American libraries and archives have a long white supremacist and colonialist history, such as excluding Black patrons, and many today collaborate with cops and are used to gather data for ICE. I strongly recommend anyone interested in libraries to read the following:
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“Librarianship at the Crossroads of ICE Surveillance” by Sarah Lamdan
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“Vocational Awe and Librarianship: The Lies We Tell Ourselves” by Fobazi Ettarh
Also, they’re not just being attacked by right-wingers, but by “public-private partnerships” as well.
Defending libraries isn’t wrong, but we shouldn’t whitewash their problematic past and present in the process.
I stopped using reddit as part of the “blackout,” but during that time I realized I didn’t actually miss much of the site. I would like to find alternatives to certain hobby subreddits though (namely for Nuzlocke challenges and worldbuilding).