Antiracism Toolkits for Developing Equitable Workplaces

Abstract

CSE 2020 Fall Symposium MODERATOR: Melanie Dolechek Society for Scholarly Publishing Mount Laurel, New Jersey SPEAKERS: Niccole L Coggins University of Virginia Press Charlottesville, Virginia Randy Townsend American Geophysical Union Washington, District of Columbia REPORTER: Taryn Dollings American Society of Civil Engineers Reston, Virginia Racism and discrimination have been at the forefront of the U.S. national conversation this year, but prominent scholarly publishing professionals have been calling for change in our industry for much longer. This presentation brought together 3 members of the Toolkits for Equity Project to discuss a new resource to address racism, discrimination, and bias in scholarly publishing. “Antiracism Toolkits for Developing Equitable Workplaces,” moderated by Melanie Dolechek and jointly presented by Randy Townsend and Niccole Coggins, gave an overview of the Antiracism Toolkit for Allies.1 The toolkit is intended to help White scholarly publishing professionals recognize and address internal and external bias against Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), with the goal of becoming better allies to BIPOC and working to create more equitable workplaces. Melanie Dolechek introduced the presentation by referencing 2 Scholarly Kitchen posts detailing personal experiences of people of color in scholarly publishing, as well as a survey on diversity in publishing, published by Lee & Low Books. The blog posts highlighted examples of BIPOC’s experiences of racism in the workplace, and the survey identified, statistically, the homogeneity of publishing professionals, who are mostly White.2–4 Dolechek emphasized that change in our workplaces is clearly needed, and that equity must be built from […]