Reiterating Visibility: Canadian Librarians’ Experiences of Racial Microaggressions via Findings from a Minority Librarians Network Redux Survey

Abstract

Based on the data from the Visible Minority Librarians of Canada 2021 Redux Survey, this study examines experiences of racial microaggressions among visible minority librarians in Canada. This research fills the gap in the library and information science (LIS) literature regarding racial microaggressions in librarianship in the Canadian context. Of the 148 respondents, 69% (n=102) experienced at least one stated racial microaggression. The result of a Kruskal-Wallis H test revealed a significant association between years of experience as a librarian and a librarian’s overall experiences with microaggressions. A post hoc test based on Bonferroni correction was run, which indicated that librarians with less than five years of work experience encountered microaggressions less frequently compared to those with 11–15 years of experience. For the ten stated types of racial microaggressions, the most frequently reported type was “I was told that people of all racial groups face the same barriers in employment or promotion,” and the least frequently reported type was “A colleague claimed that he/she felt threatened because of my race.” Fisher's exact tests were further performed to examine how the respondents differed in their experiences of each microaggression. The test results revealed that the librarians with different personal attributes (ethnicity, disability status, gender identity, language used) and employment attributes (librarian experience, management position, library type) had significantly different encounters with eight forms of microaggression. Professional library associations and libraries must strengthen education about racial microaggressions and offer support to visible minority librarians when they are confronted with microaggressive behaviours.