[Answerland-summit] FW: seriously....

[Tamara Ottum]

Hi all,
I just received the following email, and wanted to let you know in case this person appears at the session. We may want to assign a couple of moderators?
-Tamara

From: fds <lucky7esu at protonmail.com>
Sent: Monday, October 12, 2020 2:31 PM
To: Tamara Ottum <TamaraOttum at oslmail.osl.state.or.us>
Subject: seriously....

Re:

Disrupting Whiteness & White Supremacy in the Library
Does anyone realize how absolutely RACIST the following blurb is?  Besides insane? If you spent a little more time on 'inclusiveness' (possibly thinking rationally??) i.e. simply doing your jobs as human beings and carrying out the functions of what a public library is supposed to offer the ermmmm public - and less time on singling out imaginary (white) witches behind every tree, you might find that people are....just...people, no matter WHAT color. And that those people respond well to someone who loves their job, loves serving the public, loves helping people find the materials/research they are looking for and IT DOESN'T TAKE A CERTAIN COLOR TO BE AN EXCELLENT EMPLOYEE AND PUBLIC 'SERVANT'. And that also goes for public library employees being preached to to set about eyeballing each other based on a COLOR SCALE (???). Talk about creating a hostile work environment! Total lost cause.
So please explain, is this actually meant to 'educate' people, or is this just another virtue signalling waste of taxpayer money. Right. It's a total waste. I can safely assume (ooooo don't get TRIGGERED!) that anyone who is 'WHITE' and works at a public library is now going to feel singled out (racism!) by this  ̶b̶r̶a̶i̶n̶w̶a̶s̶h̶i̶n̶g̶  'educative' presentation because of their skin 'color' (the classic definition of racism, chew on that one for a while please!). Whoever funded this boondoggle needs to return the money to the taxpayers. I certainly don't want MY hard earned tax dollars going towards racists/racism-pushing in a public library system who 'explore the notion' that anyone who is WHITE is an inherent racist.
First the 'Tranny' story hours, now this hogwash. Grow up! Get real! Treat people as individuals without your OWN RACIST OFF-BASE BIASED MOTE IN YOUR OWN EYE. This is so amazingly cookie cutter stereotypical lockstep offensive RACIST!!!! I will NOT be using the public library system! Abe books can do an amazing job supplying me with reading materials and I won't be supporting a racist public library system! Figure it out!

Elleona Budd<https://sites.google.com/olaweb.org/oregon-reference-summit/home/presenters?authuser=0>, Multnomah County Library

In this presentation, participants will be taking a look at how whiteness and white supremacy have affected our library systems, and what we can do to be more aware of our internalized oppression(s). By analyzing our relationship to whiteness we are better able to understand the historical context behind race/social constructs, implicit biases, and how each of us play into a larger system of institutional/systemic/and structural racism. Once we are able to begin thinking about these, we are able to lessen the emotional burden on our patrons, and our colleagues in coming up with solutions on how to better diversify, and make equitable choices within our library systems. First, we will build some historical knowledge on what it means to be “white” in America, what has been lost by those who choose to pursue it, and how this social construct has led to the birth of racism. Then we will discuss how this influences our implicit biases, how pervasive these ideas are, and how this shows up in the library, and in our patron interactions. Lastly, we will discuss how we can better support one another, and mitigate some of the impacts that pursuing whiteness has on ourselves and our patrons. By looking at whiteness, we take the burden from our Black and Indigenous People of Color-- both our colleagues, and our patrons. It allows us to look rather at our relationships with ourselves, and our history, rather than relying on others sharing their traumas, and harm, as well as othering those who are not among the dominant culture.



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