Article

You Work for the Public; Your Thoughts Aren’t Sacred: Responding to Antelman’s False Crisis in the Privacy of Thought

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Abstract

This article responds to Kristin Antelman’s “Respecting Privacy of Thought in DEI Training” by challenging the premise that public employees have an unqualified right to cognitive privacy (Antelman 2025). Drawing on legal precedent, professional ethics, and lived experience, this piece argues that DEI efforts in libraries are not coercive but necessary interventions in a field tasked with equitable public service. It critiques the uneven distribution of privacy in the workplace and refutes the idea that belief and behavior can be meaningfully separated, particularly in public institutions where accountability to the entire community is a professional obligation.

Keywords: public employee, DEI, diveristy of thought, free speech

How to Cite:

Freeman, J., (2025) “You Work for the Public; Your Thoughts Aren’t Sacred: Responding to Antelman’s False Crisis in the Privacy of Thought”, The Political Librarian 8(2), 27-34.