Editorial Statement
We, the editorial staff at Writing Spaces, have witnessed with horror the recent brutal deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, David McAtee, Rayshard Brooks, and so many others at the hands of law enforcement and White supremacist vigilantes in the U.S. We apologize for not speaking out sooner, and want to make explicitly clear that we denounce all forms of racism and White supremacy and commit to anti-racist publishing, community-building, and research practices.
We acknowledge that the United States was both founded on and profited from the systemic exploitation and oppression of African and North American indigenous peoples, through the enactment of the institutions and ideologies of slavery, settler colonialism, and manifest destiny. Contrary to neoliberal and conservative attitudes related to the eradication of racism in contemporary U.S. society, systemic racism and White supremacy continue to operate in every facet of American life and culture. While these operations are especially explicit in the American (in)justice system, the prison-industrial complex, private industry, and political representation, anti-Black racism also continues to proliferate in academic and publishing spheres.
At colleges and universities across the U.S., not only are Black faculty not adequately hired or represented within majority-White departments, they are consistently subjected to harassment, microaggressions, and discrimination. Black scholars face publication biases and aren’t adequately cited or credited for their research. In terms of academic promotion, Black faculty are too often overlooked for leadership positions such as department chairs, college deans, and university provosts. Black faculty, and especially Black women faculty, are also more likely to devote more of their time to service and other uncompensated labor. Black students, furthermore, face a daily onslaught of discrimination, prejudice, and microaggression both in the classroom and beyond it.
As a project dedicated to OER ethics, Writing Spaces has already committed to making resources for literacy instruction more accessible. However, we acknowledge that our project has a long way to go to become a collection that actively promotes anti-racist literacy learning and curriculum diversity. Composition and language education, in line with other academic disciplines, have a long history of linguistic gate-keeping. Despite academic critiques and policy statements from major organizations such as NCTE, the promotion of standard language norms and textual genres in the composition classroom continue to reward White, middle class students and penalize minority and multilingual students. Furthermore, most English faculty also fail to adequately diversify their curriculum, often tokenizing minority voices and identities at the margins of their course content. Finally, despite the field’s theoretical understanding of the centrality of identity to writing, literacy, and language, too few teachers make such an understanding accessible to their students.
As English scholars and educators, The Writing Spaces editorial team acknowledges their complicity in White supremacy. Furthermore, we commit to anti-racist publishing, community-building, and research practices that will counteract the failings described above.
As publishers,
1. We commit to the publishing of Black and minority authors in future volumes of Writing Spaces
2. We commit to publishing instructional material that rejects standard English ideologies and promotes understanding in regards to the centrality of identity in language and writing practice
3. We commit to publishing instructional material that promotes racial literacy
As community members,
4. We commit to creating and curating anti-racist resources for literacy education on the WS website
5. We commit to supporting and centering Black and minority voices in our major organizations and conferences
6. We commit to engaging in anti-racist action in our local communities and academic institutions
As scholars,
7. We commit to inclusive citation practices that give credit to Black and minority research
8. We commit to meaningful collaboration with Black and minority scholars
For Recommended Resources & Further Reading, please see the Racial Justice Resources feature below. This list is in-progress and we welcome suggestions (please email editors@writingspaces.org).
Racial Justice Resources
In the wake of mass protests over the recent brutal deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbury, Tony McDade, David McAtee, Rayshard Brooks, and so many others at the hands of law enforcement and White supremacist vigilantes in the U.S. Writing Spaces denounces all forms of racism and White supremacy and commits to anti-racist publishing, community-building, and research practices.
To support the work of anti-racist educators in writing, literacy, and language instruction, we offer the following resources. This list is a work in progress. Please send us suggestions at editors@writingspaces.org.
Resources and Further Reading
Baker-Bell, A., Butler, T., & Johnson, L. (January 01, 2017). The Pain and the Wounds: A Call for Critical Race English Education in the Wake of Racial Violence. English Education, 49, 2, 116-129.
