[radical librarian]

I would love to help organize a campaign to elect a pro-freedom and pro-America group at the next ALA election, but as a student, I don't have as much contact with other members of ALA as someone who has been out in the field for a while.

Further, I run the risk of having myself "blackballed" by the librarian establishment. I know the idea of such a thing sounds ridiculous, but the specialized branch of librarianship I am interested in (law libraries) is a relatively small group.

One of my professors sits on a "diversity" board at the ALA. She constantly speaks in class about the oppression of minority races (what that has to do with librarianship, I don't know). She has made comments about how she doesn't like to go into a library and see "nothing but pink" (a slam towards whites; she's Asian), and has told classes it is "their fault" that they don't speak Chinese or Spanish when spoken to by a member of a minority in a library. She is exactly the kind of person that would try to hinder me in my attempts to find employment upon graduation.

[D. Brian Carter]

So she doesn't like to go in the library and see "nothing but pink"? Those damn white people! Always in here studying and reading and checking out books! Damn them! Rascists!

Now I've heard it all.

[speedy]

First of all, welcome aboard -- I see you truly are a freshly-minted Freeper. I appreciate the difficulty of your position. Perhaps at least as a starter you could politely challenge your professor's radical statements, so that at least she recognizes that not everyone is buying her line. I know, it's tough; in many a college class I just burned inside rather than go through the hassle of speaking up and having the leftist prof unload on me. I did used to find, though, that even posing a mild objection had the affect of energizing like-minded people in class. Isn't it pathetic that you have to worry about being blackballed as a librarian just for diverging from the party line? You do need to organize your ideological friends and confront this as a group. You will be amazed at what you can accomplish and the challenges that can result. Good luck and keep coming back here for encouragement -- I do it all the time after a hard day of being assaulted by liberals at work. This is where we come for nourishment, radlib.

[Humidston]

Now I've heard it all.... "pink."

What's "pink" about geography, math, science, government, history, literature?

I can't help you but I can say a prayer for you. Looks like you're going to need it! (And keep your head down till you land a position. ;-)

[Born to Think]

I asked a librarian last week about the news articles which are making heroes out of librarians who are undermining the provisions of the Patriot Act. I was wondering why librarians are not taking to heart and mind the events of 9/11 and the ongoing major threat to our democracy. He said that the so-called threat to privacy which these librarians are claiming is simply not the case for 99.999% of the public and that the scare tactics are a grand "put up" job. He attends the ALA conferences and says that the very same group in ALA which works to discredit anyone who says a peep against Castro is the same group which have organized the scare campaign to overturn the entire Patriot Act or as much of it as they can. The public should be aware where this is all coming from and speak up to put a stop to the proliferation of distortions. Library commissioners and boards should understand that the vast majority of the public supports and applauds the federal government in its war on terrorism and does not support public employees who are working to weaken its ability to carry out the war of terrorism. I think some librarians just repeat ALA statements because they've never stopped to think that they shouldn't. There seems to be a heck of a lot of political correctness among librarians.

[Under the Radar]

Further, I run the risk of having myself "blackballed" by the librarian establishment. I know the idea of such a thing sounds ridiculous, but the specialized branch of librarianship I am interested in (law libraries) is a relatively small group.

Law librarians are a TINY group. BTW, since this is what you are going for, don't even worry about the ALA-- you need to join AALL, which is not as far to the left as the ALA. Most law librarians (reference, not technical service, at least), ignore the ALA entirely. We almost managed to miss the whole "Double Fold" bruhahaha entirely, if you can believe it.

UtR