While white supremacy is evident in the field of Library and Information Sciences (LIS), neither professional development nor major participatory trends have addressed this in a significant way. It's not that we don't engage in these forms: consider topical library issues like the MacMillan embargo, the response to the article calling for Amazon to replace public libraries, or the movie The Public. LIS loves Twitter and social media. We often respond to external events with righteous indignation, but we, as a field, don’t like to look at ourselves in the mirror.
What does critical whiteness and antiracist engagement in your life look like? Is it sustainable? Who are you accountable to?
This site provides a starting point for such a reflection.
Pushing the Margins: Women of Color and Intersectionality in LIS, eds. Rose L. Chou and Annie Pho (2018)
Where are all the Librarians of Color?: The Experiences of People of Color in Academia, eds. Rebecca Hankins and Miguel Juárez (2016)
Topographies of Whiteness: Mapping Whiteness in Library and Information Science, ed. Gina Schlesselman-Tarango (2017)
"Teaching to Dismantle White Supremacy in Archives", Michelle Caswell (2017)
"Intersectionality at the Reference Desk: Lived Experiences of Women of Color Librarians", Rose L. Chou and Annie Pho in The Feminist Reference Desk (2017)
"Locating the Library in Institutional Oppression", Nina de Jesus (2014)
“A Holistic Approach for Inclusive Librarianship: Decentering Whiteness in Our Profession”, Isabel Espinal, Tonia Sutherland, and Charlotte Roh (2018)
"Soliciting Performance, Hiding Bias: Whiteness and Librarianship", Angela Galvan (2015)
“White Librarianship in Blackface: Diversity Initiatives in LIS”, April Hathcock (2015)
"Trippin’ Over the Color Line: The Invisibility of Race in Library and Information Studies", Todd Honma (2005)
"The Legacy of Lady Bountiful: White Women in the Library", Gina Schlesselman-Tarango (2016)
"How Cute! Race, Gender, and Neutrality in Libraries", Gina Schlesselman-Tarango (2017)
"The Language of Cataloguing: Deconstructing and Decolonizing Systems of Organization in Libraries", Crystal Vaughan (2018)
"Decolonizing the Way Libraries Organize", Hollie White (2018)
Privilege in Libraries activity, adapted from John D. Berry (2004)
The Unbearable Whiteness of Librarianship, Chris Bourg (2014)
Identifying and Dismantling White Supremacy in Archives, Gracen Brilmyer and Michelle Caswell (2016)