Mike: This is
Sherita: Write.
Chris: Think.
Genevieve: Teach.
Mike: A podcast brought to you by the Writing Across the Curriculum, a program in the Center for the Study and Teaching of Writing at The Ohio State University.
Ebony: You should be uncomfortable in this. I mean, like, it’s going to be….unless….you’re not really thinking about it hard and paying attention to it if you’re not feeling like, oh am I going to say the wrong thing. You know, most likely yes, so let’s have this conversation.
Mike: Hello and welcome to Write.Think.Teach. I’m Michael Blancato.
Sherita: And I’m Sherita Roundtree. You just heard an excerpt from one of our guests, Ebony Bailey, on the topic of microaggressions. Microaggressions are words or actions that may seem small or harmless from one perspective, but in reality, reinforce harmful attitudes about people based on race, gender, sexuality, ability, and other aspects of identity.
Mike: At the time of the interview, Ebony was a member of the English Graduate Organization’s steering committee, along with Jacinta Yanders, Indya Jackson, and me. As representatives for English graduate students, we heard a lot about microaggressions through surveys and departmental dialogue. So in the fall of 2016, a time when many people were feeling anxious about the state of our society, the steering committee held a departmental workshop titled “Microaggressions in the Classroom.” This workshop was attended by faculty, staff, students, and others from all areas of the English department. It was all intended to be one part of a continuing dialogue, and so we spoke to Ebony and Jacinta as a way to extend that dialogue and bring more people and more departments into the conversation.
Sherita: To better understand what this workshop was, and how it might be duplicated, we started by asking Ebony and Jacinta about how the English Graduate Organization conducted the workshop.
Ebony: We start off with...they came into the room and, like, if you have any questions, they wrote them on a...they could write them on a slip.
Jacinta: We talked about the definition, at least as far as like the dictionary definition and whatnot, as well. And sort of, the history of the term.
Ebony: And then, they were also...they did group work throughout it as well. Like, writing down an experience that they had so that we had...we really wanted to get a situation and experience that people had experienced in like, you know, you always have that thing that happens in classroom or wherever and you’re like oh I wish I had said this or I wish that I had said that. Or like you know you’re maybe in that moment of shock and you’re like uhhh. So talking like that...you know talking with someone else about it would be good and hopefully help them in the future or help me in the future as well, so....
Jacinta: Yeah, because we had them look at each other’s situations and give responses for what they may have done in that situation to sort of see what kinds of different ideas there might be. Or if everybody picked the same approach or whatever.
Ebony: Yeah, and then we put that on the board to get people’s responses. Then it sort of at the end it kind of became like a discussion of when do you….when and in what situations do you address those microaggressions. Because that becomes like, do you do it right when it happens, do you pull that student aside, do you send an email, do you….I guess, do….like some people were even thinking about whether or not it’s good for your mental health to like step in right then or wait until you are able to like process it, to come back. And so people gave really good responses too of how you know if you’re caught off guard and you’re not sure how to deal with it, how you can work that back into….I might be getting into some other question….how you can work that back into your lesson next time, which is all really helpful for me because like you can try again. You can like….
Jacinta: I tell you this all the time.
Ebony: I know. She does tell me this all the time because something happens and I’m like oh my God. And so being able to have a second chance and feel like okay, you know, this is a thing that you can do. And also making sure you give context. If you can plan ahead as much as possible. I mean there’s things you can’t do, but giving context for the students will like, you know. Even in….I’m hopefully going to teach African American Literature. What I notice is that one of my professors...she’s like, we’re going to come across some words that we’re going to look at as artifacts not….don’t say these words. You know, address like giving them context and then even, you know, realizing that you have to talk about also history too with that so then, you know, they don’t say it in class or something like that. But people started talking about ways to deal with that towards the end and then we kind of wrapped up and discussed any questions that they had that they wrote down at the beginning. Also, what came up is love and empathy a lot. I think I remember people saying that a lot as well. In terms of people, just like having conversations where people are aware of like the language that they’re using, you know, whether….because sometimes you can’t just tell if someone’s intentional or unintentional. So having that sort of empathy as well. People agreed on that, especially as a teacher. I think people, yeah….people had different ways of addressing it, of course.
Mike: We really liked the way that Ebony highlighted the importance of empathy. Microaggressions are often wrapped up with what a person meant, or what was intended. And in an educational context it’s more important than ever to try and understand differences in perspective. Empathy can then change the way that we pay attention to our words and actions. That kind of empathy can grow throughout the campus culture and help students think critically about their language and actions on a day-to-day basis, as Jacinta points out.
Jacinta: I also think that part of the idea of what we’re doing regardless of whatever the subject or specific topic you’re teaching is, you know, critical thinking and just communicating. So ideally if we’re teaching in these ways and addressing these things that they are also thinking about them and analyzing them and taking that forward into further things that they do in their communication practices, in their thinking. And maybe when they’re, I don’t know, in the dining hall and somebody says something that isn’t quite right, then maybe they will feel empowered to say something in that moment and help somebody else out or whatever the case may be. And, you know, even the smallest of ripples would be useful in this process I think.
Sherita: As Jacinta points out, a lot of campus culture can change based on what happens in the classroom. It may seem like there’s a lot of pressure on each of us to correct microaggressions, but in fact, no one has to do it alone. Ebony and Jacinta have a few ways to get students involved in making sure that more perspectives get included.
Ebony: What I’ve found is like deferring it back to the students, sometimes they are like “Well...actually, I’m going to question this or question that.” And so then it becomes more empowering for them. You feel like “Ok, so we’re all having this conversation together.” That was one takeaway. To not feel so beaten down or like I failed my students if this thing happens. That there’s different ways to approach it. And then I’ve also kind of taken that into writing activities too because I’m still teaching cultural identity, so a lot of the writing activities that we do are like...one thing that we did was we, okay like write down all the different identities that you identify with like religious, national, anything. How would you define yourself? And then I really wanted to get across how difficult it is to define yourself and then relay that to others. So, then they like...what was the...do you feel like you were successful in conveying your own identity? And then we talked about what it is to be….how you feel to be American and everything like that. And so then they started talking to each other about how hard it is to define them and then how it was difficult to read each other. So hopefully trying to take that into their writing and then get a sense of talking about things such as racism, such as prejudice. You should be uncomfortable in this. I mean, like, it’s going to be….unless….you’re not really thinking about it hard and paying attention to it if you’re not feeling like, oh am I going to say the wrong thing. You know, most likely yes, so let’s have this conversation.
Mike: Jacinta also had a few recommendations for instructors who might want to address or discuss microaggressions in their classrooms.
Jacinta: One of the things that is just generally helpful is to maybe try to anticipate what might happen. Which I mean, every group of students is different and some of them come in with you know more access to information already than others. But if you can try to anticipate where some of the difficulties might arise then at least you can maybe have some strategies in mind. Especially if you know that you’re dealing with something in which terms might come up or just places where people might run into some roadblocks.
Mike: That’s all we have time for now, but the conversation doesn’t have to end. If you’re curious about microaggressions, or would like to know more about how to re-think writing and teaching practices, check out some of the links that we’ll be updating at go.osu.edu/wac. That’s W, A, C. And of course, we’d like to thank Ebony Bailey and Jacinta Yanders once more for being our guests.
Sherita: Also, check out our earlier podcast with Lou Maraj, a poet, graduate student, and teacher, who has dealt with microaggressions in his own life and has some additional ideas for introducing the topic of microaggressions into the classroom.