On February 1st, 2021, the Black Student Union published a list of demands to hold the College Prep community accountable for the various harmful experiences of Black and Brown students, staff, and faculty members. The Library stands with the BSU and is committed to acknowledging and dismantling the racism that is very much present in academia and libraries.
We commit our space to be a place of support for our BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) community.
The Museum of Black Joy is a digital museum and collection created to celebrate and make visible Black Joy. Their website serves as the museum; Andrea "Philly" Walls curates and cares for the collection.
As you begin to establish your voices as scholars, you'll notice that a good chunk of the literature you're reading is being produced and created by White scholars. Well, where's everyone else?
The lack of BIPOC voices in academic literature results from barriers in academic publishing and beliefs of knowledge-making in academia. Originally discussed in Richard Delgado's 1984 piece, the lack of representation in academic literature is still a huge problem.
One group of people fighting hard to raise awareness and combat this issue is the Cite Black Women Collective. We encourage our community to commit themselves to engaging with their praxis: naming, reading, acknowledging, and integrating the work of Black women into your classrooms, scholarship, and everyday lives. To learn more about their work you can listen to their podcast embedded below.