Can we change that to all PEOPLE are created equal…?
Is the OP actually wanting to discuss something the library actually did, or are they just “concerned” about what “other people” are going to be upset about?
All created equal is fine. Advancing the interests of left-wing groups over others is not.
How about a pro-life book display? Or a pro second-amendment book display? Or a display of Trump bibles, complete with country music lyrics and a declaration of independence in each one? Since book displays don’t ‘promote’ anything, would you be comfortable with a library where a conservative librarian makes displays of conservative books but relegates the liberal ones to the back shelves?
If we can’t give equal space and prominence to ALL possible subsets of humanity at all moments in time we must go back to the time tested approach of only honoring white men.
No, of course I wouldn’t be. That’s why I vote against them. Because I fully expect that if they gain power, they’ll attempt to move their agenda. Because that’s what governments do.
The interests of left-wing groups is ensuring that all are treated equally. The interests of the “others” you mention is ensuring inequality.
…I just wanted to note that “DEI” has replaced “Woke” which replaced “Critical Race Theory” as in it has a clearly defined, original meaning, but has now been co-opted to basically mean whatever the user wants it to mean.
So if we take the original meaning (and not whatever it means at the moment) it means to “promote the fair treatment and full participation of all people”. So my question to the OP would be, why wouldn’t libraries be in the business of advancing that?
Because Elon Musk said that it causes planes to fall out of the sky and ships to crash into bridges.
I was quoting the Bill of Rights, but point taken.
I think the word you are looking for is ‘equitably’ as defined by the left, which requires unequal treatment on behalf of protected groups. See: Antiracism. ‘Equity’ != ‘Equality’.
Trainers in DEI courses do indeed point that Equity != Equality, it seems that you are only talking on what the right wing is telling you what DEI is.
It should not be a problem if after, or at the same time, there is a display about Pro-Choice, Gun control, and the Cristians that also oppose the Trump idiocy about his bible.
‘Sacrilege,’ theology, and the shadow of Christian nationalism
The $59.99 Bible, which was first published in 2021, features an American flag and the words “God Bless the USA” printed on the cover. Inside, it has the words to “God Bless the USA” and the text of The Declaration of Independence, the Pledge of Allegiance and other historic American documents. Promotional material for the Bible shows the former president alongside country singer Lee Greenwood.Responses to Trump’s social media announcement called the endorsement “sacrilege,” “heresy” and “borderline offensive” and cite lessons directly from the Bible that suggest taking advantage of people’s faith for money should be condemned.
“It is a bankrupt Christianity that sees a demagogue co-opting our faith and even our holy scriptures for the sake of his own pursuit of power and praise him for it rather than insist that we refuse to allow our sacred faith and scriptures to become a mouthpiece for an empire,” said Rev. Benjamin Cremer on X.
Jason Cornwall, a pastor from South Carolina, said on X that Trump’s Bible endorsement was a violation of one of the Ten Commandments of the Hebrew Testament that forbids taking God’s name in vain.
No, I was describing what the trainers say. So the people in the thread saying that the left just wants ‘equality’ are wrong. Equity involves mandating unequal treatment of some until there is no more inequity.
Equality= Equal opportunity, equal treatment under the law.
Equity = Equal outcome, on the assumption that outcomes would always be equal if there weren’t dastardly forces at play causing inequity, and unequal treatment under the law in order to correct the ‘inequity’.
This I agree with completely.
And in case no one noticed, I was speaking sarcastically about Trump’s stupid bible.
I mean, that’s what that argument boils down to.
Back to the OP, since librarians are getting fired, are receiving death threats, etc., maybe they shouldn’t be putting their lives at risk so that snowflakes don’t find out that Black people used to be slaves.
Usually a replacement for the N word.
Full stop, I just got the training at work, what you say here is not even an educated guess. There is a better place to point this out.
I think we better stop here, as we’re veering away from libraries and I don’t need another warning for hijacks.
Nobody is advancing the interests of left-wing groups over others.
The problem is right-wing interests who think they deserve better treatment than everyone else and complain how unfair it is when they get treated equally.
I have no problem with putting pro-life and pro-gun and bibles and country music displays up. The problem is the conservative librarians who want to hide the “liberal” stuff away.
ISTM the social agenda all libraries should advance is literacy and love of reading.
All libraries should have a broad selection of material and not judge. Maybe not let the fringiest of material in. And there is the judgement call people will argue over but I don’t think most librarians have a difficult time figuring it out.
I may add that it is usually the right wing the ones that figure out that the librarians “know too much” and they hate the judgement that they have.
(Former library tech at the UC Berkeley library over here)