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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif">Dear colleagues,</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif">The link below will direct you to a powerful statement signed by Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) library staff from all over the country, including myself. As we
discussed several times during the EDI Antiracism Toolkit trainings, BIPOC personal experiences are not to be questioned or diluted and they must be taken seriously. They are meant to be reflected upon and they should encourage us to be better and do better.
Our experiences with systemic racism and oppression are not going to be pretty, and our choice of words are not going to be soft, because there is nothing pretty and soft about the challenges BIPOC employees experience in their professional lives. If the awakening
needs to start somewhere, let it be here in our libraries, led by our libraries' leaders. I wish we could set the tone for institutions all over the public and private sectors in our state, but if this is too "ambitious", I hope that we can at least make an
effort to read, understand and support beginning here.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/sOh3CAD2O9S2DvwtGf3_Z" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#0563C1">https://www.wocandlib.org/features/2021/9/3/statement-against-white-appropriation-of-black-indigenous-and-people-of-colors-labor</span></a><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif">Thank you,</span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif">Marci Ramiro-Jenkins</span></b><span style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif"><br>
<i>Oregon Library Association Vice President, 2021-2022</i></span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="mailto:olavp@olaweb.org" target="_blank"><i><span style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif">olavp@olaweb.org</span></i></a><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><img border="0" width="200" height="79" style="width:2.0833in;height:.8229in" id="_x0000_i1025" src="https://docs.google.com/uc?export=download&id=1FCbJeALX2EX3kXuKTdoYy3gPNk4G5LOt&revid=0B2g4l1aLjlC4cWxkUC9NTUNCOUQ1OVFlWHhUOGlqNVFlSnhNPQ"><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif;color:black">The ideas and beliefs expressed in this email are my own</span><o:p></o:p></p>
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