Neighborhood Safety is an Open Book

 

 

I’ve got a map for you. Can you guess what it is showing you?

No, it’s not hot chicken places.

It’s showing you the location of Little Free Libraries in our area that are officially registered with the 

Little Free Library organization in Wisconsin  St. Paul, Minnesota. *

There’s a new one in town. 

Thanks to the good folks in Dorsey’s Search Community Association I now know that a new LFL has popped up on Leyden Way. You can see the locations of many more at their world wide map. There’s even an app!

To learn more about the mission of Little Free Libraries a good place to start is the About Us section of their website.

Now I have a question for you. Who are these Little Free Libraries for? If you put one up in your yard, who is welcome to use it? Is it for the people in your neighborhood? Or is it for anyone in the whole wide world?

All the information I see is telling me that anyone is welcome to visit the library and take a book. The existence of a worldwide registration of Little Free Libraries appears to back that up.

Now let’s talk about reality.

We like to think of ourselves in Columbia/HoCo as fostering/welcoming/celebrating diversity. Yet I have lost count of the times people go on social media to report that people who “don’t belong” are walking around in their neighborhood - - what should they do? 

I have also lost count of the times they are met with the response: call the police. 

We know the drill, don’t we? They’re Black, they’re Brown, they don’t belong.

Do you remember this story?

Recently retired Ravens football player Torrey Smith, a Howard County resident, related the following experience on Twitter:

Nothing like a casual encounter with Karen walking the dog smh

Update: She called the cops 😑

The lady told me last night “You don’t live here, I live here” as I’m 40 yards from my property and half a mile from hers 😑

If we have neighborhoods and neighbors in Columbia/HoCo who operate under those assumptions, then that will necessarily diminish the goal of our Little Free Libraries. If non-white people are not safe walking down the street in your neighborhood, then they are not safe using your Little Free Library. 

I’ve seen plenty of white folks say there’s no racism whatsoever here. And yet I see Black and Brown community members recounting incidents of racism regularly. That kind of disconnect makes our non-white neighbors feel less safe and less inclined to share their lived experiences.

And thank goodness we have a robust public library system where - - I profoundly hope - - no one is going to be reported for using books where they don’t belong. 

But, let’s be blunt: if only some people and not others are safe using your Little Free Library, then you don’t live in a safe neighborhood. 

I read an article this morning entitled My Little Free Library Helped Me Be a Better Neighbor. The author recounts her experiences and how curating her little library became a community building activity for her over time. It’s a lovely piece.  But how do we make our communities safe for Little Free Libraries? That’s community-building, too. 

Village Green/Town² Comments 

*I believe they started out in Wisconsin.