Written by amh6890 on Wed, 03/09/2016 – 12:31
Our profession is 87% white, majority heterosexual, majority able-bodied, majority middle-class (Galvan, 2015; Vinopal, 2016). While we have a number of diversity initiatives aimed at preparing people from underrepresented groups to enter into the profession as it is, there is very little to no work being done to help create more inclusive workplaces that foster the long-term development of professionals from marginalized backgrounds (Hathcock, 2015). Essentially, we have been asking underrepresented librarians to assimilate to mainstream values in order to succeed. We need to begin developing programs and initiatives aimed at helping our organizations to identify implicit biases and build more inclusive and welcoming workplaces, which in turn will allow us to build a more inclusive and welcoming profession.
Galvan, A. (2015, Jun. 3). “Soliciting Performance, Hiding Bias: Whiteness and Librarianship,” Angela Galvan, In The Library With The Lead Pipe.
Hathcock, A. (2015, Oct. 7). “White Librarianship in Blackface: Diversity Initiatives in LIS,” In The Library With The Lead Pipe.
Vinopal, J. (2016, Jan. 13). “The Quest for Diversity in Library Staffing: From Awareness to Action,” In The Library With The Lead Pipe.