This paper traces the published literature on whiteness in libraries, identifying major themes in that literature, and then highlights the importance of decentering whiteness for moving the information professions forward. Engaging a dialogic ethnographic methodology, this paper was borne of conversations between librarians of color who worked in the same predominantly white library. The salient themes from those dialogues were the many ways that adherence to whiteness in libraries has had deleterious affective and career implications for librarians of color. The authors argue that to decenter whiteness in libraries and other information centers, it is crucial to center the experiences and well-being of librarians of color; diversify the ranks of librarians through bold initiatives, significantly increasing the numbers of librarians of color; and make large-scale incisive structural change at organizational levels. The paper concludes with an invitation for all information professionals to participate in inclusiveness initiatives by moving from microaggressions to microaffections.
Abstract:This paper investigates cultural, social, and technological issues created by the increasingly widespread circulation of digital records documenting the deaths of black Americans in the United States. This research takes as its foundation questions about ritual, embodiment, memorialization, and oblivion in digital spaces. Further, it examines the interplay between the permanence of the digital sphere and the international human rights concept of the “right to be forgotten,” paying particular attention to black and brown bodies as records and as evidence. Methodologically, the work engages critical race theory, performance studies, archival studies, and digital culture studies, asking how existing technologies reflect the wider social world offline, how they create new cultural interactions, and how those new interactions reshape the real (non-virtual) world.
Archives as memory institutions have a collective mandate to document and preserve a national cultural heritage. Recently, American archives and archivists have come under fire for pervasive homogeneity -for privileging, preserving, and reproducing a history that is predominantly white and further silencing the voices and histories of marginalized peoples and communities. This paper argues that as such, archives participate in a continuing amnesty that prevents transitional and restorative justice for black Americans in the United States. Using the history of lynching in America as a backdrop, this article explores the records and counter-narratives archives need to embrace, in order to support truth and reconciliation processes for black Americans in the age of #ArchivesForBlackLives.
2Power concedes nothing without a demand; it never has and never will.-Frederick Douglass
This paper reports on findings from an ongoing study of identity-based social media communities that subvert the architecture of internet and other digital tools to evolve autonomous ("safe") spaces into liberated spaces. The community in question endeavors to provide safe spaces for information and resource sharing. Two compelling trends were found. The first involves entrepreneurship as a feature of liberated spaces. The second involves secret, or "underground" communication hidden in open spaces as a liberatory practice. As part of discussing these trends, the author introduces the idea of liberated spaces and argues for their importance within discussions of the sociocultural aspects of inclusive digital interfaces and digital cultures.
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