ALA Executive Board Stands With REFORMA

From the American Library Association:

On Jan. 23, 2022, the REFORMA National Membership virtual meeting was infiltrated by a group of people shouting racial slurs and hate speech seeking to create trauma  for participants. The ALA Executive Board stands with REFORMA in strongly condemning the attack. American Association of School Librarians’ (AASL) past president Kathy Carroll characterized “zoombombing” as “a civilized term for hate crime” in response to a similar incident at their spring 2020 town hall meeting. The Board agrees with Carroll and pledges to support our colleagues, affiliates, and other LIS associations to ensure their meetings are safe spaces for participants. REFORMA, one of the National Associations of Librarians of Color and an ALA affiliate, recently marked 50 years of serving Latinos and the Spanish speaking through the provision of library and information resources and services and promoting the value of bilingual and bicultural library staff. ALA values its collaborative partnership with REFORMA and wishes to amplify their statement which reads in full:

REFORMA National strongly condemns attacks against our community
Today, our annual REFORMA National General Membership zoom meeting was interrupted by individuals using racial slurs and hate speech against women. REFORMA National strongly condemns these types of attacks against our BIPOC community. We deserve a space where we can thrive and connect with each other without having to worry about these horrible attacks. We will not allow these attacks to intimidate us and we will continue our long standing practice of providing a platform for our members to connect and engage with each other. For the members who were in attendance we are sorry you had to endure that traumatic experience. Please know that we will continue to put measures in place to avoid future disruptions. We stand together and strong.

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