{"id":3852,"date":"2017-12-18T09:51:11","date_gmt":"2017-12-18T14:51:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bohyunkim.net\/blog\/?p=3852"},"modified":"2017-12-30T00:41:22","modified_gmt":"2017-12-30T05:41:22","slug":"taking-diversity-to-the-next-level","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bohyunkim.net\/blog\/archives\/3852","title":{"rendered":"Taking Diversity to the Next Level"},"content":{"rendered":"

** This post was also published in<\/span> ACRL TechConnect<\/a> on Dec. 18, 2017<\/a>.***<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

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“Building Bridges in a Divisive Climate: Diversity in Libraries, Archives, and Museums,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d panel discussion program held at the University of Rhode Island Libraries on Thursday November 30, 2017.<\/p><\/div>\n

Getting Minorities on Board<\/h3>\n

I recently moderated a panel discussion program titled \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Building Bridges in a Divisive Climate: Diversity in Libraries, Archives, and Museums.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/a>1<\/a><\/sup> Participating in organizing this program was interesting experience. During the whole time, I experienced my perspective constantly shifting back and forth as (i) someone who is a woman of color in the US who experiences and deals with small and large daily acts of discrimination, (ii) an organizer\/moderator trying to get as many people as possible to attend and participate, and (iii) a mid-career librarian who is trying to contribute to the group efforts to find a way to move the diversity agenda forward in a positive and inclusive way in my own institution.<\/p>\n

In the past, I have participated in multiple diversity-themed programs either as a member of the organizing committee or as an attendee and have been excited to see colleagues organize and run such programs. But when asked to write or speak about diversity myself,\u00c2\u00a0I always hesitated and declined. This puzzled me for a long time because I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t quite pinpoint where my own resistance was coming from. I am writing about this now because I think it may shed some light on why it is often difficult to get minorities on board with diversity-related efforts.<\/p>\n

A common issue that many organizers experience is that often these diversity programs draw many allies who are already interested in working on the issue of diversity, equity, and inclusion but not necessarily a lot of those who the organizers consider to be the target audience, namely, minorities. What may be the reason? Perhaps I can find a clue for the answer to this question from my own resistance regarding speaking or writing about diversity, preferring rather to be in the audience with a certain distance or as an organizer helping with logistics behind the scene.<\/p>\n

To be honest, I always harbored a level of suspicion about how much of the sudden interests in diversity is real and how much of it is simply about being on the next hot trend. Trends come and go, but issues lived through many lives of those who belong to various systematically disadvantaged and marginalized groups are not trends. Although I have been always enthusiastic about participating in diversity-focused programs as attendees and was happy to see diversity, equity, and inclusion discussed in articles and talks, I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ready to sell out my lived experience as part of a hot trend, a potential fad.<\/p>\n

To be clear, I am not saying that any of the diversity-related programs or events were asking speakers or authors to be a sell-out. I am only describing how things felt to me and where my own resistance was originating. I have been and am happy to see diversity discussed even as a one-time fad. Better a fad than no discussion at all.<\/p>\n

One may argue that that diversity has been actively discussed for quite some time now. A few years, maybe several, or even more. Some of the prominent efforts to increase diversity in librarianship I know, for example, go as far back as 2007 when Oregon State University Libraries sponsored two scholarships to the Code4Lib<\/a> conference, one for women and the other for minorities, which have continued from then on as the Code4Lib Diversity Scholarship.2<\/a><\/sup> But if one has lived the entire life as a member of a systematically disadvantaged group either as a woman, a person of color, a person of certain sexual orientation, a person of a certain faith, a person with a certain disability, etc., one knows better than expecting some sudden interests in diversity to change the world we live in and most of the people overnight.<\/p>\n

I admit I have been watching the diversity discussion gaining more and more traction in librarianship with growing excitement and concern at the same time. For I felt that all of what is being achieved through so many people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s efforts may get wiped out at any moment. The more momentum it accrues, I worried, the more serious backlash it may come to face. For example, it was openly stated<\/a> that seeking racial\/ethnic diversity is superficial and for appearance\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sake and that those who appear to belong to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Team Diversity\u00e2\u20ac\u009d do not work as hard as those in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Team Mainstream.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0People make this type of statements in order to create and strengthen a negative association between multiple dimensions of diversity that are all non-normative (such as race\/ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, immigration status, disability) and unfavorable value judgements (such as inferior intellectual capacity or poor work ethic).3<\/a><\/sup>\u00c2\u00a0According to this kind of flawed reasoning, a tech company whose entire staff consists of twenty-something white male programmers with a college degree, may well have achieved a high level of diversity because the staff might have potentially (no matter how unlikely) substantial intellectual and personal differences in their thinking, background, and experience, and therefore their clear homogeneity is no real problem. That’s just a matter of trivial \u00e2\u20ac\u0153appearance.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d The motivation behind this kind of intentional misdirection is to derail current efforts towards expanding diversity, equity, and inclusion by taking people’s attention away from the real issue of systematic marginalization in our society. Of course, the ultimate goal of all diversity efforts should be not the mere inclusion of minorities but enabling them to have agency as equal as the agency those privileged already possess. But note that objections are being raised against mere inclusion. Anti-diversity sentiment is real, and people will try to rationalize it in any way they can.<\/p>\n

Then of course, the other source of my inner resistance to speaking or writing about diversity has been the simple fact that thinking about diversity, equity, and inclusion does not take me to a happy place. It reminds me of many bad experiences accumulated over time that I would rather not revisit. This is why I admire those who have spoken and written about their lived experience as a member of a systematically discriminated and marginalized group. Their contribution is a remarkably selfless one.<\/p>\n

I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have a clear answer to how this reflection on my own resistance against actively speaking or writing about diversity will help future organizers. But clearly, being asked to join many times had an effect since I finally did accept the invitation to moderate a panel and wrote this article. So, if you are serious about getting more minorities \u00e2\u20ac\u201c whether in different religions, genders, disabilities, races, etc. \u00e2\u20ac\u201c to speak or write on the issue, then invite them and be ready to do it over and over again even if they decline. Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t expect that they will trust you at the first invitation. Understand that by accepting such an invitation, minorities do risk far more than non-minorities will ever do. The survey<\/a> I ran for the registrants of the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Building Bridges in a Divisive Climate: Diversity in Libraries, Archives, and Museums\u00e2\u20ac\u009d panel discussion program showed several respondents expressing their concern about the backlash at their workplaces that did or may result from participating in diversity efforts as a serious deterrent.4<\/a><\/sup> If we would like to see more minorities participate in diversity efforts, we must create a safe space for everyone and take steps to deal with potential backlash that may ensue afterwards.5<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

A Gentle Intro or a Deep Dive?<\/h3>\n

Another issue that many organizers of diversity-focused events, programs, and initiatives struggle with is two conflicting expectations from their audience. On one hand, there are those who are familiar with diversity, equity, and inclusion issues and want to see how institutions and individuals are going to take their initial efforts to the next level. These people often come from organizations that already implemented certain pro-diversity measures such as search advocates for the hiring process.6<\/a><\/sup> and educational programs that familiarize the staff with the topic of diversity, equity, and inclusion.7<\/a><\/sup> On the other hand, there are still many who are not quite sure what diversity, equity, and inclusion exactly mean in a workplace or in their lives. Those people would continue to benefit from a gentle introduction to things such as privilege, microaggression<\/a>, and unconscious biases.<\/p>\n