{"id":4240,"date":"2021-03-12T20:37:25","date_gmt":"2021-03-13T00:37:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/?p=4240"},"modified":"2021-03-12T21:19:40","modified_gmt":"2021-03-13T01:19:40","slug":"library-faces-tough-road-to-restore-faith-with-bipoc-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/2021\/03\/12\/library-faces-tough-road-to-restore-faith-with-bipoc-community\/","title":{"rendered":"Library faces tough road to restore faith with BIPOC community"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Photo Ed Halverson<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

The first steps have been taken to strengthen the relationship between South Shore Public Libraries and the region\u2019s BIPOC community.<\/p>\n

Chief Librarian Troy Myers describes Friday\u2019s meeting with the anti-racism task force from the town of Bridgewater as a starting point.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur role was to listen, to learn. We started a relationship that we know is going to take some time,\u201d said Myers. \u201cWe still accept full responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tensions arose between SSPL and supporters of the Black, Indigenous and People of Colour community last week<\/a> when the library attempted to provoke discussion around \u201cFreedom to Read\u201d week.<\/p>\n

Their choice to use the recent controversy around the publisher\u2019s decision to stop printing some Dr. Suess titles because they contained racist language and imagery provoked a strong reaction online.<\/p>\n

Members of the Bridgewater anti-racism task force didn\u2019t want to be recorded for this story. The representative said they, in no way, wish to portray that they speak for the entire BIPOC community.<\/p>\n

They did say that the library board listened to their position during the meeting but there is still a long way to go before real change in the institutional racism can be fully addressed.<\/p>\n

Myers appreciates the task force member\u2019s willingness to engage with the library and provide their perspective. He reiterated just how sorry he was to have upset members of the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want our spaces to be safe and secure for everybody and it\u2019s our fault that some people are feeling they\u2019re not. We\u2019re not asking for people to accept this apology. We want people to watch our actions moving forward,\u201d said Myers.<\/p>\n

Actions before words<\/h3>\n

Hours before the meeting, South Shore BIPOC, a collective of BIPOC people on the South Shore of Nova Scotia organizing advocacy, events, and community supports for BIPOC posted a 17 page letter to Facebook<\/a> outlining several concerns, among which are how the controversy has been handled, the deletion of posts and how Myers could confuse their group with the Bridgewater anti-racism task force.<\/p>\n

The letter included several suggestions as to how SSPL could begin to address institutional racism including: providing dedicated funding for resources by and for BIPOC communities, creating an independent advisory council to decide next steps, a review of senior library staff and equity hiring practices, anti-racism training and education for staff, and a commitment to a timely review of children\u2019s and young adult books to ensure racist and discriminatory materials are removed.<\/p>\n

The letter was addressed to SSPL board of directors and senior staff, the director of Nova Scotia Public Libraries, Vanessa Fells with the African Nova Scotia decade for people of African descent coalition and the minister of communities cultures and heritage Suzanne Lohnes-Croft.<\/p>\n

Spokesperson for South Shore BIPOC Jessika Hepburn says they highlighted several resources the library can engage to begin reparations. Until they see action being taken they will not accept Myers\u2019 offer to meet.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo work has been done to guarantee any kind of safety,\u201d said Hepburn. \u201cI could go to that meeting, it\u2019s going to be upsetting and traumatic for me but there is no way that any of the people in our community are going to be willing to sit down with a library or any sort of institution that is so clearly not capable of having this conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hepburn says the library didn\u2019t acknowledge the group\u2019s concerns on the original posts and have done nothing to engage with South Shore BIPOC since.<\/p>\n

She says she has yet to see any outreach by the library, including inviting the Bridgewater anti-racism task force to a meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cA municipal task force that they have a fiduciary responsibility to, because they receive financial contributions every year from the town of Bridgewater, that\u2019s not outreach,\u201d said Hepburn. \u201cThat\u2019s responding to a letter that you received. They had a responsibility to respond, that\u2019s PR.\u201d<\/p>\n

Myers says the library and the anti-racism committee will meet again in the coming weeks. He hopes the continued dialogue will help lead to changes to make everyone feel safe and included at South Shore public libraries.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe ask for people\u2019s patience and understanding,\u201d said Myers. \u201cThese things take time. We\u2019re not going to fix it tonight or tomorrow; it\u2019s going to take some time. It\u2019s a long journey and I\u2019m making that pledge to leave this library in a better position than I found it 11 years ago and I\u2019m committed to that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reported by Ed Halverson\u00a0<\/strong>
\nE-mail:\u00a0edhalversonnews@gmail.com<\/a><\/strong>
\nTwitter: @edwardhalverson<\/strong><\/p>\n

To listen to the broadcast of this story, press play below.<\/em><\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/SSPL-Anti-Racism-meetig-Mar-12-21_mixdown.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The first steps have been taken to strengthen the relationship between South Shore Public Libraries and the region\u2019s BIPOC community. Chief Librarian Troy Myers describes Friday\u2019s meeting with the anti-racism task force from the town of Bridgewater as a starting point. \u201cOur role was to listen, to learn. We started a relationship that we know […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,5],"tags":[262,252,260,248,261,251,263],"class_list":["post-4240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community-news","category-news-posts","tag-bridgewater-anti-racism-task-force","tag-jessika-hepburn","tag-south-shore-bipoc","tag-south-shore-public-libraries","tag-sspl","tag-troy-meyers","tag-troy-myers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4240"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4240\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4247,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4240\/revisions\/4247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}