Lowrider Librarian

I don't know about you, but I do not have much throwaway cash to buy music nowadays. Being an music junky, I need to keep my supply of fresh music coming in, so I use the library to keep up with music that is out there. Some tips for looking up music librarie

The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace hit upon almost all the intellectual struggles I have with education as a scholar of color.  This doesn't mean every person of color will relate to this book, and it doesn't mean that White people can't relate to the book either. It is really a book anyone should read, but the themes covered: Alienation from the dominant culture in an educational institution Bifurcating one's life to handle a life in two worlds What does success mean?        are themes that many people of color in academia can relate to specifically.   Robert Peace was a brilliant Science student, who earned a full scholarship to Yale University.  He graduated and seemed to have everything going for him. This book tells the story of his family background, his upbringing, his education, his post-education decisions and his untimely death.  Rob's story is told from his White-upper middle class roommat...

Police Sniper in Ferguson. Libraries should be developing programs to help people deal with the police. There has been a huge increase in police shooting, beatings and other transgressions against citizens. We, as librarians, should recognize the community's need for information on how to stay safe, avoid police confrontation, and how to act when confronted by police. We can form partnerships with legal organizations to provide patrons with basic survival instructions for the world of today. Lets do this! #LibrariesAgainstPoliceBrutality

I was was gazing at some train tags--some nice bombs in the train yard with my littler brother, who happens to be a graffiti artist.  He interpreted the tags and bombs I could not read.  He and I read me all kinds of information from throughout the country, from LA, to Chicago, to Seattle and other places.  Then a train yard cop came and chased us away. Tags in Denmark My brother Jaimie used to be well known throughout San Jo as Daze2000 back in the 80's, then went on to LOVE and other names throughout the years.  He's retired now. For those unfamiliar with tagging--here is a sufficient definition from Wikipedia: Some of the most common styles of graffiti have their own names. A " tag " is the most basic writing of an artist's name, it is simply a  handstyle . A graffiti writer's tag is his or her personalized signature. Tagging is often the example given when opponents of graffiti refer to any acts of handstyle graffiti writing (it is by far the...

As a library worker who is a person of color, I have experienced discrimination in libraries.  From receiving such edifying duties as "sorting the mail," to being judged harshly in comparison to my colleagues who are not people of color, to being bullied so hard and often that I became shaky about myself and my own skills.  I escaped that situation, and landed a job in IT.  It is illustrative of how much I was being bullied and discriminated against at my library job, by the fact that once I was in the IT department, I was valued, told I was doing a great job, told that the feedback on my work was ALWAYS great and other accolades.  I couldn't believe it at first, because I had been so bullied and told that I " was incompentent," and other such disheartening, and in the end, downright mean, insults and other abuses based on my "weak performance."  I have not had a bad review since leaving the library job I once had.  I have continued to teach for that l...

In the US, every piece of information and every bit of knowledge we have has been mediated through a White-Supremacist lens--this is especially the case the more educated an individual is in the US. It usually doesn’t matter what the ethnicity of the creator of this knowledge is, nor what their first language is because they have been educated in a system that is fundamentally White-supremacist. It takes much work and effort to even attempt to break out of this colonial mind set. #InformationLiteracy #education #EthnicStudies #Libraries #Information #knowledge #colonialism #21stCenturyEmpire