White privilege at the Library of Congress?

During 2013 and this year, my 2 polite LC requests for their suggestions on recommended reference choices for the genre of white privilege have gotten zero response. Both times, I filled out their automated service request form, received an automated confirmation reply showing my LC question number, but I never heard back from anyone at LC. A few months later, I filled out an automated LC form that clients are asked to use to report any problems that LC clients encounter, but I never heard back on that either.

My solution will be to find a physical library or museum in the Los Angeles area and get their recommendations on ready references, encyclopedias and databases that pertain to the genre of white privilege. As you can see, our current w.p. group lists lots of readings (books, journal articles, and symposia) but no reference materials:

http://www.librarything.com/groups/whiteprivilege

During the same time period, I also sent in a very similar reference request to LC on sustainability, and got a very helpful response back in less than 2 weeks. (I used the same e-mail address for all 4 LC requests, and I did check my e-mail spam filter just in case, but no LC response on my w.p. requests ever arrived.)

I know that LC was affected by the brief government shutdown, and since then by the sequester, but I don't know how badly the LC services were hit by those budget issues.

Have you tried working through Worldcat to find things in other libraries.

Also, I wonder whether the Library of Congress uses a differently worded subject heading for white privilege. Something whites--race identity is what I see at LOC as a subject name.

Thanks, vpfluke, I will check out Worldcat. And thanks for the alternative subject heading. Oh, and since I am in California I will also look at the website of the Library of California.

As I understand the term, "white privilege" is a way of critiquing the norm of Western society where white is the default and everything else is "other". So in one sense that is an incredibly broad topic that could cover anything that exhibits "white privilege" or anything that critiques it. On the other hand, the context in which you encountered it, diversity studies, is fairly new and might not yet have generated much in the way of ready reference material.

So, as I'm sure you learned in library school, this is a question that requires a good reference interview to determine just what the person is after. (Which might be the reason LC didn't reply). Also, since it is the background state of Western civilization, it doesn't lend itself well to subject headings, as vpfluke pointed out. So, you need to sit down and ask yourself some of these questions:

What kinds of works are you looking for that you're terming ready reference?
Do such books exist or is the topic too big/too new to generate those kinds of references?
Is there another topic that will deal with "white privilege" in a useful way because it is part of the critique they are using. For instance, can you get at ready reference about white privilege in sources that deal with racism or diversity studies?
Is there an opportunity here for you to create new ready reference sources yourself? How would you go about it?

BTW, the heading "Whites - race identity" will mostly get you books on white supremacists and other push back from whites against civil rights for African Americans and blacks in other countries.

aulsmith, thanks for raising all these issues. I will keep them in mind.

April 22, 2015 -- Library of Congress did reply! In my 2nd request I specified the term "racism." It's better to be overly inclusive of search terms in such a minefield of subjectivity. Their reply is posted in full under the "References" tab in my LT group.

June 1, 2015: Here is an illuminating 2011 decision from an LC cataloging group:

White privilege

White privilege is a particular way of viewing racism; instead of looking at the disadvantages that people of color experience, the scholarship examines the privileges white people have. The concept is covered by several existing headings, such as Racism; Race discrimination; class of persons or ethnic group—Social conditions; place—Race relations; ethnic group—Race identity; etc. The meeting feels that the existing subject headings are sufficient. The proposal was not approved.

Summary of Decisions, Editorial Meeting Number 23 (2011) - SACO - Program for Cooperative Cataloging (Library of Congress)

Luckily, while I was at the LC website today, looking up racism and related (already approved) subject headings. LC asked me to complete a survey. I filled out that survey, with very specific examples of how my use of their current approved subject headings listed above did *not* help me find books published from 2000 to date on white privilege in the United States. When they asked me for a specific suggestion, I recommended that all LC committee membership descriptions indicate the ethnic diversity of those committees, especially those who are involved in cataloging work. Time will tell.

how my use of their current approved subject headings listed above did *not* help me find books published from 2000 to date on white privilege in the United States

Right, but subjects are almost never applied retroactively, right? I mean, you can't find books on the Holocaust until the LCSH got approved either.

When they asked me for a specific suggestion, I recommended that all LC committee membership descriptions indicate the ethnic diversity of those committees, especially those who are involved in cataloging work.

Just ethnic diversity? Because there are a thousand ways we could catalog the catalogers.