Officials with the public library system in Madison, Wisconsin, are defending an upcoming “movement and mediation class” that the library says is “intended” for elder racial minorities in the community. Critics of the class say that the program runs afoul of Wisconsin’s public accommodation law by making it clear the program is meant for residents who identify as “black, indigenous or people of color.”
Starting Friday, May 6, Goodman South Library and South Madison Library in the Badger State’s capital city will begin holding a “Movement and Meditation Class for Seniors” each Friday during the month of May. It will be hosted by KLJ Movement, a “professional performance and dance company that embraces the influence of black and brown people in the world of dance.”
A spokesperson for the library admitted to The Daily Wire that while the class is open to all, it is specifically designed for non-white individuals over the age of 55.
“The intent is not to be racist or anti-white, but to make people of color, particularly seniors in the neighborhoods those two libraries serve, feel comfortable in coming to those programs, knowing that they’ll be in a place where others who look like them will be moving and meditating with them,” Tana Elias, digital services and marketing manager for Madison Public Libraries, said in an email sent to The Daily Wire when asked for her response to critics.
“White people are not excluded from the event, but they are the majority of our total program audience,” she added. “This program is an intentional effort with a community partner to include a segment of Madison’s population that we know we’re not serving as regularly, and who are more likely to suffer from poor health.”
Not everybody sees it that way.
On Thursday, Dan Lennington, an attorney with the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, flagged the upcoming class on Twitter, comparing it to “critical race yoga.”
Critical Race Yoga? Madison, WI Public Library hosting “movement & meditation” classes “intended for BIPOC seniors 55+.” Notebooks and writing materials will be provided so you can reflect on your racial identity. pic.twitter.com/HHu4q7ONPX
— Dan Lennington (@DanLennington) April 14, 2022
Lennington told The Daily Wire that there is a clear double-standard going on here.
“If they said, ‘This program is intended for White seniors 55+,’ everyone would immediately denounce the program as racist,” Lennington explained. “I’m not sure why the same standard would not apply to the current description of the program.”
“In other words, the library is clear that the program is ‘not intended’ for White seniors. Wisconsin’s public-accommodation law prohibits ‘unequal treatment,’ and creating a program ‘intended’ for one race and not another would violate that principle,” he argued.
Yet Elias claimed that the event is no different than any other sort of programming the library does with an intended audience in mind.
“Many of our programs have intended audiences – seniors, preschoolers, etc.,” Elias said. “We are working with the Madison Senior Center to help them explore a new program for older adults, particularly older adults of color, because they experience higher levels of social isolation according to local and national statistics, which leads to poorer health.”
“While anyone can come to the program, these neighborhood libraries serve areas with a higher percentage of people of color” she continued.
“The language is intended to make our neighborhood seniors, particularly seniors of color, feel welcome at the program,” she reiterated.
Lennington claimed that the language used to market the event was not clear that it was open to all Madison residents.
“The Constitution prohibits government institutions, like libraries, from discriminating based on race,” he said. “In fact, public-accommodation laws, which have been on the books for decades, require public spaces to be colorblind in how they service the community.”
“Madison should follow the Constitution and nondiscrimination laws and make clear that this program is open to all, regardless of race,” he added.
Lennington also pointed out that this is not the first time that the government in Madison has tried programs that feature racial segregation — even if only intended and not enforced.
For example, a report from the Wisconsin Institute for Liberty and Law recently noted that in August 2021, “Madison Metropolitan School District partnered with the City of Madison to offer a program only for ‘Black/brown girls in the Madison area entering 9th grade.'”
“White girls were not allowed. In a grant application to expand their program, the ‘Dear Diary’ organizers explained that their program is ‘rooted in equity’ because everything that Black people ‘have learned is acceptable has been rooted in white supremacy,'” WILL explained.
Still, Elias maintained that this event was not discriminatory.
“Libraries do a lot of targeted programming – girl scout/boy scout troop tours, bilingual computer classes, Hmong story times, literacy classes, Donuts with Dads, homeless services outreach, tax assistance, etc. – where the audience is more narrowly defined, either by a partnership with another community group, or an intent to have audience participants feel comfortable,” she claimed in an email to The Daily Wire.
A sample of KLJ’s past performances can be seen here:
