Racial Equity Statement
As a community-(em)powered archives that explicitly serves the LGBTQIA+ community and the preservation of community members’ interconnected histories, Lambda Archives of San Diego must be accountable to this community--past, present and emerging, particularly to communities of color. Lambda Archives is intentionally prioritizing underrepresented histories and underserved communities, particularly collections that document LGBTQIA+ people of color and organizations that explicitly serve LGBTQIA+ people of color.
Our commitment to addressing, serving and uplifting communities of color will be increasingly evident in all aspects of the Archives. The single question is applicable to our archival processes such as donor relations, the acquisition and assessment of collections, descriptive work, and providing equitable access to our digital and physical spaces. Our understanding of and commitment to our racial equity work extends into our operations, including but not limited to organizational leadership and governance, policy-making, recruitment, mentoring, communications, community collaborations, outreach, and programming.
While the purpose of archives is to provide access to records and information, it’s not that simple, as people are increasingly complex and communities of color are not monoliths. And as sociocultural norms are always evolving, this means we are always becoming. And LGBTQIA+ folx of color, those living with (in)visible disabilities and/or are undocumented or otherwise vulnerable are, in a capitalist society that operates under white supremacist ideology, just that...vulnerable. So while part of Lambda Archives’s mission is to provide access to records and information, we have a clear responsibility to do what we can to mitigate harm and violence through archival work. While our control over how a person who obtains information from the archives uses that information is limited, we do have the power to make ourselves accountable and do our due diligence through an ethics of care.
Our commitment to addressing, serving and uplifting communities of color will be increasingly evident in all aspects of the Archives. The single question is applicable to our archival processes such as donor relations, the acquisition and assessment of collections, descriptive work, and providing equitable access to our digital and physical spaces. Our understanding of and commitment to our racial equity work extends into our operations, including but not limited to organizational leadership and governance, policy-making, recruitment, mentoring, communications, community collaborations, outreach, and programming.
While the purpose of archives is to provide access to records and information, it’s not that simple, as people are increasingly complex and communities of color are not monoliths. And as sociocultural norms are always evolving, this means we are always becoming. And LGBTQIA+ folx of color, those living with (in)visible disabilities and/or are undocumented or otherwise vulnerable are, in a capitalist society that operates under white supremacist ideology, just that...vulnerable. So while part of Lambda Archives’s mission is to provide access to records and information, we have a clear responsibility to do what we can to mitigate harm and violence through archival work. While our control over how a person who obtains information from the archives uses that information is limited, we do have the power to make ourselves accountable and do our due diligence through an ethics of care.