[Michlib-l] Compiled Responses Regarding African American Stickers

Mon Jun 6 10:05:18 EDT 2022

Hi all, 

I decided to remove the African American stickers from my J collection. 

Below are the compiled responses for putting African American stickers on kids books and thank you to all who replied: 

Thank you for asking. I feel very strongly that highlighting materials in this way is "othering" the people contained within the book - it can feel alienating or treats an experience as different from others (i.e. the "mainstream" experience). It does also feel like a performative type of allyship rather than a move promoting inclusion; if a collection is truly inclusive and diverse, it shouldn't be very hard to locate books about Black individuals, Latine individuals, Muslim individuals, Asian individuals, people who are disabled, LGBTQ+ folks, etc. Furthermore, given the increase in targeted book challenges, it might feel (especially for you!) as if you were putting targets on specific books for patrons to challenge. At our library, we use genre stickers on chapter books and holiday stickers in our picture book collection - we are working on getting stickers for every holiday represented. The only reason we do this is because they are interfiled within collections and some patrons prefer to browse. 

I wouldn't, unless you're going to put "white" stickers on the white-authored books (I wouldn't do that either, just making a point). I worry it could come across as othering. I understand your intentions are good, and would be interested in what you hear from everyone. 

My understanding has always been that putting stickers, etc. on to items to designate them as representative of a minority community is not the best practice because it inherently others that group. I guess I've heard this more about LGBT materials because that could be potentially harmful for young readers who don't feel safe reading something clearly emblazoned as LGBT, but I still think my general feelings would be to avoid stickers to mark off groups. 

I previously worked at Novi which has a large Asian population, and I think one of the great things they did there was broaden their Holiday section to be very inclusive. Instead of just an "Other" section with 3 books about the Lunar New Year or whatever, they have specific sections for Diawli, the Moon Festival, etc. etc. So while we didn't mark things as "Asian," there were strides made to vocally represent and include our Asian patrons. 

I tried rainbow stickers over a decade ago to help kids find those books, and at the time it seemed like the right thing to do. Now it's become clear to me that those stickers are a form of "othering", not to mention they are unnecessary now that we have a broad selection of titles that feature LGBTQ+ stories. I would strongly recommend book lists for highlighting black stories, social media posts featuring black stories, but not labels. Labels are good for telling you what order a series is in, or if a story is from a certain traditional genre, but to identify a book based on specific identities of characters is to say that this book is either for "you" the reader who might identify the label, and NOT for a reader who does not identify with a label. 

I think the stickers, while a good identifier for patrons in search of those books, could also be a detractor for these books. Shelving them by subject/genre allows the browsing patron to at least pick up the books if interested in the title or subject matter. A patron resistant to reading materials by or about marginalized persons could steer clear of these titles if a sticker is on them. I'm speaking as an African American reader and author. 

I put the African American sticker on books in the non-fiction section only. I don't put them on any of the fiction titles for Teen and Children’s. 

Although, we do have them on the Fiction titles for Adults because we used to have a separate African American Fiction section in adults but I decided to integrate that in with all of the fiction and just put the label on as a Genre. I did debate that but it was more to appease those patrons who might be upset that it is not a separate section (mind you that section was only 3 shelves). 

We also integrated the Mystery and plan to do the same with SciFi and Westerns. 

Ultimately, I would have preferred to have just kept it to the Non-Fiction mainly because we get a lot of kids coming in looking for books about African Americans in February or even other times of the year that it might be required reading. 

We do not use the stickers in any section of our library. 

I found this article helpful : [ https://blog.leeandlow.com/2020/08/26/how-labeling-books-as-diverse-reinforces-white-supremacy/ | https://blog.leeandlow.com/2020/08/26/how-labeling-books-as-diverse-reinforces-white-supremacy/ ] 

It’s great that your patrons are seeking out books by and about BIPOC! And yes, many libraries choose to separate out mysteries, science fiction/fantasy, westerns, and “regular” fiction. But identity is not the same thing as genre. To reduce my life as a queer (asexual and aromantic) biracial Black cis woman down to a genre is tokenism and othering at best, offensive and regressive at worst. Tokenism and othering are damaging microaggressions with long lasting ramifications. Labeling books by or about BIPOC is to declare them different because of who they are and that they are only interesting because of how they contrast with whiteness. Labeling does not celebrate diversity but instead centers whiteness as the norm and relegates BIPOC-ness to the abnormal, thereby reinforcing white supremacy. 

In general, I tend to avoid stickering outside of location codes, like juvenile fiction, graphic novel etc. I also don't add a genre sticker to allow for more browsing. Some books crossover too. To the point: is it thriller or mystery or romance? A book spine can end up looking like a traffic light. I'm also wary of considering African American as a genre. I think it "others" a book into it's own separate section when there's such a depth of expression and experience among authors. There are different ways to bring attention to Africa American authors such as a display or list of suggested reading. I'd suggest those instead. 

I don't sticker books by ethnic/religious/racial grouping. I'm more than willing to assist patrons to find books by those designations though, and try to keep up with titles/authors that may be of interest. 

I also don't designate biographies in the same manner. 

-- 
Thanks & Warmest Regards, 

Jessica Wilhoite 
Assistant Director 
Romulus Public Library 
11121 Wayne Rd. 
Romulus, MI 48174 
(734) 942-7589 

Serving Romulus and Huron Township 

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