Racism

In the last half of the book, the authors outline the difficulty in providing tutors, writers, faculty, and directors, with a safe environment that allows for stories that can shed some light on racism. I found their example of the fifth most homogenous university (94) to be interesting because the university’s response to decreasing diversity was to hire more diverse faculty instead of actually contemplating why minorities were not enrolling. So, how do writing centers create environments that address diversity when the environment is so homogeneous? How do they bring the awareness of racism to the forefront? The authors answer that it begins by naming and framing assumptions, behaviors, policies, and institutional practices as racist. However, this can be difficulty, and I can see why. I can see the difficulty in naming particularly when tutors, writers, faculty, and directors don’t already have the language to do so.