Continue the Discussion
"From Being to Doing: Anti-racism as Action at Work"
Based upon feedback from participants at the recent 2020 ALAO Preconference session, "From Being to Doing: Anti-racism as Action at Work," ALAO is pleased to offer an additional opportunity
for the library community to come together and strategize ways we can develop specific anti-racist actions that we can implement, particularly around professional culture in library workspaces. The presenter, Ione T. Damasco, will be facilitating two online
discussion sessions as follow-up programs to the original preconference event.
These sessions will be structured around a racial caucus/affinity group model. When it comes to anti-racist work, white people and Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) have work
that they need to do separately, and work that must be done together in solidarity. Caucuses provide spaces for people to do some work within their own racial groups.
From
Racial Equity Tools:
"White people and people of color each have work to do separately and together. Caucuses provide spaces for people to work within their own racial/ethnic groups. For white people, a caucus
provides time and space to work explicitly and intentionally on understanding white culture and white privilege and to increase one’s critical analysis around these concepts. A white caucus also puts the onus on white people to teach each other about these
ideas, rather than constantly relying on people of color to teach them. For people of color, a caucus is a place to work with their peers on their experiences of internalized racism, for healing and to work on liberation."
Before you attend the session for your caucus group, please be sure you have watched the recorded presentation: https://youtu.be/xTXlNHmScbQ
Also, please be mindful when you register to be sure you have signed up for the caucus group appropriate to your racial identity. We look forward to continuing the conversation from ALAO, and hope to see you in one of the sessions in December.
|