Inclusive Language and Anti-Racist Writing

Academic writing in North America is shaped by racist practices and influences. For many years, the standards and criteria for academic writing were determined by people with social power and prestige, especially upper class North Americans of European ancestry (Baker-Bell, 2020, p. 9; Greenfield, 2011, p. 44). As a result, many other varieties of English are still treated as inferior or incorrect in comparison with the English commonly used in academic writing (Kubota et al., 2023, p. 710). This insistence on imposing a single, so-called “standard” form of English inevitably excludes individuals from different linguistic backgrounds. In this video, Jamila Lyiscott put the point this way: 

language is a site of cultural struggle. And if we think about that—if we think about what it means in our institutional spaces to continue participating in the erasure and the oppression of people from historically marginalized groups instead of incorporating, validating, and celebrating who they are in these institutional spaces, then we do a disservice to ourselves and to our world. (TED, 2018, 8:54)

As Lyiscott and others have argued, the perceived hierarchy of Englishes is no accident, and universities and other institutional spaces of power have a responsibility to include multiple Englishes in ways that welcome individuals from multiple linguistic and racial backgrounds.

But linguistic standards within higher education were and still are exclusionary, often intentionally so. They often make it difficult for members of other social and linguistic groups to participate in the academic community (Greenfield, 2011, p. 43). Worse, they therefore reflect an implicit or explicit bias against the cultural or linguistic markers of ethnicity or racial ancestry (Horner et al., 2011, p. 309; Lippi-Green, 2011, p. 78; Wilson, 2011, p. 180).

At the RRU Writing Centre, we want to be honest about the role racism has played in shaping writing instruction and assessment. We believe students, staff, and faculty all share a responsibility to understand, navigate, and change this reality. We also believe that the only way to change the legacy of colonial and racist practices is by openly describing and discussing perceived standards of “good writing” in Western academic institutions, including Royal Roads University. We hope to work in partnership with all members of the academic community in support of these goals.

The information in this guide is intended for an audience of students, but the principles outlined here might apply to all individuals in an academic context. In particular, we suggest several rights and responsibilities students may consider in their academic work with the understanding that others involved in supporting these students may also take an interest in their rights. Ultimately, this guide is grounded in the core principle that addressing racism is everyone's responsibility; therefore, we invite anyone reading this guide to reflect on their personal connection to the topics for themselves. 

In each section, we have collated resources for further learning on specific topics related to anti-racism and inclusive writing. We hope that the information and resources contained in this guide will help the RRU community learn more about the intersection between racism, language, and the criteria used in institutions to teach and assess academic writing. 

References

Baker-Bell, A. (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, https://doi.org/10.1080/00405841.2019.1665415

Greenfield, L. (2011). The standard English" fairy tale: A rhetorical analysis of racist pedagogies and commonplace assumptions about language diversity. In L. Greenfield & K. Rowan (Eds.), Writing Centres and the new racism: A call for sustainable dialogue and change (pp. 33-59). University Press of Colorado. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt4cgk6s 

Horner, B., Lu, M., Royster, J., & Trimbur, J. (2011). Language difference in writing: Toward a translingual approach. College English. 73(3), 303-313. 

Kubota, R., Corella, M., Lim, K., & Sah, P.K. (2023). "Your English is so good": Linguistic experiences of racialized students and instructors of a Canadian university. Ethnicities. 23(5), 258-778. https://doi.org/10.1177/14687968211055808

Lippi-Green, R. (2011). English with an accent: Language, ideology, and discrimination in the United States (2nd ed). Taylor & Francis Group.

Wilson, N.E. (2011). Bias in the writing centre: Tutor perceptions of African American language. In L. Greenfield & K. Rowan (Eds.), Writing Centres and the new racism: A call for sustainable dialogue and change (pp. 177-191). University Press of Colorado. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt4cgk6s 

The above video is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.