Why Are You Brown? Racial Microaggressions in Canadian Academic Libraries

Winn, Dee

doi:10.4324/9781003029564-9

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…The results revealed that racial minorities tended to experience assumptions of inferiority at a higher rate than non-minorities. Dee Winn (2022), a Black female librarian, experienced racial and gendered discrimination in Canadian academic libraries. Microaggressions against her increased after she earned a management position.…”

Section: Workplace Experiencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chinese Canadian Librarians

2023

IJoL

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Based on the data from the Visible Minority Librarians of Canada Network (ViMLoC) 2021 Survey, this research examined the leadership roles held by Chinese Canadian librarians and their perceptions of inclusivity of work climate, job satisfaction, and race as a career barrier. Their encounters with racial microaggressions and mentorship experience were also explored. Of the 38 respondents, 79% (n=30) were in non-management positions. 82% (n=31) felt very satisfied or satisfied with their jobs; however, their work climate was not found to be inclusive to all respondents. 87% (n=33) indicated that race was a barrier to their career. Fisher’s exact tests were run to compare the management group and non-management group. The results showed that those in management positions were less satisfied with their jobs and less likely to feel free to express their views openly. They experienced various forms of racial microaggressions. Nearly half of the respondents sought mentoring support and two-thirds of them found mentorship extremely helpful or very helpful. To increase representation in librarianship, library school students and first-generation immigrants of Chinese descent need to be inspired to enter librarianship and reach higher professional goals. Chinese librarians would benefit from leadership programs tailored to minority librarians in Canada.

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Section: Workplace Experiencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chinese Canadian Librarians

2023

IJoL

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“…t is well established that the library is a work environment dominated by White librarians and that visible minority librarians (VML) are less represented in the workplace (Lee & Kumaran, 2014). According to the Canadian 2016 census, there was 11.0% VML compared to 22.2% representation in the general population and growing to 26.5% in the 2021 census (Statistics Canada, 2017, 2022. Understandably, with such small numbers, there was a lack of community for VML at the time, so the Visible Minority Librarians of Canada (ViMLoC) Network was formed through the Canadian Library Association at the end of 2011.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reiterating Visibility: Canadian Librarians’ Experiences of Racial Microaggressions via Findings from a Minority Librarians Network Redux Survey

Li,

Kumaran,

Cho

et al. 2023

IJIDI

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Based on the data from the Visible Minority Librarians of Canada 2021 Redux Survey, this study examines experiences of racial microaggressions among visible minority librarians in Canada. This research fills the gap in the library and information science (LIS) literature regarding racial microaggressions in librarianship in the Canadian context. Of the 148 respondents, 69% (n=102) experienced at least one stated racial microaggression. The result of a Kruskal-Wallis H test revealed a significant association between years of experience as a librarian and a librarian’s overall experiences with microaggressions. A post hoc test based on Bonferroni correction was run, which indicated that librarians with less than five years of work experience encountered microaggressions less frequently compared to those with 11–15 years of experience. For the ten stated types of racial microaggressions, the most frequently reported type was “I was told that people of all racial groups face the same barriers in employment or promotion,” and the least frequently reported type was “A colleague claimed that he/she felt threatened because of my race.” Fisher's exact tests were further performed to examine how the respondents differed in their experiences of each microaggression. The test results revealed that the librarians with different personal attributes (ethnicity, disability status, gender identity, language used) and employment attributes (librarian experience, management position, library type) had significantly different encounters with eight forms of microaggression. Professional library associations and libraries must strengthen education about racial microaggressions and offer support to visible minority librarians when they are confronted with microaggressive behaviours.

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Why Are You Brown? Racial Microaggressions in Canadian Academic Libraries

Cited by 2 publications

References 0 publications

Chinese Canadian Librarians

Chinese Canadian Librarians

Reiterating Visibility: Canadian Librarians’ Experiences of Racial Microaggressions via Findings from a Minority Librarians Network Redux Survey

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