A Reflection on Racial Language in Peer Tutoring Practice.

As a transfer student, I came to my current writing center with one year’s worth of experience. To me, it was already apparent that I walked into an important conversation. And it was at my current institution that I first became aware of Antiracist Activism. That doesn’t mean that I was a bad tutor, but it did mean that I could be better.

One of the greatest hurdles I had learning to realize—not apply—Antiracist Activism was defining race. I confused race with culture and from there, it was easy to form assumptions of group behavior leading to me stereotyping my peers. While I may never know what is in a writer’s head or in their heart, I do know what I say to them. Given the established constraints of a typical tutoring session, I can not afford to alienate writers during our sessions. And so, I looked for racist assumptions or speech, and I first found them in me.

In particular, it was these three words: exotic, foreign, and ethnic. The problem was not so much the words put forth, but it was the meaning I pushed behind them. As a white male tutor, I casually used these terms to mean one thing: non-white experiences. Films, foods, people—it didn’t matter to me then, but I didn’t understand that either. I soon realized, by assuming that the peerness I share with writers is overarching and deep, I am actually projecting internal racism and I am potentially silencing writers. Without realizing it at first, I associated my peerness with my whiteness.

Through months of reflections in addition to these difficult—although worthy—conversations with everyone who would listen, I began to develop something useful—a sensitivity. But this awareness was only a first step. And dialogue was only a second step. This is a process of unlearning that will continue for the rest of my life.

In yesterday’s Special Interest Group on Antiracist Activism, we agreed that an action of no action is still an action. That was deep. It is useless to talk about topics like Antiracism if we do nothing with it. This is ongoing work for us, and we must not leave a single assumption unchallenged.