[Libs-Or] About the Petition to the State Library of Oregon

[Marci Ramiro-Jenkins]

Dear Colleagues,

About a week ago the Oregon Library Association (OLA) distributed the petition below to its membership as part of an advocacy effort for Equity, Diversity Inclusion and Antiracism (EDIA) in libraries. This petition was written by me, edited, and proofread by a group of EDIA supports and BIPOC library workers.

This petition is endorsed by the Oregon Library Association Executive Board and by the OLA Equity Diversity Inclusion and Antiracism Committee. Meetings were conducted to discuss the idea of this petition and a review period to receive feedback from both groups was open for several weeks until the petition passed by vote on February 4th, 2022. This petition was also discussed with a representative from the State Library of Oregon in December 2021. Again, this is an advocacy effort, there are no promises, deals, offers, and/or set outcomes to favor me or anyone else involved with this petition. This is not a petition to "demand" anything, this is a petition to gauge the library community interest and an attempt to bring awareness to the invisible labor imposed on BIPOC.

 There is nothing new or wrong about leaders advocating for themselves and seeking the support of people who are familiar with a cause and with the hard work involved in it, especially when it is done in a non-partisan, spontaneous, unpretentious and respectful way.

So called "allies" must refrain from professing allyship to Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Antiracism, especially if they are not interested in public solidarity and only in performative or optical allyship. Solidarity cannot be reduced to thoughts and good wishes. Real solidarity in EDIA means power given by you to those who have been underserved, underrepresented, misled, mistreated, unseen and unheard.

You can access the petition here -> https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/break-the-library-institutional-reliance-on-unpaid .

*Please note, petition websites often ask for donations to maintain their platform live, no donations are being asked from my part of from the part of the groups involved with this petition.


Thank you so much,
Marci Ramiro-Jenkins

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