‘Racist’ Libraries

As a child, I was a proverbial book worm. In fact, I might have merited the title of book python because I ‘ingested’ so many books. One of my favourite childhood recollections is of spending Saturday mornings at my local library and coming home with a carrier bag ponderous with books on topics such as magic tricks, map reading and history. The head librarian, the late Mrs G, often suggested books to me. She was the kind of middle-aged woman who combines a no-nonsense approach with affection. There was no talking above whispers in her library. She wisely advised me to keep reading. I wonder what Mrs G would have made of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals’ (CILIP) recent guidance to Welsh librarians.

If you have not heard, CILIP has produced guidelines telling Welsh librarians to avoid ‘racist buildings’. It urges librarians, when organising anti-racist training, to avoid choosing venues that have any link with slavery or colonialism. As you guessed, this guidance is part of Welsh Labour’s wider crusade against so-called white privilege and supposed structural racism in Wales.

If librarians are in any doubt as to which buildings they ought to shun, the Welsh government produced in 2021 a report which lists community centres, schools and even pubs that have some kind of link with slavery and colonialism. Each building is colour-coded which tells you just how racist the place is supposed to be. Red means the building is definitely racist, orange means its racist status is uncertain and green means a building that might appear guilty but is in fact innocent. Presumably, orange coded buildings are to be avoided just in case a link to slavery or the colonies is discovered.

The connection between a building and racism can simply be made through the building’s name. Thus, the Buccaneer Inn in Tenby, Pembrokeshire has received an orange designation because there is evidence that buccaneers sometimes traded in slaves but were also known to have racially diverse crews. Does this mean that those who own the Inn, its employees and those who enjoy its hospitality are morally deficient because they continue simply to be in a building whose link to slavery is merely in its name? And if that is the case, are all the millions of people who enjoyed watching the film series Pirates of the Caribbean guilty by association also? How insane and defamatory such conclusions are and yet if you think that a building can be racist, that is where you can end up in your thinking.

CILIP also provides information about historical figures after whom buildings and streets are named and whom it deems racist. On this list are the usual suspects such as Winston Churchill and Cecil Rhodes. There are some people who have been surprisingly included such as Mahatma Ghandi, but he is listed as an invitation for discussion and further research to see if he was culpable of links to slavery. That Ghandi has a statue in Cardiff ought to be evidence of Welsh anti-colonialism, but not so according to the Welsh government.

Even a whole village is named in the report. Nelson, a village in Caerphilly, has been given an orange rating because it was named after the great admiral Lord Nelson. Why the village is only rated orange when the report is certain that Nelson was a colonialist and an opponent of William Wilberforce’s anti-slavery campaign is confusing. Moreover, CILIP’s conclusion is disputed by the Nelson Society, which lists Nelson’s enlightened actions as counter-evidence. For example, Nelson supported in 1802 the proposal that West Indian plantation slaves should be emancipated and replaced by free, paid Chinese workers. The Society argues that the letter which Nelson wrote to plantation owner Simon Taylor in 1805 and which is the sole piece of evidence that Nelson was an advocate for slavery was altered after Nelson’s death to suit the anti-abolitionists’ cause. None of this, however, appears to have given CILIP pause for thought.

If an orange rating means a place could have racist links, does that mean that the 4,600 people in Nelson are potentially colluding with historic crimes simply by living in a suspect village? What about people who drive to the village for work or through the village on the way to somewhere else? Are they too under suspicion? When taken to their logical conclusion, CILIP’s guidelines are seen for what they are-absurd.

But what CILIP has failed to see is that by its own logic libraries ought to be colour-coded red and CILIP ought to cancel itself for its links to historic oppression. Libraries were first developed in ancient cities such as Alexandria, Athens, Ephesus and Nineveh for their exclusive use by academics. These cities’ economies were dependant on slavery and so slave-created wealth was used to build the libraries. As slaves were the ones who did the labouring, it is likely that ancient libraries were built by them. Alexandria was founded by Alexander the Great whose empire stretched from Greece to India. Nineveh was the Assyrian empire’s capital. The Romans, who were prolific slave owners and imperialists par excellence, were the ones who created the modern library ethos by opening them to the general public. Such historical connections between libraries, slavery and empire-building cannot be ignored, surely.

So, people of CILIP, here is my advice to you: instead of promoting a divisive anti-racist crusade that ends up questioning your very own institution’s existence, why not focus on doing what is your real job which is to help librarians get even better than they already are at providing a library service for anyone who wishes to read and study without distraction. That would do far more for social cohesion and civilised values than your right-on agenda and most importantly, you would have made Mrs G very happy.    

Peter Harris is the author of two books, The Rage Against the Light: Why Christopher Hitchens Was Wrong (2019) and Do You Believe It? A Guide to a Reasonable Christian Faith (2020).

If you enjoy The New Conservative and would like to support our work, please consider buying us a coffee or sharing this piece with your friends – it would really help to keep us going. Thank you!

Please follow and like us: