture.  From the shapes of the buildings, to the hierarchies of the library staff and administration.  This is especially true in the American Library world. Ethnic categories, demeaning classifications, cataloging systems with names like the Anglo American Cataloging Rules, and staff who (too often) don't look like the people who live in the neighborhood.  Microagressions, discrimination, hiring bias and collections centered around Whiteness all are outcomes of the ubiquitousness of  this paradigm in our libraries.  

Engravings on Multnomah Co. Library Central Building Photo by Ismoon Maria Hunter-Morton.

Many people will now be thinking that I am saying all White people are racist, or that all White people are bad, or some such nonsense.  That is not what  I intend to say.  I'm saying that the idea of Whiteness, as defined above, is what our country was founded upon. 

European immigrants live on stolen indigenous land.

These immigrants and their descendants committed genocide against Indigenous peoples throughout the Americas.

The wealth of the Americas, in large part, was created by slave labor. This slave labor was both African and Indigenous.  

Whiteness says that this is okay, that this is correct and that it is justified. Those who adhere to Whiteness also believe in these fundamental principles.  Mostly, the information found in libraries says it is okay, natural and normal, or does not bother to address these issues...

Engravings on Multnomah Co. Library Central Building.  Photo by Ismoon Maria Hunter-Morton.

The diffusion model works something like this:

Whiteness, brought from Europe has been part of US Educational system from the beginning.

Children are inculcated with #Whiteness via books, lectures and the culture of US schools.

Some children become authors, scientists and other types of academics.  They produce information and knowledge in the form of books and other types of media.

Racist mainstream 'Intellectual' book 

The knowledge, which too many authors, scientists and academics create is fundamentally flawed with Whiteness embedded within. Even if the creators of this knowledge are people of color. They are working with tainted information that has not been fully analyzed from a cultural perspective. This lends itself to embedding Whiteness in all new knowledge created from this information. This is why we have seen no real advancements, even with the educated people of color. They exist within and are heavily influenced by Whiteness. Libraries serve as key distribution points for culturally biased information.

One example is historic documentation Thomas Jefferson, as a land-owner and slaveholder, is understood to be a rapist. He took advantage of his position and raped his slaves, yet he is still hailed as a hero still. This is Whiteness. 

Thomas Jefferson (Slave Rapist) bust in the Library of Congress

Technology in libraries needs to be reexamined with a critical eye. Embedded Whiteness prevails. Metadata, algorithms and other location tools are just as infected with Whiteness as the rest of the library world and larger American Educational culture. This issue is particularly pertinent as we transition into a more digital information world.  

These people are probably still in control of your library technology.

The idea that White people, European Americans are more important, smarter, better, stronger, more worthy, and that their culture is superior is embedded in most of the books in US libraries. People check out these books and are then influenced by these books. And since most of these books have the message of Whiteness uncritically embedded in them, the reader is most often influenced by Whiteness without giving it the critical eye it deserves.

This is how libraries serve as points of diffusion for Whiteness paradigm.

Colonialism and Whiteness: a Talk

This talk was given on 4/20/2016 at PCC for Whiteness History Month at PCC.

It is based on my trilogy of blog posts on the history of Whiteness in the US.


Here are links to the posts:

Colonialism and Whiteness: A Legacy of Brutality

http://lowriderlibrarian.blogspot.com/2016/02/colonialism-and-whiteness-legacy-of.html

Slavery (a Tool of Colonialism) and Whiteness: a Legacy of Brutality  

http://lowriderlibrarian.blogspot.com/2016/03/slavery-tool-of-colonialism-and.html  

Embedded #Whiteness: A Legacy of Brutality 

http://lowriderlibrarian.blogspot.com/2016/04/embedded-whiteness-legacy-of-brutality.html  

Here is the talk:

I would love to know what you think about the talk, the concepts and the imagery.

Please comment.

Thank you, 

Max 

Whiteness is Identity Jacking/Identity Jacking is Whiteness

Whiteness tells us our story through the lens of our oppressor?

What does this do to truth, validity, information and the construction of knowledge?

Embedded #Whiteness: A Legacy of Brutality

[This is the last installment of a three part series on Whiteness.]

