Texas Digital Library Anti-Racism Resources
The Texas Digital Library stands against racism and with those working to end systemic injustices. We grieve the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and so many others lost to racist and often police-inflicted violence, as well as the disproportionate number of COVID-19 deaths within minoritized communities.
As we think about our own institutional responsibilities to our members, our staff, and our profession, TDL staff have been compiling resources on anti-racist work, particularly those relevant to libraries and archives. We hope that they will help us collectively find ways to interrogate and improve our practices that exclude and minimize Black and Brown communities and that perpetuate unjust systems. We recognize our own institutional shortcomings in this regard, and we want the Black and Brown workers in our member libraries to know that TDL sees you and strives to support you and amplify your voices.
We invite you to share additional resources with us so that we can share them back to our communities. This might include anti-racist work that your library or archives is doing or has done, or books and other media that you have found useful in your work or personal explorations.
Please share your resources, questions, and suggestions by emailing us at info@tdl.org.
TDL has shared mental health resources on our COVID-19 response wiki: https://texasdigitallibrary.atlassian.net/wiki/x/pQAsS. These resources may also applicable to address the impact that collecting the records of abuse and protest can have on our colleagues.
Mental health resources for the Black Community
https://www.sunshinebehavioralhealth.com/mental-health-issues-facing-the-black-community/
From Inside Higher Ed, October 16, 2020: 3 Ways to Support Black Students This Fall
Anti-Racism Resources
Disrupting Whiteness in Libraries and Librarianship: A Reading List https://www.library.wisc.edu/gwslibrarian/bibliographies/disrupting-whiteness-in-libraries/. From their site: This bibliography contains citations and links (when available) to resources focused on race, racism, and disrupting whiteness and white supremacy in libraries.
Archives for Black Lives: https://archivesforblacklives.wordpress.com/ and their principles and bibliography: https://github.com/rappel110/A4BLiP and more resources: https://archivesforblacklives.wordpress.com/resources/
ALA #librariesrespond: http://www.ala.org/advocacy/diversity/libraries-respond
Scaffolded Anti-racist Resources from ALA https://tinyurl.com/yc9xspca \ http://www.ala.org/advocacy/diversity/librariesrespond/black-lives-matter
National Museum of African American History and Culture Releases “Talking About Race” Web Portal: https://nmaahc.si.edu/about/news/national-museum-african-american-history-and-culture-releases-talking-about-race-web
‘Lean Semesters’ A new book about how higher education “reproduces inequity” for Black women
For ethical collecting on the web:
Documenting the Now https://www.docnow.io/. From their site: “Documenting the Now responds to the public's use of social media for chronicling historically significant events as well as demand from scholars, students, and archivists, among others, seeking a user-friendly means of collecting and preserving this type of digital content. Documenting the Now has a strong commitment to prioritizing ethical practices when working with social media content, especially in terms of collection and long-term preservation. This commitment extends to Twitter's notion of honoring user intent and the rights of content creators. The project is a collaborative effort between Shift Design, Inc., the University of Maryland, and the University of Virginia. We are extremely grateful for funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.”
Witness https://library.witness.org/. From their site: “WITNESS helps people use video and technology to protect and defend human rights.” Of special note – see their resources specific to the documentation of protest: https://library.witness.org/product-tag/protests/
Ethical Challenges in Cultural Stewardship: Flair Symposium, 2019, Harry Ransom Center, UT Austin
UCLA’s Center for Critical Internet Inquiry: 15 Books by Black Scholars the Tech Industry Needs to Read Now
Showing up for Racial Justice: The Characteristics of White Supremacy Culture
Safiya Noble’s Algorithms of Oppression, which explores how biased Google search algorithms “privilege whiteness and discriminate against people of color, specifically women of color.” https://nyupress.org/9781479837243/algorithms-of-oppression/
White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Backpack by Peggy McIntosh: http://www.interpretereducation.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/white-privilege-by-Peggy-McIntosh.compressed.pdf
75 things white people can do for racial justice: https://medium.com/equality-includes-you/what-white-people-can-do-for-racial-justice-f2d18b0e0234
Anti-racism resources: https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1BRlF2_zhNe86SGgHa6-VlBO-QgirITwCTugSfKie5Fs/mobilebasic
10 Books About Race to Read Instead of Asking a Person of Color to Explain Things to You: https://www.bustle.com/p/10-books-about-race-to-read-instead-of-asking-a-person-of-color-to-explain-things-to-you-8548796
Association of Black Women Historians: By Remembering Our Sisters, We Challenge Police Violence Against Black Women and Legacies that Eclipse these Injustices.
"The Ethics of Born-Digital Collecting" by the BitCurator Consortium. The recording is available on the BCC website: https://bitcuratorconsortium.org/videos/bitcurator-consortium-roundtable-ethics-born-digital-collecting
Texas After Violence Project: What are Archives of Survival?
Diversity Scholars Network at the National Center for Institutional Diversity: Identifying and Disrupting Deficit Thinking
The Blackivists: Five Tips for Organizers, Protestors, and Anyone Documenting Movements
Digital Library Federation: The Authenticity Project
Jessica Pettitt: Free webinars about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Health Science Libraries
Society of American Archivists: Cultural Diversity Competency course (free; registration required)
Did you know? The "brown bag" session has a racist history of the term. More here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_Paper_Bag_Test#:~:text=The%20Brown%20Paper%20Bag%20Test,of%20a%20brown%20paper%20bag.
Suggestions for white colleagues on how you can support your black colleagues and colleagues of color:
Acknowledge. You may not have the perfect words, but silence causes harm. Acknowledge what’s happening in the world and express care and compassion for your team and colleagues.
Don’t be defensive. Don’t mistake anger and outrage at systemic inequalities and injustices as personal attacks. Demonstrating compassion and empathy for the racist events and experiences of others without putting them in a position of needing to care for your feelings is essential.
Provide support. Be proactive and specific when offering support. Ask if someone might need time off or an extension of deadlines. Don’t make an employee come up with all the solutions; do some of the work in supporting them.
Safe spaces. Check in with individuals in a way where their response to you is optional and on their own terms (maybe email or chat instead of face-to-face). These events impact people differently based on identities and experiences and we need to be conscientious about singling people out in a way that feels unsafe or put on the spot.
Talk less. White voices and perspectives take up a lot of space. If people are sharing, that’s great, you can share too, but focus more on listening and empathizing.
LibGuides
UT Austin LibGuide: Black Voices & Anti-Racist Resources https://guides.lib.utexas.edu/blm
If your organization has an anti-racist libguide to share on this page, please contact Texas Digital Library at info@tdl.org.