For those who have taken more than few classes at the college level that required writing papers and other assignments where the proper use of the English language was demanded, the idea of creating a more flexible set of rules governing the written word seems bizarre. In fact, how much easier things would have been had we been able to ignore all those rules of style and grammar when producing scholarly work.
While they claim otherwise, this is the direction that some in academia are taking under the banner of eliminating the racism they believe engulfs our entire society. We’ve already witnessed a professor being accused of racism for correcting black students’ punctuation and grammar. Forgive us for misunderstanding, but we thought that was what teachers are supposed to do.
Now we have a more subtle approach in progress at the University of Washington at Tacoma.
The UW Tacoma Writing Center has taken significant steps towards standing against racism in the field of writing. With its new antiracism and social justice statement, the Center starts a conversation on the discrimination and alienation that often go unnoticed in academia. As the statement urges, “there is no inherent ‘standard’ of English,” and with this in mind, the Center aims to ensure that through compassion and careful consideration, staff do not inadvertently embrace racist practices.
Wait. “[T]here is no inherent ‘standard’ of English?” Are we then to believe that correcting students’ grammar is an inherently racist act? This is no passing matter when it comes to the integrity of our language.
“It is a founding assumption that, if believed, one must act differently than we, the institution and its agents, have up to this point,” said Inoue. While overt racism is usually easily identified, more elusive are microaggressions, forms of degradation which manifest on a subconscious and casual level. As the statement reads “Racism is pervasive. It is in the systems, structures, rules, languages, expectations, and guidelines that make up our classes, school, and society,”
Ultimately, the statement exists in the hopes that by understanding racism and imparting students with a critical thought process, that they may be better prepared not only to develop as writers but also to achieve their highest possible level of success.
Having waded through that explanation, the question still remains as to whether there are standards of writing that will be enforced at the college level. If racism is, as Inoue believes, inherently a part of our language and the entire society, clearly something must change to remove it. Having identified language as a vehicle for transmitting this pervasive racism, it follows that the language must change.
What we’ve got here is another example of the liberal desire to create a society without standards. With no standards of language or of conduct, our culture will fracture and crumble. Instead of the wonderful world the left envisions where everyone is accepting of the beliefs of everyone else, the society will splinter.
What the University of Washington is attempting to do is nonsense. Give them an F.
Source: University of Washington at Tacoma
And ubonicks is what?$#%&!@*ignorance
Yes they would rather sound STUPID!
Dumbing down america
that’s fine for the college but their Ebonics speaking graduates are going to have a rally rough time finding a job because the prospective employers speak proper English!
So, in the world of business, until you establish your own business, you are representing someone else. Your ability to speak and write well are crucial. You are the face– the voice representing an organization, a concept, a product. To expect you to follow standard rules of language and grammar is far from racist. To teach you to spell, to write is a service.
But will society splinter?! A language is just a barrier to understanding. If we cant speak to each other while learning from each other, how in the hell are we supposed to create the intergalactic federation amongst MANY specoes?!