Fobazi Ettarh
@Fobettarh
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Academic. Librarian. Creator of the concept “vocational awe.” PhD student @iSchoolUI . Game designer of Killing Me Softly. Lovingly trapped by @elenamaris1
Chicago (but NJ in spirit!)
Joined September 2012
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Hello to my new followers! I created the concept vocational awe, and I tweet about library and information science (LIS), and the white supremacy codified within organizations and higher education. Go here to see more:
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-sigh- librarians why are you like this? Calling Lizzo immodest & disrespectful for “showing skin” while playing James Madison’s flute is so wild. And honestly? Short sighted! People are talking about archival materials and the LoC! In popular culture! But no let’s be horrible 🙄
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My sister just got nominated for a James Beard Award for Best Chef New York region!!!! I am so proud of her! She’s always been the best and I’m glad other people see it too!!! Congratulations Aretah!!!
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Ooh love the double down here! Who cares about all the librarians discussing the very real issues library workers face when you can show pictures of (mostly European) libraries.
Because nothing is impossible and libraries are amazing community resources that can be anything we want them to be, here's a thread of playgrounds inside of libraries all around the world.
Spokane, Washington
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It has been so hard to keep this news quiet, but it’s finally out so I can share that I am writing a book! I am super excited!!! Wish me luck in the actual writing of it all! 😎🙈😱
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Oof again the idea that librarians, and other feminized fields can “fill in” for other social services because they inherently can work with people, not only deprofessionalizes these fields but implies that women were born to care for others.
"Librarians could be redeployed to work in care homes" says the Telegraph in this paywalled article at . "I think the only ones who can be redeployed are librarians" said one director.
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I wrote about the Proud Boy librarian and the ~shock~ that everyone (aka white library workers) have been demonstrating.
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I’m so excited that I can finally say this! I have been chosen as of the Change Agents for
#LJMovers2020
!!!
Fobazi Ettarh
@Fobettarh
, Undergraduate Success Librarian at Rutgers, coined the term "vocational awe."
#LJMovers2020
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I’m putting this into the universe so that it can manifest-I will one day give a TED talk on vocational awe.
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I wrote this for my friend and mentor, Latanya Jenkins. RIP.
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Happy Friday! I am reclaiming this week for Black Excellence and Black Joy. And in that spirit I have an announcement-I will be starting my PhD journey in the fall at
@Illinois_Alma
!!!
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Hello everyone! I would really appreciate if y’all shared this!
If your library/org needs an EDI audit, staff training, workplace development, management workshopping, etc. please contact me!
I really enjoy consulting, and would like to continue to grow. Thanks in advance! :)
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My dad died alone in the hospital. I wasn’t even able to say goodbye while he was alive due to my own danger of contracting COVID-19. I try not to think of him as a statistic of the monumental failure of leadership, but I can’t help but feel bitter at all that’s happening now.
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You know what’s wild? We ended 2023 with the libraryland Main Character™️ being a Black dude who loves libraries. And now we’re starting 2024 with a libraryland Main Character™️ that has quintupled down on libraries being everything to everyone and librarians hating kids. Yeesh!
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The Tougaloo 9 are an important part of library history that we in the field rarely hear/learn about. I wonder why??? 🧐
#OnThisDay
in 1961, nine Black students from Tougaloo College entered the all-white Jackson Municipal Library and sat down. Police arrived and ordered them to go to the “colored” library, but when they refused, police arrested them.
On the day of their trial, Jackson State
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In “that’s so 2020” library news- Medina County’s (Ohio) Library Board has voted to withdraw from ALA due to it being a radical left organization.
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Hey
@ALALibrary
the silence is deafening. I just want you to know that. You love to trot our pictures out to show your commitment to “diversity and inclusion” but have nothing to say now. We see your hypocrisy.
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If you ever are in New York City, stop by Gramercy Tavern to try some of her delicious food! And you can follow her instagram (aretahettarh) to see some of her creations! :)
My sister just got nominated for a James Beard Award for Best Chef New York region!!!! I am so proud of her! She’s always been the best and I’m glad other people see it too!!! Congratulations Aretah!!!
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I will never say you can’t love your job. I don’t understand why that is such a common pushback to vocational awe. How does my scholarship negate your love? I truly do not understand.
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This statement is so unacceptable in so many ways it’s mind boggling. A thread. First of all, to release this news during Pride Month and say what is tantamount to “we know you’ll be unsafe but deal” is horrifically offensive. And to say it in such a circuitous way is cowardly.
