I recognize that there are some international students who struggle to succeed at Miami and we as a university need to be doing more to address their challenges (including helping faculty adapt their pedagogy). But, this anonymous letter in the Miami Student (ostensibly written by a faculty member) racially stereotypes an entire group of students in ways that are profoundly unfair, hostile, and marginalizing. Im motivated to respond because I want any international students who read that letter to know that it does *not* represent the views of our faculty. I want international students to know that we strongly value how they are enriching the academic environment at Miami--that we cheer the many international students who are in fact working hard, succeeding, and (slowly) changing the culture here. I want international students to know that we are committed to helping domestic students learn how to engage cross-culturally rather than to reinforcing their cultural biases. I want international students to know that we recognize that they are a very diverse group and we will refrain from characterizing them as all the same in academic preparation, levels of effort, or language proficiency. (Ive had instructors come to me with complaints of a class in which over half the white students werent putting in enough effort, but they didnt presume that this isolated experience represented the abilities of white students as a whole). As a composition historian, I know well that there is a long history of using complaints about language proficiency and academic preparation to reinforce a culture of racist exclusion in the university. To my eye, this letter looks much like the complaints many faculty published about the linguistic proficiency and academic preparation of the rising numbers of domestic students of color in the 70s (and no doubt those faculty would have seen themselves as just frustrated and well meaning and not culturally biased). This kind of rhetoric was racist then and it is still racist today--whether its proponents intended it that way or not. As scholars concerned with questions of language, culture, and representation, I think we have an obligation to speak out against racist rhetorics aimed at an already marginalized population on campus. miamistudent.net/?p=17002763
Posted on: Thu, 06 Nov 2014 14:27:38 +0000
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