Performances of racial identity are shaped by norms of dominant groups and consumed for profit with little effect or acknowledgement of racial capitalist systems

Performance demands Performance demands refers to the identity performances of racialized people that stem from pressures “... to perform their nonwhiteness and to perform it in a way palatable to the white majority” (Leong, 2013, p. 2207). The librarians expressed great interest in the IT librarian’s language ability rather than expertise and knowledge in their area of work in the scenario. Though the IT librarian’s position is not related to any public-facing work, it is suggested that the librarian’s language capability could be used if needed by the other librarians. The pressures to perform one’s racialized identity/identities is a form of commodification that is selective as well. Leong (2013) explains that often dominant groups will determine what parts of a person’s racialized identity is acceptable to perform, and in the case of the IT librarian, speaking “Chinese” is deemed acceptable if needed when working with Chinese students, however, this is likely confined to that task. Racial capitalism commodifies the performance of one’s racialized identity in specific settings identified by the dominant group. Leong (2013) explains that selected identity performances take “time, money, and psychological resources” (p. 2209) referencing cases where people change their names, hair, and clothing to reflect dominant social norms. Consuming trauma stories. The consumption of racial trauma stories can be observed in the media and literature. Racial trauma can come in many forms from discrimination to physical violence and has a serious mental and emotional impact on racialized groups. Helms et al. (2010) explain that “racist incidents are, at minimum, a form of emotional abuse and, therefore, can be traumatic. Moreover, ethnoviolence, regardless of form, is physical or emotional abuse whose cultural focus may not be immediately apparent to the opposing ethnic groups and thus may go unrecognized as an ethnoviolent event” (p. 55). Racial trauma can cause anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues. Hong (2020) explains through personal accounts that racial trauma narratives are often used in stories of individual growth of racialized people, ignoring the larger societal structures (e.g. law, education) including “the racist capitalist system that keeps the individual in place” (p. 47). The commodification and consumption of trauma stories uses suffering of racialized people particularly when these trauma stories are created and consumed for and by dominant groups. While some may argue that these trauma stories are necessary to understand and empathize with one’s pain and suffering, this is at the expense of racialized groups that are pushing against the hegemonic narrative of “oppressive logics” (Mueller and Issa, 2016, p. 132). In anti-racism training, stories of racial trauma (e.g. examples of racist incidents) are often used in group sessions to help participants “understand” racism and the impact of microaggressions to overt forms of racism. This group consumption of racial trauma stories imposes further damage on racialized staff and librarians who must re-visit traumatic experiences in the presence of those who may have perpetrated acts of racism and discrimination. Consumption of racist incidents does little to address internalized racist practices in the institution that reinforce racist practices in overt and covert ways. Further that, it does little to address more inherent problematic ideologies such as white supremacy, neoliberalism, and capitalism that help to perpetuate oppressive structures and practice. Cultural performance demands. Some libraries may have outreach programming and events aimed at racialized groups for holidays or educating the larger community through awareness campaigns. Often this type of work is delegated or assigned to racialized librarians, adding more work and pressures to perform identity work. This form of performance demand draws on the assumption of the monolithic racialized experience, that one racialized person represents an entire group. When racialized librarians are asked to perform identity work, they are tasked with cultural education or anti-racism and EDI A discussion on racial capitalism and libraries 135 committee work. Anantachai and Chelsey (2018) found in their study of librarians that identify as racialized women that they experienced heavier workloads and challenges also known as cultural taxation (Padilla, 1994). The librarians interviewed in the study shared experiences of being support for racialized students and faculty along with the emotional labour needed for the day-to-day work. They found that “the intersections between the burden of care and cultural taxation faced by women of color in higher education are already apparent. For women of color librarians, the burdens they face as a result of their intersectional identities are further exacerbated by their professional characterization as care workers” (Padilla, 1994, p. 303). It is important to check one’s assumptions about racialized colleagues and understand that their experiences as racialized people will vary, including cultural knowledge and practices. For example, Chinese New Year celebrations vary in each household and region. There may also have evolved into different practices for first generation, second generation, and immigrant families in North America. Furthermore, some Chinese Americans/Canadians may not celebrate the tradition. Racial capitalism places value on racialized librarians or staff members’ cultural knowledge when there is some capitalistic benefit (e.g. appearing multicultural).