In this environment, we must do more than just strive for equality. Advancing equity must be our goal. Equality means that everyone gets the same treatment, the same chances, the same resources, and so forth. When we focus on equality, our ultimate goal becomes fairness. Equity means that everyone gets what they need to thrive, no matter their identity or zip code. When we focus on equity, our ultimate goal becomes justice. This is a critically important difference. Focusing on equality ignores the huge disparities in resources and treatment that already exist in the United States. For everyone to have a true opportunity to thrive, we need to acknowledge that inequities exist that negatively impact access to health care, education, housing, jobs, and even library resources. We also must realize that these inequities exist in part because we are all starting from different points on the track of life. We need to recognize that ādifferent starting pointsā are not solely individual but are related to categories of privilege and marginalization based on race, gender, sexual orientation, ability, and other aspects of identity. Only then can we begin to question and disrupt the systems that are responsible for creating and maintaining these differences, and in so doing work for equity.
In this chapter, I provide a demographic snapshot of todayās youth. I then discuss some of the systemic inequities youth who are marginalized because of their identities (marginalized-identity youth) face in the education system and how these inequities are often reinforced in libraries. I end the chapter by suggesting an equity framework for library staff to consider and propose how it can be embedded in collection management work.
YOUTH IN AMERICA
Youth in America hold multiple identities that shape their experiences of equality or inequality. Between 1990 and 2017 the U.S. child population increased by more than 9 million, from 64.2 million to 73.7 million. Forty-seven percent of youth in the U.S. are children and teens of color (Annie E. Casey Foundation 2019). Since 1990, growth in the child population has increased most among non-white groups. The percentage of American children who are Latinx more than doubled, from 12 to 26 percent.2 The proportion of Asian and Pacific Islander children has also doubled, from 3 to 6 percent, while the percentage of white children declined from 69 to 53 percent (Annie E. Casey Foundation 2019). Today more than one in four American children grow up in immigrant households (Annie E. Casey Foundation 2019). If these trends continue, demographers conclude that soon there will be no majority racial or ethnic group in the United States.
Accompanying demographic changes in race and ethnicity is an increase in the number of young Americans who speak a language other than English at home. Over the past two decades, the population of English language learners (ELLs) has grown dramatically throughout the United States. In 2016, 9.6 percent of students attending public schools were ELLs (National Center for Educational Statistics 2019a). While ELLs attend schools in all fifty states, they are heavily concentrated in states such as California, Arizona, Florida, Texas, New York, and Illinois. Seventy percent of ELLs speak Spanish; however, as a group, ELLs speak nearly 150 languages (Baird 2015). The most common languages spoken by youth vary by state. While some ELLs are immigrants, the majority are enrolled in U.S. schools, were born in the U.S., and are American citizens (Breiseth 2015).
Racial, ethnic, and language differences are not the only forms of diversity. About 8 percent of all high school students in America identify as LGBTQ (Schlanger 2017). Data on the number of children who identify as LGBTQ is difficult to collect for various reasons; however, one study found that 1 percent of nine- and ten-year-olds self-identify as gay, bisexual, or transgender (Calzo and Blashill 2018). Additionally, a recent survey found that 4.5 percent of U.S. adults identify as LGBTQ; 29 percent of those adults are raising children (Williams Institute 2019).
Our understanding of gender also continues to evolve. Todayās young people have a significantly different comprehension of gender than that of previous generations, with many viewing gender as a spectrum rather than binary. Many of Americaās youth identify as gender-nonconforming, and 56 percent report using gender-neutral pronouns such as they/them (Laughlin 2016). The number of terms used to describe gender continues to grow as our youthās understanding of what gender means to them shifts on a personal level. Increased understanding of gender diversity has consequences for all children, families, organizations, and institutions (Gender Spectrum n.d.).
Estimates of the number of disabled young people living in the U.S. varies. The 2017 Disability Status Report, which analyzed data from the American Community Survey, found that approximately 5 percent of youth ages 0ā20 have one or more disability (Erickson, Lee, and von Schrader 2019). These include hearing, visual, cognitive, ambulatory, self-care, and/or independent living disabilities. The National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs reported that 15.1 percent of children have special health care needs, which they define as a chronic physical, developmental, behavioral, or emotional condition that requires health and related services of a type or amount beyond that required by children generally (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 2013). If children with chronic conditions that last less than a year or who have had at least one chronic condition at any time in childhood are included, up to 50 percent of all U.S. children can be classified as having a disability (Halfon, Houtrow, Larson, and Newacheck 2012). In 2017ā18, the number of students ages 3ā21 who received special education services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) was seven million, or 14 percent of all public school students. Among students receiving special education services, 34 percent had specific learning disabilities (National Center for Educational Statistics 2019b).
Todayās youth also reflect socioeconomic diversity. Income inequality is higher in the United States than most other developed nations (Balestra and Tonkin 2018). Almost a quarter of children in the U.S. live in low-income families, defined as families with an income that is less than twice the federal poverty level. One in six grow up in poverty. The poverty rate for African American and Native American children and teens is substantially higher at 33 percent (Annie E. Casey 2019). The National Center on Family Homelessness estimates that 2.5 million children and teens experience homelessness in America each year; that is, one in every thirty children living in the U.S. (Bassuk, DeCandia, Beach, and Berman 2014) have been or are homeless. Youth who identify as LGBTQ, youth with special needs or disabilities, and youth of colorāparticularly African American and Native American youthāare more likely to become homeless (National Alliance to End Homelessness 2019).
What do all these statistics mean for a library? If forty children or teens representative of these statistics attended a library program:
- ā¢ nineteen would be BIYOC
- ā¢ ten would be Latinx
- ā¢ three to four would identify as LGBTQ+
- ā¢ six would be receiving special education services
- ā¢ ten would live in a low-income household
- ā¢ seven would live in poverty
- ā¢ one would be experiencing homelessness
- ā¢ ten would live in immigrant households
- ā¢ four would be English language learners
Thus, as this brief demographic snapshot shows, even if the youth your library serves appear to be racially or ethnically similar, they are likely to differ in other dimensions of their identity. They may reflect diversity in their physical or learning ability, their language fluency or preferences, their sexual orientation or gender identity, and/or their socioeconomic level. It is also important to remember that people who belong to similar racial or ethnic groups may in fact have very different cultures, beliefs, traditions, and lived experi...
