Abstract:

In the US and elsewhere, COVID-19 initiated a retreat from classrooms and campuses. What awaited us on our return, are unresolved social ills like systemic racism and systemic inequities in education. While COVID exposed the racial inequities of healthcare systems, it is the legacy of racism in higher education to which we, as stakeholders in academic communities, must respond.

In its response to the anti-Blackness, systemic racism, the writing program affirmed its commitment as a member of its undergraduate college community to fight white supremacy and discrimination as well as 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 Black Lives Matter co-founder 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.

For a writing program, this means:
1) responding to student needs,
2) including BIPOC authors, that act as model writers for students, to grapple with complicated and pervasive systemic racism, inequity, and social justice, and to be open to conversations that reflect a diversity of perspectives on abolition (this is not only about abolishing police forces). 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’s efforts represent an innovative and novel approach to creating a more inclusive writing program and, by extension, more inclusive classrooms.

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

Keywords:

Anti-Blackness, racism, inclusion, writing, education.