Unequal Legacies: Race and Multiculturalism in the LIS Curriculum

Abstract

Race remains poorly understood and inadequately represented in library and information science (LIS) education. Educators tend to avoid the term “race,” preferring the more inclusive “multiculturalism.” Yet these terms are far from equivalent: the various dimensions of multiculturalism, including race, ethnicity, class, and gender, have different histories and different theoretical explanations. Four models dominate LIS research and teaching: science/technology, business/management, mission/service, and society/culture. Each has left its own racialized legacy, invisibly influencing the field’s current concepts of race. Drawing on recent research into “whiteness” and racial formation, I show that although each model transmits an inheritance that perpetuates white privilege, each also carries the potential for positive transformation. Arguing that courses in all four areas have the capability to foreground race, the article outlines ways in which faculty, students, and library practitioners together can make curricular changes that contribute to the creation of libraries as “nonwhite” or “race‐neutral” spaces.