Human Library creates a safe place to learn about the challenges others face

The Human Library is an international program that began in Copenhagen, Denmark in 2000 to help facilitate conversation among people from a variety of backgrounds. Their motto is to “unjudge someone.”

For the third time since 2019, the Osterville Village Library will hold a “Human Library” from 10:30 a.m. until 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, October 19.

The way the program works is that members of the community are invited to “check out” a human book by having a 20-to-30-minute conversation that will hopefully allow people the opportunity to put aside any preconceived notions they have of others. The “books” are people who have been stereotyped in the past, said library executive director Cyndy Cotton. 

“It’s a really neat concept,” she said. “We all kind of have preconceived judgements on things and I thought it would be a great opportunity for people to meet other people and have that open conversation that they may not have the chance to have normally.”

Even though there is no guarantee they will all show up, a sampling of the people she invited to participate include an Iraqi war veteran suffering from PTSD, a man who is fully tattooed, a homeless person, a Jamaican woman who has been discriminated against, a person who suffers from chronic pain, a Jewish person who has faced antisemitism, and a retired mathematician in his 90s.

Some of the stories are very personal. There’s a Black woman who finds herself either followed or ignored in stores because some people suspect she will shoplift and others think she can’t afford to buy anything.

“It’s very eye-opening,” Cotton said. “One woman has a mentally challenged son. She has introduced him to every police department because he is Black and if he acts out, she doesn’t want him to be shot.”

No Politically Divisive Topics

Cotton doesn’t include any topics that could be politically divisive, like anti-vaccine versus vaccine advocates or Republican versus Democrat. The point isn’t to create debates but to listen to the experiences of others who may be different from ourselves.

“We have conversation prompts,” she said. “I have little signs made up that will be on each table that says what the book title is, what the person’s first name is, and then a little thing about some stigmas or prejudices they have faced and a little bit about their journey.”

There are also question prompts like “Do you feel supported by your community?” or “How could the community support you better?” Even though the human books are encouraged to be honest about their experiences, they can also decline to answer questions they find too personal by saying, “That part of me is not published yet.”

For Cape Cod Healthcare Employees

This year, the Osterville Village Library’s Human Library has also expanded to include two additional private events for Cape Cod Healthcare employees. There will be a Human Library at Falmouth Hospital on October 16 and another one at Cape Cod Hospital on October 17.

Cape Cod Healthcare’s chief health equity and wellness officer, Kumara Sidhartha, MD, MPH, believes the public and the CCHC employee Human Libraries work together to educate both sides of the healthcare equation so that all interactions have the best outcome for all parties. The public Human Library will hopefully help future patients be more tolerant of healthcare employees with tattoos, disabilities, different skin colors and different accents, and vice versa.

“It’s a safe place for folks to explore their own assumptions about different groups of individuals,” he said. “And at the same time, understand them more fully by talking to them in forums like this that give the dialogue some structure and guidelines. One of the things I come across in conversations about this is the notion of unconscious bias.”

He has found that there are a lot of misconceptions about what the term ‘unconscious bias’ actually means. All humans have unconscious bias, but that doesn’t mean that they are racist or a bigot. They are two entirely different things, but people tend to group them together or get defensive when talking about it, he said.

“The Human Library allows folks to explore that and to really put a check on their own assumptions,” Dr. Sidhartha said. “It’s a learning opportunity to understand someone who may not be in the same shoes as the person who’s talking to them. I think it’s a great opportunity.

This is another example of how Cape Cod Healthcare is partnering with community entities, in this case Osterville Village Library, to support them in this program. Similarly, we are partnering with other community organizations to advance equity and equitable care and the notion of inclusivity in our conversations and our interactions and how we care for patients.”