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What’s funny is that so many white people truly believe that being a POC means you get all these opportunities and money. They’re so desperate to colonize marginalized identities to get this “secret money.” And they believe this even though all the evidence says otherwise.
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Remember how 4 years ago Black people wanted
@ALALibrary
to change the location of Annual due to Trayvon, Stand Your Ground, and not feeling safe? And how we were laughed out the room? And then when Pulse happened ALA responded but completely whitewashed the tragedy? I remember.
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Library workers are a good looking bunch of people! The world may be coming apart at the seams but take joy in the fact that we’re the hottest profession ;)
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What a great idea! It not only recognizes the people who labor within the building day after day, but it acknowledges the legitimacy of their “eye” for art and critique.
The Baltimore Museum of Art invited their security guards to curate an exhibition of their own. The result is a show filled with works from the 6th century to the present day.
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Hello everyone! I am having emergency surgery this week. If you could please send thoughts, prayers, and good vibes my way I’d really appreciate it.
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I do love that one of the very last memes of the year is protecting this Black librarian man! It feels nice going into the new year protecting someone instead of 💩ing on them! 😁😁😁
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Oh ALA and libraryland. You continue to be so disappointing. The attacks on libraries, universities, and cultural memory is one of the biggest losses since the Library of Alexandria and yet. Alas.
It’s easy to talk principles, but when it comes to helping actual people? Silence
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One last note about COVID &
#ALAAC22
- I’ve already seen many say it’s the fault of vendors & other “non-librarians” that Annual was a super spreader event. One, that’s vocational awe talking. And two, don’t do that. 99% of the pictures I saw were maskless. Take responsibility.
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The fact that more librarians and archivists aren’t lamenting this horror is astounding to me. Again, books and archives are important until we have to care about actual people. Always ideals over reality. Sad.
Palestinian journalists literally tweeting their last dispatches along with the bombing of Palestinian libraries should really drive home the point that this "war" is about eliminating the ability of the Palestinian people to tell and catalogue their stories.
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This isn’t very library of you!
League City library will check for cards 'like a Costco' and charge non-residents a $50 fee
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As I say in this article, by keeping academic libraries open we are saying that productivity is the only metric that matters. We shouldn’t sacrifice our health to be “successful.” Close the libraries. Our students shouldn’t have to choose between academic success and their lives.
At least 130 colleges and universities across the country have closed their campuses or transitioned to online courses indefinitely in efforts to slow the spread of the disease.
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“All of that energy that she could have been spending fighting for her life, she spent fighting for her career.”
I’m so grateful to
@juliana_f_reyes
for writing the story about my friend Latanya. Hopefully this story will help to
#EndTUSickLeavePolicy
.
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Lol it’s funny that so many library ppl see this as a hero’s journey when in fact the library is the villain in said story. McNair made it, but tons of other young Black boys didn’t. And that’s in part due to the racist segregationist policies of the library! 🤷🏾♀️🤷🏾♀️🤷🏾♀️
In 1959 Police were called to a segregated library because a Black nine-year-old boy was trying to check out books and refused to leave unless he had the books
After being told by library staff the books was not for Black people and only for Whites, I'm sure planted the seed of
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Remember that time when
@ALALibrary
ignored the voices of Black people about having Annual in Florida because of Stand Your Ground laws, and then suddenly was an ally when Pulse happened? But only after white-washing the deaths of mostly Latine folks inside the club? I remember.
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Apropos of the reaction to my Lizzo tweet currently going viral. Because it is never the librarians you know who are racist and fatphobic. Never the librarians you know who are homophobic. And yet somehow all of these isms exist in libraries! Interesting.
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We are full into conference season in libraries! Here are some of my thoughts about ALA Annual and JCLC and other conferences happening primarily in-person.
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-sigh- come on y’all let’s not do this library folks. The people who are having meltdowns are doing so because a unapologetic fat Black woman accessed a piece of history that they think is only for white people and that INCLUDES library workers.
In the saga of Lizzo and the crystal flute one of the interesting divisions is that library/archive professionals (and historians) are pretty uniformly saying “this is great” and the people who are having meltdowns have never actually used special collections material.
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It’s been a minute, but here is a new blog post about prioritizing physical presence over everything else.
