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Dear colleagues, I'm writing on behalf of the Diversity Committee to share two new blog posts <https://arlisdivcom.wordpress.com> written by our Chair, Natisha Harper (shared here with Natisha's permission). Natisha addresses anti-Black racism and police brutality with an honest and forthright perspective. Please read these important texts and consider how we can use our positions of privilege to actively combat racism together, *as well as* *continually work to create an organization that avidly supports and empowers our Black peers and community members through sustainable action*. I want to share one of Natisha's posts, titled "To Speak of Racism and Brutality," in its entirety here: To speak of racism and brutality, we must understand that anti-racist commitments necessitate strategies as evolving and exhausting as racist ones. The belief that the Civil Rights movement began in the 1950s and not on the ships that sailed kidnapped Africans to a horrendous fate on American shores condenses racism’s timeline. We must employ the diligence of Charles Houston who in the early 1900s provocatively used Plessy v Ferguson to dismantle the ideology of “separate but equal.” Houston cultivated young, black attorneys and challenged the constitutionality of segregation, an effort that took more than 30 years. He introduced psychologists and photographic evidence that continues to be examined as a measure of the impact of discrimination on people designated to be a permanent underclass. While we post statements, where do we stand in the practice of anti racism? Even our efforts shift the focus to “allies” and “whiteness,” rather than employment, accountability, and hiring/pay equity. Because academic and art libraries mirror the segregative practices deemed unconstitutional more than 50 years ago, how can we in good conscience write a statement for something that we do not strategically practice? Here are direct links to the blog posts: - "To Speak of Racism and Brutality": https://arlisdivcom.wordpress.com/2020/06/05/to-speak-of-racism-and-brutality/ - "The Dance We Do": https://arlisdivcom.wordpress.com/2020/06/05/the-dance-we-do/ In solidarity, Andrew -- *Andrew Wang* [log in to unmask] Pronouns: he/him, they/them Donate to Black Lives Matter here. <https://secure.actblue.com/donate/ms_blm_homepage_2019> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mail submissions to [log in to unmask] For information about joining ARLIS/NA see: http://www.arlisna.org/membership/join-arlisna Send administrative matters (file requests, subscription requests, etc) to [log in to unmask] ARLIS-L Archives and subscription maintenance: http://lsv.arlisna.org Questions may be addressed to list owner (Judy Dyki) at: [log in to unmask] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~