The Government Alliance on Race and Equity (GARE) provides libraries and other institutions with a three-step framework for addressing and promoting racial equity: Normalize, Organize, and Operationalize (Sonnie, 2018). By following this framework, public libraries can achieve real change towards dismantling systemic racism while working with local social justice organizations and communities of color. The first step, Normalize, begins with library leaders and other staff recognizing the role our institutions play in perpetuating race-based discrimination and choosing to invest in racial equity (Sonnie, 2018). This can begin with internal change teams investigating the perpetuation of racism within their library and begin developing a plan to promote racial equity. Additionally, by developing internal change teams …show more content…
It also means defining racial equity competencies and building a capacity of resources to frame training around social justice. This is best done by partnering with other organizations and communities to recognize the work existing organizations have done and to work together to address the needs and wants of the community through community engagement. This means more than outreaching to local communities, and instead libraries should strive to build relationships and conversations with local communities, focusing on removing barriers to leadership for communities of color. Lastly, the GARE framework outlines steps for libraries to operationalize and recommends the use of racial equity assessments for all decisions, policies, programs, and budgets to identify clear goals, objectives, and measurable outcomes while engaging the community in decision-making (Sonnie, 2018). Racial equity assessments also help libraries identify what groups could be affected by specific decisions, and they can reveal any unintended