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<div>Hi Anthony,</div>
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<div dir="auto">Thank you for acknowledging the shift in tone with the new code. Do you have studies or other evidence to share showing library behavior policies being applied differently to white patrons than black patrons? If so, wouldn't it be more effective
to adjust our policies to be less subjective and instead list specific behaviors? I am certainly willing to look for this evidence, and I appreciate your willingness to discuss.</div>
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<div dir="auto">Thanks,</div>
<div dir="auto">Matt Weston</div>
<div dir="auto">Dowagiac District Library</div>
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<div id="divRplyFwdMsg" dir="ltr"><font face="Calibri, sans-serif" color="#000000" style="font-size:11pt"><b>From:</b> Anthony Isom <aisom@adrian.lib.mi.us><br>
<b>Sent:</b> Friday, August 6, 2021 12:48:31 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> mweston dowagiacdl.org <mweston@dowagiacdl.org><br>
<b>Cc:</b> michlib-l@mcls.org <michlib-l@mcls.org><br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: [Michlib-l] New equity and social justice principle added to ALA Code of Ethics</font>
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<div>Matt,</div>
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Your argument about the language use in the Code of Ethics runs rather shallow, I'm afraid. Given that a cishet black male patron who misuses library policy, or is even perceived as misusing library policy, to the degree that library staff considers it "safe"
to involve local law enforcement will be handled differently than if a cishet white male patron misuses library policy to an equal degree, "all library users" aren't experiencing the world outside of the library with any sort of equity, therefore "the inherent
dignity and rights of every person" have been violated before the cishet black male person has even sets foot inside the library. In other words: the shift in tone is necessary. One cannot use easy language or soft tones to rid our public spaces of the sort
of behavior that creates toxic environments for entire communities of people who've been, both in recent and distant history, robbed of their "inherent dignity"--inside as well as outside of library spaces. It is important, then, that the American Library
Association places within their Code of Ethics a statement which vows to assert the necessary social uplift of our public library spaces, so that staff (such as myself, queer and black) and patrons (such as I once was, still queer and still black) may claim
more fully "the inherent dignity and rights of every person" and actually stand equal to "all library users".
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<div dir="ltr"><font size="4" face="trebuchet ms, sans-serif" color="#0000ff"><i><b>Anthony Isom (they/them/theirs)</b></i></font>
<div><font face="arial narrow, sans-serif">Youth Services Librarian Assistant</font></div>
<div><font face="arial narrow, sans-serif">Adrian District Library</font></div>
<div><font face="arial narrow, sans-serif">143 East Maumee Street</font></div>
<div><font face="arial narrow, sans-serif">Adrian MI 49221</font></div>
<div><font face="arial narrow, sans-serif"><a href="mailto:aisom@adrian.lib.mi.us" target="_blank">aisom@adrian.lib.mi.us</a></font></div>
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<div dir="ltr" class="x_gmail_attr">On Thu, Aug 5, 2021 at 8:03 AM mweston <a href="http://dowagiacdl.org">
dowagiacdl.org</a> via Michlib-l <<a href="mailto:michlib-l@mcls.org">michlib-l@mcls.org</a>> wrote:<br>
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<span style="font-family:Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:12pt">I'd like to support Karyn Ruley's concerns about ALA's most recent addition to their Code of Ethics. Reading through the first eight principles, and into the first sentence of the ninth,
there is a sense of the universal and of the common humanity we share with ourselves and our patrons. "...all library users", "...each library user's rights", and
</span><span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:12pt"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255); font-family:Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif; display:inline">"...the inherent dignity and rights of every person", changes dramatically
in tone with "dismantle systemic and individual biases" and "advance racial and social justice".</span></span><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51); font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:12pt; text-align:left; background-color:rgb(254,254,254); display:inline"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:12pt"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255); font-family:Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif; display:inline">Absolutely this is worthy of discussion, and this is the place for it.</span></span></div>
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<p style="color:rgb(0,0,0); font-family:Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px">
Matt Weston, <span style="font-size:12pt">Library Director</span></p>
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Dowagiac District Library</p>
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211 Commercial St.</p>
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Dowagiac, MI 49047-1728</p>
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269-782-3826</p>
<p style="margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px"><i><span style="font-size:14px"><font color="#333333" face="Lato, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif"></font></span></i></p>
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