Baker-Bell, A. (January 02, 2020). Dismantling anti-black linguistic racism in English language arts classrooms: Toward an anti-racist black language pedagogy. Theory into Practice, 59, 1, 8-21.
Condon, F., & Young, V.A., Eds. (2017). Performing Antiracist Pedagogy in Writing, Rhetoric, and Communication. The WAC Clearinghouse; Parlor Press.
Inoue, A. B. (2019). How do we language so people stop killing each other, or what do we do about white language supremacy? College Composition and Communication, 61(2), 352-369.
Inoue, Asao B. (2015). Antiracist writing assessment ecologies: Teaching and assessing writing for a socially just future. The WAC Clearinghouse; Parlor Press.
Perryman-Clark, S., Kirkland, D. E., Jackson, A., Smitherman, G., National Council of Teachers of
English, & Conference on College Composition and Communication (U.S.). (2015). Students’ right to their own language: a critical sourcebook.
Ruiz, I. D. (2016). Reclaiming Composition for Chicano/as and Other Ethnic Minorities: A Critical History and Pedagogy. New York: Palgrave Macmillan US.
Villanueva, V. (January 01, 1999). On the Rhetoric and Precedents of Racism. College Composition and Communication, 50, 4, 645-662.
Linguistic Diversity in Writing Pedagogy
Canagarajah, A. Suresh. (2013). Translingual practice: Global Englishes and cosmopolitan relations. New York and Abingdon: Routledge.
Lippi-Green, Rosina. (2012). English with an Accent: Language, Ideology, and Discrimination in the United States (2nd edition). New York: Routledge.
Young, V. A. (2014). Other people’s English: Code meshing, code switching, and African American literacy. Teachers College Press.
Flowers, K. S. (2019). Writing studies’ concessions to the English-only movement: Revisiting CCCC’s national language policy and Its reception. College Composition and Communication, 61(1), 31-59.
Smitherman, G., & Villanueva, V. (2003). Language diversity in the classroom: From intention to practice. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.
Rose, M. (April 01, 1985). The Language of Exclusion: Writing Instruction at the University. College English, 47, 4, 341-359.
General AntiRacist Pedagogy Resources
Anti-racism resources for white people. (n.d.). Retrieved June 16, 2020, from https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BRlF2_zhNe86SGgHa6-VlBO-QgirITwCTugS…
Antiracism: A Reading List | Scribd. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.scribd.com/curated-lists/17026321/Antiracism-A-Reading-List
García, S. A. V. (n.d.). Library Guides: How To Be An Antiracist: Book Discussion Series: #HowToBeAnAntiracistSyllabus. Retrieved June 16, 2020, from https://instr.iastate.libguides.com/c.php?g=991417&p=7172651
Roberts, J. (2020, June 8). White Academia: Do Better. Retrieved June 16, 2020, from https://medium.com/the-faculty/white-academia-do-better-fa96cede1fc5
An Essential Reading List for Black Liberation, Brought to You by the Schomburg Center. (2020, June 10). Retrieved June 16, 2020, from https://hyperallergic.com/570031/black-liberation-reading-list-schomburg…
Kreisinger, E. (n.d.). It’s Time To Unpack White Fragility. Retrieved June 16, 2020, from https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/why-are-white-people-so-bad-at-talking-…
Let’s Talk! Discussing Whiteness. (2017, June 28). Retrieved June 16, 2020, from https://www.tolerance.org/professional-development/webinars/whiteness
Other Collected Resources
McIntyre, Megan. Antiracist TA Training Resources/Readings. Retrieved June 16, 2020, from https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZoH0Ul1jc_0h8SiNPPAbFq2GmVkTyqQBk9lq…
Association of Internet Researchers. AoIR Collated Resources for Critical Race and Internet Studies. Retrieved June 16, 2020, from https://docs.google.com/document/d/1h809wXUByII2tT0dLlUrgF5r9LK1I2aAel_h…
Writing Spaces is published in partnership with Parlor Press and WAC Clearinghouse.