Abstract:

The question, "Why are we here?", leads to a second, "How can we respond?" in exploring the reasons and implications for teaching and learning in higher education where too often, systemic racism is rooted. Although it was COVID-19 that swept us out of our classrooms, there are unresolved social ills like systemic racism and ramifications of Categorical Inequalities among white students and student People of Color identified by Shores, Kim and Still (2019) that await us and to which we must respond.

In response to the anti-Blackness, systemic racism, and police violence of this past season, the writing program affirmed its commitment as a member of its undergraduate college community to fight white supremacy, police brutality, and defend the rights of the underrepresented and disenfranchised. The writing program also acknowledged that belonging to the larger university enterprise meant that it too had benefited from the inherent structures of power that have systemized racism.

As part of its renewed emphasis on exposing and addressing systemic racism, the writing program made several concrete commitments, including the addition of more Black writers in our course readers and to focus the next iteration of the entry-level writing course on an issue related to anti-Blackness. In other words, to put into practice what Patrisse Cullors calls her principles of abolition, to hold "courageous conversations" and to "commit to response and not reaction" (2019) with our students and each other. This could be a step toward achieving inclusivity, community, and a comfortable space for our increasingly diverse student body.

Supporting principles, affirmations and acknowledgements in ways that have a deeply positive impact requires thoughtful ideas and planning. Support, in this instance, also required novel and untested actions to avoid short-lived or superficial first-aid. Therefore, in the spirit of community and collaboration, the program invited interested instructors to join its inaugural curriculum workgroup for the entry-level course and charged it with developing a theme, selecting readings from a variety of anti-racist perspectives including those of Black feminist, Queer, and Transgender authors, and putting those readings into a coherent whole. The workgroup collaborated on reading and selecting texts and deciding on the course theme of the intersection of anti-Blackness and abolition.

In this presentation, I will discuss the efforts of a writing program curriculum and pedagogy workgroup formed to honor a commitment to develop an entry-level course focused on increasing student awareness of anti-Blackness and systemic racism both within and beyond the university campus. The selected texts written by male, female, feminist, queer. and transgender black authors both model inclusivity and promote community.

The presentation concludes with a series of questions for attendees that encourages them to consider how they might respond to anti-racism in their context. This presentation is pertinent to teachers, faculty, and those interested in equality and anti-racist work.

Keywords:

Anti-racism, writing, pedagogy, curriculum.