Scholarly Review #1

“By examining the sociopolitical histories of libraries, in particular public libraries in the United States, we can get a better understanding of the library’s formation—the ontology, if you will—as one that is both racial and racist”.

Honma, T. (2005). Trippin’ over the color line: The invisibility of race in Library and Information Studies. InterActions: UCLA Journal of Education and Information Studies, 1(2), Article 2. Retrieved from: http://escholarship.org/uc/item/4nj0w1mp.

In the article “Trippin’ Over the Color Line: The Invisibility of Race in Library and Information Studies”, author Honma argues the exclusion of minorities in public libraries. Honma (2005) starts his article asking questions such as “Why does the field have a tendency to tiptoe around discussing race and racism, and instead limit the discourse by using words such as ‘multiculturalism’ and ‘diversity’?” and “Why is the field so glaringly white yet no one wants to talk about whiteness and white privilege?” (p. 1). With these questions in mind Honma takes us on a journey through the history of public libraries, starting from the very first one constructed to those of present day, and looks at how and why public libraries have become racist.

Honma (2005) states the following:
“whiteness” works as an invisible and elusive structure of privilege, one that allows for constant reinvention and rearticulation to protect the interests of a white racial ruling class. The identification of whiteness and its structuralizing principles is necessary in order to combat its invisibility and normative effects. (p. 5)


When I first read the above statement I was confused as to what unseen structure of “whiteness” Honma meant. Surely he was confused because public libraries were built on the concept of free and equitable information and knowledge for all. How could public libraries possibly be racist? Then I started assessing the fact that I am a Caucasian female from a middle class background. Just because I didn’t notice anything different didn’t mean that it wasn’t true. As I read further into the article I started to realize that what Honma was arguing was true. I didn’t necessarily notice this gross inequity in the public libraries because it has been going on since the library’s creation. Honma (2005) argues that during the 19th century one of the main reasons for creating openly public libraries was to assimilate the incoming immigrants. So from the beginning public libraries have been functioning on this unspoken basis. As this realization came over me I started thinking back to all of the libraries, public, school, and academic, that I have been in and the utter lack of color within them. How could I have been so blind? According to Honma (2005), it was my own ethnicity that blocked the truth.

How can we change these inequities? I personally feel that the LIS profession must first begin change from the inside before we can begin to implement change on the out. Honma (2005) argues that not only must more librarians of color be brought into the profession but that we must all be made aware of this injustice so we can begin to fight against it. That merely “celebrating multiculturalism” and having librarians of color will not work to break down the racist structure that has been created. Once racism has been fully acknowledged within the profession and research has been done, only then can we begin the fight to break this racist structure and start to truly serve all patrons equitably and fairly. Just as Honma (2005) states, “These perspectives, as well as the interrogation of white positionality, need to be further explored in the field of LIS, if we are to begin to fully understand the racialization of libraries and the field of LIS in general”. Social inequity within the LIS profession has been going on for far too long and as future professionals in the field it is our duty to rise up together and yell “injustice!” before tearing down the walls of biasness and rebuilding a fair and just future.