Making Statements: a Reflection

Something bad has happened and it is once again time to make a statement. Or, more likely, if you’re the member of a professional organization, to demand that the organization’s leadership make a statement.

As we’ve endured the first month of a second Trump presidency, I’ve been reflecting on the last time around. In early 2017, I was in a digital collections role and active in the Society of American Archivists. That was also the last year of the (dysfunctional) Archives & Archivists listerv. These days, I float on the edges of archival practice, but maintain some awareness through friendships and research partnerships. My thoughts here are about SAA but apply more broadly.

In the last month, SAA leadership has issued two statements:

• one on the firing of the Archivist of the United States and
• one on the firing of NARA staff.

Both of these were necessary. Both are short but convey the stakes. The first includes talking points for use in advocacy. The second is written in a way from which it’s easy to derive such talking points.

Why Statements Are Necessary

Before I get into my concerns about the desire of memberships for professional organizations to issue statements about every fresh hell, I want to establish up front why I think statements are necessary.

One of the major purposes of professional organizations is to estalish norms and orientations for the field. Statements are one way of doing this. They speak to the way things should or shouldn’t be.

Statements are also a way to convey talking points with added authority.¹ It’s not just you as a person saying this, it’s a body of people elected by others in the field.

And finally they are a way to record these positions for the future. Back in 2019, I was (favorably) shocked by some of the resolutions SAA passed in the 70s and 80s. If they hadn’t been put into resolutions and referenced by Mr. Motley, I would not know these were under discussion, let alone that there was broad consensus.

But We Can’t Statement Our Way Out Of This

Ultimately, statements only have so much power. The Society of American Archivists doesn’t control its membership, let alone the government of the United States.

Time and energy are scarce. The cognitive load of writing a statement is high. As one person blogging on her personal site, I can write what I’m thinking and feeling. It still takes hours as I try to get it right. I can also screw up, hear feedback, apologize, and seek to amend. Writing statements on behalf of an organization, especially on a fraught issue, generally involves many people and multi-hour commitments per statement from each of those people.

So when a statement will only do so much, I don’t think it’s prudent to burn out our volunteers (or paid workers) in a cycle of reactivity.

This doesn’t mean business as usual. But can our leaders work on something more material than a statement? Can they work on ensuring other important work isn’t dropped? Can membership pick up and make something happen within the organization or organize ourselves into doing something?

So When (and Who?) to Statement?

I’m not writing this to suggest specific guidance or say that a statement matters when X happens and not when Y happens. It is on all of us to condemn harms and use whatever means we have to counter them. And I think it’s important for us to do this through the variety of organizations to which we may belong or through building new structures and alliances together.

As I said before, the two statements SAA leadership made are necessary and appropriate. Because everything in our lives is interrelated, they certainly could write statements on all the other hells being unleashed, but they are not the experts in all these areas.

Similarly, I don’t expect my church to issue a statement on archives, but Mennonite Church USA joined an interfaith lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security for violating our freedom of religion and the practice of sanctuary. That was also necessary and appropriate.

And sometimes the appropriate group isn’t the overall leadership. For example, I don’t think that the SAA Council or Committee on Public Policy (COPP) need to make statements about the Library of Congress Subject Headings changing to reflect new government place names. But the Description Section could make a recommendation that institutions continue to use both “Gulf of Mexico” and “Denali.” This could include a statement addressing why the group decided to make this recommendation. Best practices won’t save us either, but they provide some support for those who are attempting to do the work under these systems.

Beyond Statements

In a couple of the examples above, we’re already getting beyond statements. A lawsuit is much more than a statement.² A professional standard is a different kind of statement from a press-release style statement.

Sometimes we need to act in tandem with our organizations to get things done. I think of the Archival Workers Emergency Fund group which pulled together material support for colleagues impacted by 2020 shutdowns and closures. They started outside of SAA but used some of SAA’s structures to distribute funds.

Sometimes we get things done by working outside of existing structures. Sam Winn organized the #52Fund and distributed most of that directly to individuals. I am involved in several (non-archives) mutual aid efforts Consistent Money Moving Project and the AGSL Pine Ridge project, both of which try to prioritize recipient experiences. This looks like working outside government ideas of nonprofits while still building our own structures and trust.³

As I was writing this, Hugh Rundle just wrote up some of this own thoughts about acts libraries worldwide can take to disentangle themselves from monopolies and US hegemony. What concrete changes can Australians make to current practice to ensure that they don’t end up with “Gulf of America” in their catalogs? None of his references or recommendations involve statements, all of them involve groups restructuring themselves, revisiting past efforts, and otherwise organizing and taking action.

This prayer is specific to my faith tradition, but it reflects a social truth.⁴ You can substitute whatever it is that you belong to – a profession, a union, a town, a country, an ideal – because it all comes back to all of us.

Christ has no body now but yours
No hands, no feet on earth but yours
Yours are the eyes through which He looks
Compassion on this world
Yours are the feet with which He walks to do good
Yours are the hands with which He blesses all the world
Yours are the hands
Yours are the feet
Yours are the eyes
You are His body
Christ has no body now on earth but yours

This will take all of us. Speak out yourself through blogging or other forms of writing. Write your own statements! Put out ideas for actions we can take and team up with others who want the same thing. Meet with others in your community and take action there. And yes, when it fits with their expertise and area of work, ask our professional organizations to make a statement too.⁵