Dear Black Patron,
By: Kiera Vargas JD, MLIS, MS
Kiera Varas most recently served as the Director of Library for Hopkinsville Community College. Kiera Vargas is an educator, lawyer, and librarian who realizes that each profession has a duty to assist with the social issues of the world. Her diverse background, practical experiences, and most importantly the love that she has to be a change agent to assist with educational issues encouraged her to begin her Education Consulting Firm; EPIFHANY, LLC (www.epifhanyshappen.com). Her company focuses on mentoring students and educators by assisting them with growth on topics that are typically taboo in society. Her experiences in classrooms, in libraries, and assisting within the many organizations that she is a part of has afforded her to know that our students can conquer the world with the help of like-minded individuals. Kiera has taught grades from K-12- college seniors. She has taught in North Carolina, she was the 2019 Teacher of the Year for Madison Florida. Kiera has been featured on podcasts, webinars, and constantly impacts those that she meets. Kiera holds a BS in Journalism and Mass Communication and MS in English Education from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. She holds a Juris Doctorate from Charlotte School of Law. She also holds a MLIS from Drexel University. She has been in education since 2004. She has one son; Anthony Davis and he is a senior in high school.
After being exhausted with the many trials of being a Black librarian and seeing how Black patrons are treated, I am providing you with a template of what changes need to happen
-Kiera Vargas
Dear Black Patron,
Dear Black Patron,
I see you! I hear you, loud and clear. I promise to take time to understand things that I might be oblivious to and society has covered up for so long. I promise to be patient with you, and I promise to stop judging. I will not make assumptions about you because you walk in with a hoodie or your hair might be in a hairstyle that I just can't quite understand. I will not judge you because your dialect might not be what America deems as Standard American English. I will not fear you or call the police on you because you wear BLM paraphernalia. I will refrain from calling on my Black staff to help you because I am too lazy to learn.
I will quiet myself and humbly pick up material that I am free to read to help me learn the significance of BLM to see that BLM does not mean that All Lives do not matter, but as a Black Patron your soul, your mind, your hearts are tired. I will use my White Privilege to help versus hurt you. I will quiet myself and use the resources that I have access to teach me about the inequality that you face in all areas. I will go back a minimum of 60 years to see that the Civil Rights protest began something that is like BLM protests. I will go back to the Constitution and try to put myself in your shoes (this means that I need to learn what true empathy means) and while you are not just an amendment in the context of The Constitution you are an amendment and you are constantly fighting…fighting for what mainstream Americans will never have to fight for and it's all because of the color of your skin. It is my duty as a librarian to advocate for you.
I promise to take moments to research because as a librarian, the gatekeeper to learning, we are tasked by the American Library Association to “promote the creation, maintenance, and enhancement of a learning society, encouraging its members to work with educators, government officials, and organizations in coalitions to initiate and support comprehensive efforts to ensure that school, public, academic, and special libraries in every community cooperate to provide lifelong learning services to all.”
Black Patron, for me to do this, I must be fair to you. I must make you comfortable when you walk through the doors of my library. To do this, I must create thoughtful programs that highlight more than surface level information, and I must study and explore material that might make me uncomfortable. I am aware that textbooks have omitted so much of your history; they have provided errors, and over (let’s just say the last 60 years) you still are facing challenges that you should not have to face. To help you, I promise to showcase books for you to be proud of your race, that depict the determination and tenacity of your family members. Again, I promise to make you feel inclusive even if that makes me feel uncomfortable.
Information about WWII, Executive Order 8802 that went into effect on June 25, 1941- which demanded equal employment rights should be highlighted. Understanding how the Tuskegee airmen broke racial barriers by becoming the first Black military aviators in the US Army Air Corps and earned more than 150 Distinguished Flying Crosses, yet when our Black veterans came home, they were still faced with discrimination and hate. Information about Executive Order 998, which initiated a civil rights agenda to end discrimination in 1948 by President Truman. I need to be abreast of more Blacks who were supporters and key players during the Civil Rights Movement in addition to Rosa Parks and MLK. There was Roy Wilkins and Whitney M. Young, Jr., Phillip Randolph, Bayard Rustin, James Farmer, and of course John Lewis.