  Whiteness is a concept that describes the cultural, lingual, institutional beliefs, practices and behavior that maintains access to power and reinforces power for White people and people of lighter skin tones.  
This colonial system was created for and by Europeans for the benefit of Europeans. Everything was in relation to the European--this is a hallmark of the concept of Whiteness--that everything is judged in relation to Whiteness and not something else.  

Whiteness is embedded in the fabric of everyday life in the US

The use of patrols to capture runaway slaves was one of the precursors of formal police forces, especially in the South.

Slave patrols were organized groups of three to six white men who enforced discipline upon black slaves during the antebellum U.S. southern states.

http://plsonline.eku.edu/insidelook/brief-history-slavery-and-origins-american-policing

The police are still seen by many people to be racial enforcers, they are seen as the colonial strong arm in black and brown neighborhoods--they are most often occupiers--not public servants.

Mistreatment, beatings, rapes, robbing, bribe demands and other behavior is expected by many communities of color when they encounter the police.

I worry that I will be pulled over and shot by a police officer on my daily commute far more than

Famous image of African American flood victims lined up to get food & clothing fr. Red Cross relief station in front of billboard ironically extolling WORLD'S HIGHEST STANDARD OF LIVING/ THERE'S NO WAY LIKE THE AMERICAN WAY. Location: Louisville, KY, US Date taken: February 1937 Photographer: Margaret Bourke-White

African Americans have never been accepted as White.  

They  have been ostracized from the American Way of life for the most part.  

They are colonized subjects within the colony.  

Segregation, lack of educational resources, lack of opportunities are all hallmarks of being Black  in the US.

It behooves those who don’t want these hallmarks to adhere to Whiteness as much as possible.  We see this exemplified in too many POC who have achieved ‘success’ in this society.

 

This is a screenshot I took from an article on Slate.

What is the implicit message here?

How does it relate to the previous image?

South Bronx 1970’s/slaves quarters,  Colbert Co. AL

Things don’t change much in a society based on Whiteness.

Please think about these images for a moment.

Baltimore or
Saskatoon

Contemporary racial disparity based on Whiteness in  Baltimore on the left.

Contemporary racial disparity based on Whiteness in Saskatoon on the right.

Please think about these images for a moment.

 

This is how Black and brown kids are often treated at school.

Our kids are ‘over disciplined’ from an early age--sometimes from preschool on…

http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2014/03/21/292456211/black-preschoolers-far-more-likely-to-be-suspended

Even after Brown Versus Education schools are still segregated.

Black and Brown schools are patrolled by police and brutality occurs often to students of color.

This can take the form of detentions, or suspensions or other academic marginalization ‘consequences.’

Or it can take the form of violence.  As in the case above (Spring Valley HS in SC), or as seen in several other recent videos of police officers brutalizing students of color.  

This cop was fired. 

Schools should be a place where everyone is welcome.

Schools should and must be supportive of people.

Schools should be accepting, edifying and challenging for ALL students.

Schools need to have disciplinary actions that are non-violent.

Schools should not hold up Whiteness as an ideal of education.

Adheres to and believes in Whiteness.

One other thing about Whiteness is that it can be adhered to by non-white people.  

Many people of color and those who purport to want to help people of color adhere to the system of Whiteness that the educational system upholds, supports and requires of POC who want to succeed.  

I say that this is why we have made little to no progress in equity, diversity and inclusion in our school systems and our society. 

Embedded Whiteness

The brutalities that were used to enforce the racial hierarchies of yesterday are still with us today.They used to come in the form of lynchings--back in the days of Jim Crow....

Now they come in the forms of Police shootings of unarmed African Americans and Latinos in far greater numbers than Whites.  

They come in vigilante shootings of unarmed African Americans, for example--the shooting of Trayvon Martin.

 So, what does this have to do with Education? 

Please think about these questions:

·       How do you see Whiteness relating to Education?

·       Can you think of some examples of Whiteness in Education that you have seen?

·       How can we mitigate Whiteness in Education?

·       Should we mitigate Whiteness in Education?

·       How does Whiteness impact Educational Technology?

·       Does Whiteness come in between the truth and investigators?