Wikipedians be a part of shaping a plan for change? Is this simply performative or will there be action?
In their statement, Mayer and Uzzell (2020) highlighted campaigns, specifically AfroCROWD, Black Lunch Table, and Whose Knowledge?—three U.S.-based campaigns and affliates that have a proximity to the Foundation. In the past, the Foundation had been critical of these groups through grant evaluations. These groups still are grant funded, but now their works are publicly promoted with the Foundation’s backing. The statement also focused on the lived experiences of Black people in the United States and while the aim of it was to be supportive and inclusive of all, the statement potentially alienated other members of the Black diaspora. By excluding Black Wikipedian communities outside of the United States, who are not affiliated with the Foundation, they further marginalized the community that they desired to support.
There is a great deal of work to be done addressing white supremacy in libraries and archives. Librarians and archivists partially contribute to inequities in source materials and by defining authority. Black-led projects have been doing important and critical work around information activism connected to the African diaspora in Wikipedia. Where there is no content, some of these projects are creating it and opening conversations around authority of sources including marginalized communities’ definition of what an authoritative source is.
Roots in White Supremacy: Libraries and Archives
The roots of many professions in the United States are in white supremacy. Librarianship in the United States is no different. Many library scholars, such as Hathcock (2015), Bourg (2014), Espinal (2001), Galvan (2015), Hall (2012), and Honma (2005), have documented and highlighted this in literature. Scholar and activist April Hathcock (2015) described the invisible normativity of whiteness in librarianship’s origins as “a fundamental role in the profession from the start. Public libraries in the U.S. developed initially as sites of cultural