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Hi y’all! No longer working at Rutgers so it’s best to contact me at my personal email fobettarh at gmail for workshops and talks. I’ll be announcing my next (and exciting!!!) step very soon! ✌🏾✌🏾✌🏾
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Just a short little post about the assumed sacredness of the book.
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Honestly a bunch of other people already said amazing and eloquent things and y’all should go read those threads. But I want to reiterate how incredibly disappointing it was to see all these white women close ranks around her performative tears/sadness. (1/n)
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It was technically yesterday but I’m still bursting with happiness! It’s officially been 5 years that
@elenamaris1
and I have been together!!! She’s my forever ball pit partner :)
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Meet the newest addition to the Ettarh-Maris family! Her name is Chloe and she’s a Chiweenie. And yes she is as small as she looks if not smaller! She’s a bundle of joy and a total menace and I love her haha
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This is so against the maxims of librarianship it makes me want to scream. And yet am I surprised? No I’m not. -sigh- libraries can’t seem to shake off the desire to “civilize the rabble.”
"People in solitary aren’t allowed to go to the prison library... we qualify for one book a week... the librarian always sends a Christian themed book.
In 2018, I asked her, “Why don’t you give me what I request?” She said, “I’m called to save your heathen soul.”"
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I hate that they used an old black and white photo when the homeschool group was only shut down last week. It falsely gives a sense of the past to present events!
NEW: Inside a Nazi homeschooling group run by the Lawrences, a couple from Upper Sandusky, OH, and parents of four young children.
The group has almost 2,500 member and the founders say its aim is "making sure that children become wonderful Nazis”
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As Rutgers joins yet another institution doing this, I encourage everyone to read this thread. This is the logical endpoint to vocational awe. We, as library workers, are LITERALLY being expected to expose ourselves to a DEADLY virus for the sake of our profession? To what end?
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A vital thread on librarianship for library workers. We cannot claim to be “the last bastions of democracy” while continuing to uphold white supremacy. Our field is under attack and capitulation never works! Our job right now is to make sure our most vulnerable patrons feel safe.
The same school librarians that put up Black History Month displays are also now in my email arguing that it's important to have books that cover "both sides" of the "slavery issue". In case you're wondering how things are going in Libraryland.
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LOL I wish libraries were too political! Then maybe we’d be a healthier field. It’s funny that ppl come out of the woodwork to defend acquiring misinformation & bigotry, but almost never pop up to defend acquiring books that help the marginalized. Just say you’re a bigot and go.
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It is easy to say you stand against racism. It’s a lot harder to say that you stand -for- Black people. That you stand -for- justice. This is so vague it could be written at any time. Where is the tie-in to the issues?
We stand against racism.
Visit our page for resources and
@ala_apala
and
@BCALA_Inc
statements on racism.
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It’s my birthday!!! Shower me in praise to nourish my Leo self!!! 🦁😎✌🏾🎉💃🏿💅🏾👸🏾
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White women in “helping professions” often act as cops and gleefully partake in carceral actions against Black and Brown folks. It’s so terrible. When we speak of “care” and “service” professions, we must always ask the question, “for whom?”
Still remember when Twitter jumped me last time I said teachers and nurses are functionally cops to Black people.
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I wish you all would go after the bigots in your neighborhood with as much rage as the Black author who didn’t even make the original statements both-siding the Holocaust
#ALAAC22
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Hello library peeps! I have a fully written article about intersectionality in librarianship post trump, and I’m not sure which journal it best fits! So I’m reaching out to y’all! Can you give me some journal names where I could submit this? Please and thank you! :)
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I wonder…will
@ALALibrary
make a statement about Mr. Prxxd Boy or would saying we don’t support hatred be too political 🤷🏾♀️🤷🏾♀️🤷🏾♀️
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Omg y’all! I just realized that today is my last free Sunday😱! As of tomorrow I officially start my PhD program! I’m excited and nervous and just…verklempt! I’ll be putting my PhD life on my profesh instagram @/fobaziettarh so feel free to follow there if you’re curious!
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Hello to my new followers! I research this very phenomenon - vocational awe. Treating a career like a vocation leads to overwork, underpay, and other types of worker exploitation. While I focus on library workers in this piece, it impacts many fields!
We need to stop thinking of working in the cultural sector as a job, a career or even a profession. It's more like a calling or a vocation.
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Happy Monday everyone! It is so weird and awesome and humbling to see your name and concept written about in the New York Times! Thank you
@SimoneStolzoff
and everyone go buy his book The Good Enough Job!
