What a delight to be an exhibitor at the NSHPCA Conference. Its theme was The cultural implications of death, dying, and grief. Doing that exhibit thing, I didn’t get to many sessions, but Dr. Amit Arya’s opening keynote challenged the audience to look carefully for covert racism, the “socially acceptable” opinions and biases that we all carry. His talk reminded me of Dr. Naheed Dosani’s work with vulnerably housed and homeless patients in GTA. That homelessness is a life-limiting condition.
What does one little library do about such wicked problems? It’s made me think a lot about our collection and working to ensure that non-Western, non-white, non-ableist, and gender diverse perspectives are included in what we do. To think about the vulnerable and unhoused in our area and ponder how to serve those without a fixed mailing address.
To welcome suggestions as the gifts they are. To listen fully with an open mind and heart. To work for change and to challenge overt, and the more prevalent covert, racism. We need DEI more than ever to overcome the white supremacy which creeps into North American history, politics, education, health care, and…and…and…all systems where power means control. With love,
~Terri
