Hello! I am Miss Librarian. I have just graduated from Valdosta State with an MLIS, so I am here to record my musings and accomplishments as a future librarian.
“I work for a county government. They work closely with the county animal shelter, and some kittens and cats are sent to us because we get so much traffic from the public, hopefully someone will see a kitty and adopt! In the meantime, they can socialize with the employees to get used to humans. So far over 100 cats have been adopted.” -Loocylooo
“If we keep our print collection, then we’ll be worshiped as gods when the zombies take over.”
— When a librarian presents a collection management policy argument that clearly takes inspiration from dystopias where all internet access is lost
(via whenalibrarian)
Science fiction and fantasy, long dominated by Western mythology, are growing more diverse, with novels that draw on African mythology and legends.
“Magic, ritual and secrecy are threads that run through Ms. Okorafor’s wildly imaginative young adult fantasy series, which features a head-spinning menagerie of otherworldly spirits and deities drawn from Nigerian myths and legends.”
This is an excellent article. I already have the Akata series on my “must buy soooon” list, and I’m very excited to read both more about them, and about the other work she has done! There is also info about some other books that fall into a similar niche of the fantasy/scifi market that look really interesting.
[image description: the rainbow logo of “Queer Books for Teens” with the listing (You) Set Me On Fire by Mariko Tamaki. Lastly is the column of filters you can sort by. (Below the cut is a more detailed image description.)]
A new study finds that believing in meritocracy can lead disadvantaged adolescents of color to act out and engage in risky behavior.
Brighton Park is a predominantly Latino community on the southwest side of Chicago. It’s a neighborhood threatened by poverty, gang violence, ICE raids, and isolation—in a city where income, race, and zip code can determine access to jobs, schools, healthy food, and essential services. It is against this backdrop that the Chicago teacher Xian Franzinger Barrett arrived at the neighborhood’s elementary school in 2014.
Recognizing the vast economic and racial inequalities his students faced, he chose what some might consider a radical approach for his writing and social-studies classes, weaving in concepts such as racism, classism, oppression, and prejudice. Barrett said it was vital to reject the oft-perpetuated narrative that society is fair and equal to address students’ questions and concerns about their current conditions. And Brighton Elementary’s seventh- and eighth-graders quickly put the lessons to work—confronting the school board over inequitable funding, fighting to install a playground, and creating a classroom library focused on black and Latino authors.
“Students who are told that things are fair implode pretty quickly in middle school as self-doubt hits them,” he said, “and they begin to blame themselves for problems they can’t control.”
Barrett’s personal observation is validated by a newly published study in the peer-reviewed journal Child Development that finds traditionally marginalized youth who grew up believing in the American ideal that hard work and perseverance naturally lead to success show a decline in self-esteem and an increase in risky behaviors during their middle-school years. The research is considered the first evidence linking preteens’ emotional and behavioral outcomes to their belief in meritocracy, the widely held assertion that individual merit is always rewarded.
“If you’re in an advantaged position in society, believing the system is fair and that everyone could just get ahead if they just tried hard enough doesn’t create any conflict for you … [you] can feel good about how [you] made it,” said Erin Godfrey, the study’s lead author and an assistant professor of applied psychology at New York University’s Steinhardt School. But for those marginalized by the system—economically, racially, and ethnically—believing the system is fair puts them in conflict with themselves and can have negative consequences.
“If the system is fair, why am I seeing that everybody who has brown skin is in this kind of job? You’re having to think about that … like you’re not as good, or your social group isn’t as good,” Godfrey said. “That’s the piece … that I was trying to really get at [by studying] these kids.”
The findings build upon a body of literature on “system justification”—a social-psychology theory that believes humans tend to defend, bolster, or rationalize the status quo and see overarching social, economic, and political systems as good, fair, and legitimate. System justification is a distinctively American notion, Godfrey said, built on myths used to justify inequities, like “If you just work hard enough you can pull yourself up by your bootstraps … it’s just a matter of motivation and talent and grit.” Yet, as she and her colleagues discovered, these beliefs can be a liability for disadvantaged adolescents once their identity as a member of a marginalized group begins to gel—and once they become keenly aware of how institutional discrimination disadvantages them and their group.
“If you’re [inclined] to believe that … the system is fair, then you’re maybe going to accept stereotypes about you more easily.”
One of the biggest lies taught in American schools is that the USA is “meritocracy.” BULLSHIT!! The United States is a plutocracy that masquerades as a republic. Certain people are given advantages depending on their race, wealth, and personal connections. Everyone else are left to fight over what scraps are left over after the white ruling class take their cut of the loot. It’s been that way since this country was still a backwater British colony.
The genius thing that this teacher did was empower his students to fight back against the inequality they faced in their daily lives. If you’re not careful, you could make kids even more dejected and cynical, which leads to self-fulfilling prophecies.
Because segregating, putting warning labels on, and limiting the purchase of LGBTQ books doesn't count as banning, right? (Please don't put the LGBTQ books in a closet.)
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