Library Lovin

I forgot how much fun the library was. Just the other day, I went to check out some books that I needed for a research paper I'm working on entitled: Framing Black Males: Exploring the Status of African American Males in Television and Society, Historically and Contemporarily.

Earlier that day I was ironically shocked that there was not an African American library or section within the library. All other marginalized groups, except for Native Americans, had a space in which students could go to explore topics on that group. A part of me wants to charge the Administration for disregarding and not entertaining the idea of having an African American section. However, I am weary of the challenge that might lie ahead, but we shall see.

As I browsed through the sections of the library, having to go from floor to floor, again because there was not an African American section, I was soooo excited to glimpse over the titles and the many possibilities of learning from great scholars and authors. One section had the Crisis magazine, subscriptions from 1932!! A big part of me wanted to rip out certain pages to keep and or even steal, just because I wanted a piece of that history sooo bad. Then I realized how much of a disfavor I would be doing to those, just like me, who wanted to explore that part of OUR history.

I had forgotten how much fun the library was and I could have stayed there all day looking at titles, flipping through pages, wondering how I could fit a book into my busy schedule. But I just ended up getting the books I needed: “I Will Wear No Chains,” by Christopher B. Booker, “Watching Race,” by Herman Gray, “Split Image: African Americans In the Mass Media,” by Jannette L. Dates and William Barlow, “Racism and Anti-Racism in American Popular Culture,” by Catherine and John Silk, and “Prime Time Blues,” by Donald Bogle. And I got a special book I have ALWAYS wanted to read and will make time for: “The Souls of Black Folks,” by W.E.B. Dubois.

I forgot how much fu the library was and I remembered how much I loved to write, and that one day students, just as I, will be reading my books, wanting to rip out the pages to keep.

What’s the Reality? …the library is cooler than that!