Advocacy & Public Policy Committee Special News Alert

Statement Against White Appropriation of Black, Indigenous & People of Color's Labor

Advocacy & Public Policy Committee (APPC) News Alerts support the committee's mission to monitor governmental activities and social justice issues affecting the professional interests of ARLIS/NA and to keep our membership informed. Monthly alerts and the occasional special news alert are intended to be conversation starters that help members keep up on and remain alert to public policy issues and new developments. The articles compiled in the News Alerts bring to the forefront recent news from a range of perspectives designed to elicit discussion; they are not compiled to represent the views of ARLIS as an organization or the members of the APPC. Previous issues can be found here.

This Special News Alert accompanies the Diversity & Inclusion Committee's March 4, 2022, Town Hall Discussion on the WOC+Lib Statement Against White Appropriation of Black, Indigenous & People of Color's Labor, available here. The statement and the accompanying town hall ask participants to consider the ongoing effects of white supremacy culture in libraries. The WOC+Lib authors ask us to question how DEI initiatives, built on the labor of BIPOC library workers, often result in privileging professional accolades for the existing white leadership, rather than meaningful structural advancement & cultural inclusion for BIPOC librarians. 

The APPC has collected recent articles and resources here, inviting ARLIS membership to more deeply engage with these issues and consider how they might uplift and support the labor and leadership of BIPOC individuals and communities in the art information professions.

• Strand, Karla J. “Disrupting Whiteness in Libraries and Librarianship: A Reading List.” University of Wisconsin System, 2019.

• Akram, Ayesha Mian, Jane Ku, and Natalie Delia Deckard. “Canadian Universities: 10 Years of Anti-Racist Reports but Little Action.” The Conversation, Feb. 23, 2021.
• American Library Association. “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Scorecard for Library and Information Organizations.” Librarianship.Ca, July 7, 2021.
• Brownlee, Dana. 2020. “Dear White People: Here Are 10 Actions You Can Take To Promote Racial Justice In The Workplace.” Forbes, June 1, 2020. 
• Concordia University Library. “Anti-Black, Anti-Indigenous & Systemic Racism,” 2022.
• Feher, Erin. 2020. “The Things White People Say.” Represent Collaborative, 2020.
• Dowling, Brendan. “‘To Make Meaningful Long-Term Change We Have to Take a Systemic Approach To It’—Ruchika Tulshyan on Creating a More Inclusive Workplace.” Public Libraries Online, March 1, 2022. 
• Glusker, Ann, Celia Emmelhainz, Natalia Estrada, and Bonita Dyess. “‘Viewed as Equals’: The Impacts of Library Organizational Cultures and Management on Library Staff Morale.” Journal of Library Administration. Routledge, February 17, 2022.
• Gooding-Call, Anna. 2021. “A History of Racism in American Public Libraries.” BOOK RIOT, March 8, 2021. 
• Hathcock, April. “Your Learning Hurts.” At The Intersection, January 21, 2020. 
• Hodge, Twanna, and Jamia Williams. “Call to Action.” American Libraries Magazine, January 4, 2021. 
• Hudson, David James. “The Displays: On Anti-Racist Study and Institutional Enclosure.” Up//Root. Accessed March 14, 2022. 
• Hurley, David A., Sarah R. Kostelecky, and Lori Townsend. “Cultural Humility in Libraries.” Reference Services Review. Emerald Publishing Limited, January 1, 2019.
• Jennings, Alyssa, and Kristine Kinzer. “Whiteness from the Top down: Systemic Change as Antiracist Action in LIS.” Reference Services Review. Emerald Publishing Limited, January 1, 2021.
• Mehra, Bharat. “Enough Crocodile Tears! Libraries Moving beyond Performative Antiracist Politics.” The Library Quarterly. The University of Chicago Press, April 2021.
• Nesbeth, Kimberly. 2021. “Moving toward Effective Anti-Racist Policy Analysis.” Policy Options, December 1, 2021. 
• “Ryerson Releases First-Ever Student Diversity Self-ID Report.” Ryerson University, 2021.
• Shearer, Janis J., and Ben B. Chiewphasa. “Radical Re-Imagination: Centering a BIPOC Library Workforce in an Asset-Based Autoethnography.” Reference Services Review. Emerald Publishing Limited, January 1, 2021.
• Shutack, Corinne. “106 Things White People Can Do for Racial Justice.” Equality Includes You, February 19, 2022.
• Sisco, Stephanie, Tasha S. Hart-Mrema, and Eniola Aderibigbe. “Engaging in Race-Conscious Research and Applying Racial Equity in Human Resource Development: A Collective Autoethnography.” Human Resource Development International. Routledge, January 1, 2022.
• Snyder, Stacy. “Research Guides: Equity & Social Justice Advisory Group Resources: Recruiting and Retaining Librarians of Color.” University at Buffalo. Accessed March 14, 2022. 
• Snyder, Stacy. “Research Guides: Equity & Social Justice Advisory Group Resources: Whiteness and Librarianship,” 2022.
• Thambinathan, Vivetha, and Elizabeth Anne Kinsella. “Decolonizing Methodologies in Qualitative Research: Creating Spaces for Transformative Praxis.” International Journal of Qualitative Methods. May 4, 2021. 

This issue of News Alerts was compiled by Freyja Catton, Sarah Hamerman, Rachel Harris, Petra Warren, and Michael Wirtz.