I can do this via music; Kanye and JAY-Z’s song “Murder to Excellence” teaches about the killing of Dan Roy “DJ” Henry, Jr., who was murdered by police in Pleasantville, NJ in 2010. I can do this by acknowledging Emmett Till was murdered just like many other men who were still being lynched not even 75 years ago. I know people who are 75 years old. I have relatives who are that age and I am aware that discussing such atrocities might make them cringe or become defensive, but what about you, patron? I will take moments to read other pieces of literature:
Toni Morrison provides us “Recitatif” to help us challenge and see not just our implicit biases and racial prejudices, but to check ourselves. I will take moments to promote literature after I take the time to read such pieces by Richard Wright, W.E.B. Du Bois, Carol Anderson, Wanda Smalls Lloyd, Zora Neal Hurston, and even watch movies such as “The White Man’s Burden” that might be able to help me place myself in someone else’s shoes. I will even listen to podcasts such as the one about Curtis Flowers.
We must teach correct history and to do this, we must use our knowledge to highlight truth in history.
James Baldwin’s “A Talk to Teachers,” is for me as a librarian too. While this was delivered in 1963, it is still relevant. He states: “What passes for identity in America is a series of myths about one’s heroic ancestors. It is astounding to me, for example, that so many people really appear to believe that the country was founded by a band of heroes who wanted to be free. That happens not to be true. What happened was that some people left Europe because they could not stay there any longer and had to go someplace else to make it. That is all. They were hungry, they were poor, they were convicts. Those who were making it in England, for example, did not get on the Mayflower. That’s how the country was settled.”
He further states: “It is your responsibility to change society if you think of yourself as an educated person. And based on the evidence—the moral and political evidence—one is compelled to say that this is a backward society. Now if I were a teacher in this school, or any Negro school, and I was dealing with Negro children, who were in my care only a few hours of every day and would then return to their homes and to the streets, children who have an apprehension of their future which with every hour grows grimmer and darker, I would try to teach them—I would try to make them know—that those streets, those houses, those dangers, those agonies by which they are surrounded, are criminal. I would try to make each child know that these things are the result of a criminal conspiracy to destroy him … That it is up to him to change these standards for the sake of the life and the health of the country.” And to make such changes that Baldwin states in this 1963 speech, I must allow you as my patron to see yourself when you walk through the doors of the library. I must make other patrons, stop to see, and learn about you as well.
My position as a librarian should be to build relationships and assist patrons like you. We are a group of people full of knowledge and I will respect you to assist you. I will provide you with guidance to assist with learning about the many resources we have. We have a network of people, databases, and other forms of technology to obtain just about anything that we need and I promise I will not distance myself from you because I am selfish.
I will not hide information or be that egotistical librarian who also lacks empathy and heart because I prefer not to help you. And to hold up my promise to not just my profession, but to those who do not have the same access that I have, I promise to respect you. I promise to use my resources. I will take the time to understand the message and the premise of BLM, which is a group of amazing Black, gifted, individuals who are tired!
In 1963, MLK also delivered “A Letter to Birmingham” and his closing is still as relevant in 2020: “Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and the deep fog of misunderstanding will not be lifted from our fear drenched communities, and in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all of their scintillating (sintalating) beauty.”
Finally, I will seek to employ and advocate for more African American/ Black-centered individuals to work with me because as Sam Cooke said, “A change is going to come,” but it cannot come if we are still adhering to outdated library structures, systems and librarians who fear to speak up behind closed doors.
I will also welcome the creativity, the conflict, and allow those hard conversations.
Shine bright my young, gifted, and black patron,
Your librarian who supports you!