Scan of a letter from Sandy Berman to The Policy, Training, and Cooperative Programs Division of the Library of Congress. It reads:
3-22-25
Policy, Training, and Cooperative Programs Division
Library of Congress
Washington, DC 20540-4305
Dear Colleagues,
BRAVO! Your recent conversion of DENALI, MOUNT (ALASKA) and
MEXICO, GULF OF to MCKINLEY, MOUNT (ALASKA) and AMERICA, GULF OF, respectively, as both primary and subheadings was breathtakingly thorough and detailed. You are masters of your craft.
Alas, you are also willful handmaidens of chauvinism, ethnocentrism
and fascism. Also: Trumpism.
Many weeks ago I expressed the hope that LC would resist the
temptation to implement this palpably capricious, arbitrary, and
baseless name-charging. That admonition appears to have gone unheeded.
Our President has no authority to wantonly replace the name for
international waters that abut more countries than our own.
Beyond that, the Gulf of Mexico has been so known since about
the 16th Century. Its renaming, totally rejected by neighboring
Mexico, smacks of arrogant linguistic imperialism.
It seems the whole state of Alaska prefers the Athabascan place-
name, Denali, to McKinley, a U.S. President associated with American
expansion who never set foot in Alaska. The widely-unwanted name change is an affront to Alaska's indigenous population, as well as
its state legislature and two Republican senators.
Although LC has now fully demonstrated its lock-step deference to
bigoted, unjustified authority, I hope American librarians will muster the moral and intellectual strength. to ignore its dismal example.
Sorrowfully,
[large, sprawling, angry signature]
Sanford Berman
Margaret Mann Citation Recipient
Robert B. Downs Intellectual Freedom Award Recipient
ALA Equality Award Recipient
Herb Biblo Outstanding Leadership Award for Social Justice & Equality Recipient
4400 Morningside Road
Edina, MN 55416
Here's a banger from Sandy Berman about the #lcsh changes from Mount Denali to Mount McKinley and Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America (and The Policy, Training, and Cooperative Programs Division of the Library of Congress being "handmaidens to chauvinism, ethnocentrism and fascism."). 📚