Reminder: Labeling Books as "Diverse" Reinforces White Supremacy via Alex Brown and Lee and Low

I am working on some updates to my portion of the Anti-Racist program Robin and I offer in order to make sure we are addressing our most common questions. One of the questions we get over and over [and over] again from well-meaning, mostly white library workers is, "Why can't we label the books with the author's identity to make it easier for people to find them?" We have many different ways we answer this question, but we also have colleagues we trust who we like to point you to for help. 

One of my favorite resources is this speech by Stephen Graham Jones entitled, "Being Indian is Not a Superpower." It's in my slides, but I haven't posed it in a while here on the blog. But since I was also using today to re-up another older post I often link to, I thought revisiting it here today was a good reminder.

However, the main reason for today's post is because this question, "Why can't we label the books with the author's identity to make it easier for people to find them? " was circulating yet again. Thankfully, someone reposted something I often refer to as well, a guest post by my colleague Alex Brown via Lee and Low entitled,  "Labeling Books as "Diverse" Reinforces White Supremacy."

First some background. Publisher Lee and Low has been on the forefront of confronting White Supremacy in publishing. Click here to see more posts by me about their work. And also click here for their blog. As a reviewer, I participate in their industry diversity survey every year as well. Both publications I work for [Booklist and Library Journal] are willing participants and require we reply. 

Back to this particular post. Alex is a person I turn to for answers to some of the most difficult questions in  my work centering anti-racism in RA Service. They are not only smart, thoughtful, and a good writer, but they also serve teens through a school library, so their perspective allows me to cast a wider net on service experiences from my mostly Adult Public Library lens. 

Below is the link and intro to that post, with a final comment from me after the excerpt. This is one you need to bookmark as an evergreen reminder.

Click here to read the full essay

DIVERSITY, RACE, AND REPRESENTATION, GUEST BLOGGER POST
HOW LABELING BOOKS AS “DIVERSE” REINFORCES WHITE SUPREMACY

In this guest post, librarian Alexandria Brown discusses the issues with labeling books as “diverse” and other ways we can build and promote a more equitable library collection. 

Every so often, the question of whether or not to add a spine label designating “diverse” books makes the rounds. Many condemn the practice, but lots of library staff persist in labeling. Like most diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) issues in librarianship, many of my colleagues are still operating within a white (and cisgender and heterosexual) supremacist framework. It is an understandable predicament to be in – after all, many library degree programs are not as strong as they could be in advocating for DEI and decolonization. So let’s examine the question of diversity labeling and see if we can’t get to a better understanding of why it’s problematic.

Click here to read the entire guest post. 

Before I leave you today, please note, both resources I am using here are by people from marginalized perspectives. Robin and I also try to center our marginalization [black, her, Jewish, me] in our responses to any of these questions as well  because it is important to listen to the people who live these experiences. This might sound like common sense, but the number of people who argue with us and Alex, telling us why we are wrong, well they are too many to count. If your instinct is to argue with any of us about how to best center anti-racism in your work with leisure readers, please take a step back and consider, are you allowing systemic oppression and how our world centers whiteness to cloud your response?

By the way, you can identify with a marginalized perspective and still be a victim to this. I often share my experience in English classes and having to go home and learn more about Jesus in order to understand the conversation. It took until college when I enrolled in a Jewish American Literature class when I realized how marginalized I was. And also, it allowed me to argue back in normal English classes to add my non Christian perspective to our discussions with confidence. This was a transformative experience in my journey to understand how harmful it is that our society centers a white, straight, Christian experiences as a default. 

But that level of detail is starting to move into the training Robin and I offer. Which reminds me, for those who are still reading this post, here is a teaser-- Robin and I will have some news soon about how you can join us on a year long conversation about these issue throughout 2024.