Racial Microaggressions in Academic Libraries: Results of a Survey of Minority and Non-minority Librarians

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Abstract

There is relatively little literature on racism within the profession of academic librarianship. To investigate academic librarians' experiences of racism, this research project uses the framework of racial microaggressions, which are subtle, denigrating messages directed toward people of color. According to the results of an online survey, some librarians of color have had racial microaggressions directed at them by their colleagues. Non-minority librarians, however, are unlikely to recognize these disparaging exchanges.

Introduction

Diversity has received increased attention in the library and information science literature over the past four decades. The articles, books, and conference papers on diversity in librarianship tend to focus on recurring themes such as depictions of racial/ethnic minorities in children's literature; developing and assessing multicultural collections; designing programming for various user populations; or recruiting, mentoring, and retaining a diverse workforce. There is relatively little in the LIS literature that explicitly addresses racism within the profession, however.

This research project is a preliminary attempt to address this gap. It uses the framework of racial microaggressions, which psychologists Sue, Capodilupo, et al. (2007) define as “brief, everyday exchanges that send denigrating messages to people of color because they belong to a racial minority group” (p. 273). The project seeks to answer two questions: 1) Are academic librarians of color experiencing racial microaggressions from their library colleagues? 2) Do white academic librarians observe these derogatory exchanges directed at minority colleagues?

Section snippets

Racism in libraries

Racism and racial discrimination are seldom discussed explicitly in the LIS literature, despite the presence of works chronicling the experiences of minority librarians, such as The Black Librarian in America (Josey, 1970), In Our Own Voices: The Changing Face of Librarianship (Neely & Abif, 1996) and “Tenure and Promotion Experiences of Academic Librarians of Color” (Damasco & Hodges, 2012).

The few LIS articles that do explicitly address racism discuss several themes that are consistent with

Methodology

This research sought to answer the following questions: 1) Are academic librarians of color experiencing racial microaggressions from their library colleagues? 2) Do white academic librarians observe these derogatory exchanges directed at minority colleagues? Based on previous literature, it was hypothesized that minority respondents would be more likely to both experience and observe racial microaggressions. The null hypothesis was that there would be no significant difference in the responses

Results

Of the 185 people who started the survey, 139 participants completed it, making the completion rate 75.1%. All survey questions were optional; therefore, responses for individual items may not always add up to 139.

Data analysis

Separate composite scores—one for the group of experience statements and one for the group of observation statements—were calculated for each participant. An independent samples t-test was used to determine significance. The t-statistic for each set of composite scores was calculated using Excel's Analysis Toolpak; results from both t-tests can be seen in Table 11, Table 12. For the experience statements, the t-statistic was 3.67, the two-tailed t critical value was 2.02, and the p-value was

Discussion

In both the experience and observation sections of the survey, the mean responses from minority participants are consistently higher than the mean responses of non-minority participants, indicating that minority participants both experienced and observed racial microaggressions more often than non-minority respondents. In the third section of the survey, non-minority respondents agreed to a much greater extent than minority respondents with statements about people of their race being in

Conclusion

Previous research has shown that minority students and faculty of color experience a range of racial microaggressions from other students, professors, and administrators on their college and university campuses. To determine whether academic librarians of color face similar experiences, this research project sought to answer the following questions: 1) Are academic librarians of color experiencing racial microaggressions from their library colleagues? 2) Do white academic librarians observe

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