Breaking Below the Surface of Racism, Whiteness, and Implicit Bias - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Breaking Below the Surface of Racism, Whiteness, and Implicit Bias April M. Hathcock, JD, LLM, MLIS ACLCP Spring 2016 @AprilHathcock

Todd and Jamilah

WHITENESS

Niceness, politeness vs. Overt racist acts, racial slurs “Whiteness-berg” Microaggressions Implicit bias Image Credit: Uwe Kils, photomontage, Wikipedia, CC BY- SA

Whiteness = Colorblindness, Neutrality

Image Credit: “Iceland” by Kamil Porembiński via Flickr, CC BY-SA

“To acknowledge Whiteness is not to perpetuate it, but it is the first step in uprooting it.” ~Gusa (2010)

Name Question Challenge Call instances of whiteness out for what they are. Identify the underlying assumptions or stereotypes at play. Reframe thinking and develop alternative ways of acting.

Antiracist Practice You have a new colleague in the library names Xieyun Huang. You’re having a lot of trouble remembering and pronouncing her name and so have asked her if she has a “more American” nickname you can use, like Susan or Joan.

Antiracist Practice While searching for a resource near the reference desk, you overhear a faculty member ask your African-American colleague, who is staffing the reference desk, if your colleague could please “go get a real librarian” to help the faculty member with research. When your colleague insists that he is a real librarian, the faculty member still insists on working with someone who “looks like they know what they’re doing.”

Antiracist Practice You and your Latinx colleague are standing outside the restrooms in the library, when a student directly approaches your colleague and says, “The restroom is out of toilet paper. You better go in and refill it.” When your colleague responds that they will let facilities know, the student replies, “Oh, I thought you worked for facilities.”

Thanks! Questions?