When we frame jobs as passions or callings, it obscures the fact that jobs are, first and foremost, economic contracts.
My first (!!) for
@nytopinion
.
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Lol imagine if libraries did this. The amount of crying and defensiveness would bring the whole field to its knees.
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@RealGayArbys
Hi! My name is Fobazi and I’m a librarian and in the midst of getting my PhD! Here I am with my N95, Sip straw, and HEPA filter at an academic conference! My wifey and I love traveling, long drives, and going to the drive in! :D
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Lol I would like to introduce you to librarians…
#VocationalAwe
Is there any other profession or trade that romanticises not being paid for their work?
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This is a very important (and busy!) week for me. If you could all please send me good vibes and/or prayers that would be super helpful. Thank you!!!!
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I know that I have been providing support in other ways but it is absolutely heartbreaking that I can’t go out and protest. -sigh- Reminder to self: I am not useless because I can’t physically protest.
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My “side” of the argument isn’t for librarianship to ignore these issues in libraries. Rather, it is to use people who are ALREADY trained for these services rather than using librarians who are overworked, burnt out, and unprepared to take even more on.
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Although I’m quoted in this article, it leaves out the context of my larger argument. So, here’s a short thread explaining said argument and why the framing of this article reinforces vocational awe.
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Thank you everyone! All of you library workers, archivists, info scholars, teachers, those in helping professions and everyone else who have spread the theory of vocational awe. I really appreciate each and every one of you :)
#VocationalAwe
6 years ago today
@Fobettarh
's Vocational Awe and Librarianship: The Lies We Tell Ourselves was published in
@libraryleadpipe
& it is worth a read for everyone working in institutions that are "considered inherently good... and therefore beyond critique."
.
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Sometimes when I become depressed thinking about the state of the world, I try to remember that believing in DEIA & deconstructing vocational awe is the most optimistic thing you can do. Let’s all keep aspiring toward a better world together. The anti-ppl are loud but we have joy
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Thank you
@librarianmer
for your post about vocational awe. I encourage everyone to read this as we start a new year.
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“Not a fan of libraries” Of all things, that’s what you decide to have as a personality trait??? Gross.
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So excited to see
@doctorow
digging into the vocational awe endemic in the tech field. I have a lot more thoughts on this coming soon, as this is exactly what my dissertation research is about!
There's a name for phenomenon in which you care so much about your job that you endure poor conditions and abuse: it's called
#VocationalAwe
, as coined by
@Fobettarh
:
31/
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The fact that so many library workers are bending over backwards to allow literal white supremacist books (brought in by a “sweet old lady!”) explains a lot about why so many were shocked that a Proud Boy could be a librarian. -sigh-
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An important thread for librarians as to why more info/media literacy isn’t the magic solution. It’s an important skill of course but it’s not a panacea either.
Most academics believe at some level that we can read our way out—that if we just put the right information in front of folks they'd change their minds & do right—we've all had students for whom it happened that way—but as a result we are ill equipped to counter "evil literacy"
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Tech also has a lot of vocational awe. Being paid doesn’t mean that you’re not being exploited. This has been a subtweet and a PSA.
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This whole thread is important, but especially this one. We as a field still have way too many people who uplift “neutrality” and both side-isms. And that’s not even accounting for the straight out white supremacists. We cannot assume all children will have a “magical” librarian.
There are kids without Kindles, without computers, with limited or no phone time, who do not have smartphones, who will not find co-conspirators in their school librarian or teacher because God don't get me started on the racism already entrenched in our institutions.
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This is your weekly reminder to please set aside time for a lunch break during your day! You are entitled to that time to eat without expectation of work being completed during it!
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Latanya was one of my first mentors in librarianship. I would never have stayed in academic libraries if it wasn’t for her. She was a constant guiding light in my life. She was never anything but joyous throughout everything. May she rest in power.
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This article was so accurate it was painful. It’s hard for me at times to continue to speak when I know that racism is always a “not here” problem. To know that even sharing this & saying that EVERY library does this will not matter. It will always be downplayed and/or erased 1/3
My best friend in the whole world
@CharliceHurst
wrote one of the best things I’ve ever read: “The ‘Not Here’ Syndrome: Racism denial, workplace inequity, and the futility of speaking out.” I hope you’ll read it and share it.
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BuT LibRArIeS ARe thE coRnERStoNE of DemOcRaCy!
#vocationalawe
#transphobia
This is what happens when we uphold "ideals" over people.
