Among other items, the statement currently reads “As a department, we will redouble our efforts to combat racism and social injustice in all its forms.” But there’s no suggestion of what this looks like or what it means—especially for Black folx. /2
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There’s neither any mention of how the faculty, staff, and graduate students within the department all need to do a lot of work within our own spaces. Nor is there any indication that there's been thought as to what combating anti-Blackness in our department looks like. /3
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So in my message to the department, I urged the advisory committee to not only reflect on but address the following questions: "How will the English dept. deal with, address, and/or redress the lack of Black and non-Black POC graduate students and faculty in the department?" /4
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"How will the English department deal with racist faculty members who have noted track records with anti-Black (and anti-trans and homophobic and misogynistic…) behavior?" /5
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"How will the English department deal with curricula that is, I believe, still overwhelmingly white across literature, writing studies, and creative writing contexts?" /6
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"How will the English department address approaches to pedagogy that perpetuate anti-Blackness and racist actions from both faculty and graduate student instructors? (e.g., linguistic racism, invalidating students’ cultural practices and home literacies, etc.)" /7
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Without seeking to understand these systemic problems, without taking concrete actions to address anti-Blackness in our own educational spaces, and without outlining what such anti-racist changes might tangibly look like, we're not doing the work. /8
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Calls for feedback went out yesterday, and the dept. wants revisions by the end of today. In rushing to put out a statement, the dept. presents anti-Blackness and anti-racist work as something that happens "out there," not something that MUST happen in our own department. /9
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I'm disappointed, but not surprised by any of this. As
@turnips2 mentioned to me yesterday, our department has, as a unit, NEVER spoken out on the state-sanctioned murder of Black folx or any other sort of racial injustice. /10Show this thread -
I hope enough of us can make enough noise here—not for the sake of our department putting out a shallow, self-serving statement—but so that we can actually do the fucking work that needs to be done. /11
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End of conversation
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