'I'm not going to reconsider': Toronto's top librarian refuses to bar speaker critical of transgender rights
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See librarians? If the evil tech companies can do it, you too can ban a Proud Boy. It’s a very very VERY low bar, but it’s a start.
I wrote about the Proud Boy librarian and the ~shock~ that everyone (aka white library workers) have been demonstrating.
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From the amount of tweets I’m seeing about people going maskless at
#ALAAC22
I’m so happy that I stuck to my guns and didn’t go. The conference being a super spreader event just went from 90% of a possibility into a 100% certainty.
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Also since the cat is out of the bag- I will be deferring from my PhD program until next Fall. I’ll probs have a blog post with more details, but know that it was a really hard decision, but one that’s best for my life atm. In the meantime, invite me to do talks & write papers!
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The reason people keep responding in this way is because we as library workers have seen over and over again how “volunteering” turns into precedent which turns into mandatory. Do you not see how framing it as “keeping people alive” leads to dangerous precedents of job creep?
Me (repeatedly, and in this very thread): Hey, totally get that library workers didn't sign up to do social services but maybe some would volunteer to keep people alive during an emergency in which the libraries are officially designated for that purpose. People responding to me:
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Wow. Again it’s so amazing and humbling to see my name in the New York Times!
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I’m feeling grumpy for having orientation on my birthday, but also super excited to finally meet my cohort and professors! Wish me luck (and bday wishes) everyone! 🦁😱😄
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This is beautiful. I encourage you all to read it!
“Once I internalized that my university cared more about its financial solvency than reducing a credible threat to my life, something broke in me.”
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Why is it that her pain, a white woman’s pain, is more important than the actual racism? What about our pain? What about our mental health? (3/n)
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Belated I’m 33 bday pic posting! I know this will be a great year :)
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The Babysitter’s Club is perfect and everyone should watch it immediately.
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This is such an amazing article! I enjoyed it immensely and am glad that people are making the connections between vocational awe and other types of (gendered and racialized) “essential” work.
Wrote about all of this + the concept of "vocational awe," essential workers, and general cowardice when it comes to what we demand of those tasked w/solving massive societal problems:
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To hear
@doctorow
mention vocational awe in the Chokepoint Capitalism & Data Cartels talk w/Library Futures is so amazing! Thank you library workers because y’all go outta the way to cite me and my work! Even though librarianship has a long way to go I feel so supported & loved.
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Nice to know that the Think Tank continues to be trash! Happy New Year! Barely a day in before a new 💩 opinion arrived.
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“Oh she’s been having a rough time lately.”
Oh my bad please racism away! Clearly you’re the only one dealing with shit during these plague years! (4/n)
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Bloop! I’ve written a paper about this! I haven’t had time to submit it anywhere yet, but best believe this is a major aspect of vocational awe! How terrible is it for everyone who can’t “always be working” to have to try and adapt to such a toxic system. It’s never merit-based.
Being cool and well liked, or seen as "always working" is more important than actually being good at your job or doing any work
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I hate the way that people are using important DEI work not only as a grift but as a tool to spread white supremacy. Talk about salt in the wound. And shame on the library for being a part of this.
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Here are my full thoughts on the whole situation with
@SPLBuzz
and
@LibraryJournal
. Please read. Especially those who are past/current awardees.
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Libraries are the cornerstone of democracy! And by democracy we mean caving into the loudest minority at the expense of our workers and communities at the slightest provocation! -sigh- the bar is on the ground and libraries keep happily digging underneath it.
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Hello everyone. I don’t have the words of my own to share right now. It’s too hard. Please read this from my sister. And please don’t reply with pics of your pets/children. While well-meaning it’ll just make me feel worse. I’ll be here on and off. Thanks.
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I mean obviously vocational awe (yikes), but what’s sad is that people believe this, when it’s not true. Work will grind your body & soul into dust and then hire someone else when you’re gone. Please remember that no matter how wonderful your boss/job is it’s not worth dying for.
No. What it comes down to is, if you wanna make it/survive, you have to make yourself indispensable. You have to be able to do 100 things. Can't just be a writer. Have to be a podcaster, a Tik Toker, a blogger. It's just reality. It sucks. It's grinding. It blows. But it's true.
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Finally, all I have left to say is that this statement shows all of us- BIPOC or white, LGBTQ or straight that we are worth nothing in the grind that is capitalism. And that vocational awe can apparently justify even human rights atrocities. I am disgusted.
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