The Hoo's at the Writing Center Podcast Team would like to address a number of things while acknowledging that more space and time is needed to explain them all. Firstly, we recorded this episode in Summer 2020. Prior to our recording of this episode, the Podcast Team understood that one episode would not be enough in engaging in an ongoing discourse about anti-racism. This is and should be an ongoing conversation, and we want to make it clear that this is just the start of it here on this podcast.
Secondly, some of the terminology used in our episode may be interpreted differently from our intention. Terms such as "hidden racism," used here to express how racism can be so deeply ingrained in academic language that it becomes disguised and naturalized, does not change the fact that BIPOC face blatant racism. Additionally, the term "racist institution" may spark discourse about Predominately White Institutions (PWI) and the inherent exclusion within the education that PWIs are founded upon. We believe this discourse is both relevant and long-overdue.
We also recognize that our use of two sources limits our research and responses, and as mentioned, the Delpit source (The Silenced Dialogue, 1988) is outdated. Our reasoning behind including Delpit’s early work was meant to address an important piece that helped to begin the conversation surrounding racism in education. We recognize that since then, Delpit has expanded upon her earlier work [Delpit, Lisa. “Chapter 1: Interview with Lisa Delpit.” Counterpoints, vol. 246, 2005, pp. 1–10. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/42978716] and whereas Delpit’s early work advocates for a kind of code-switching, the conversation currently focuses more on code-meshing. We've attached other resources that are more recent, relevant, and representative of the anti-racist work happening today (see RESOURCES link at the bottom).
We want to address these issues out of transparency to our audience. We are always reviewing the content we publish to improve and learn as a podcast. We intended no hurt by any means from the content that was said, but we are open to the feedback and responses it may have incited. We will be recording a new “mini-episode” series (name pending), in which the first episode will be a follow up response to this full-length episode to further address some of the vague language as well as addressing more recent sources.
Please feel free to contact us at writingcenter@seattleu.edu for any lingering inquiries or concerns.
Thank you again for your patience with us, and we're looking forward to ruffling some feathers!
-Kimberly Le, Karissa Lopez, Elena Selthun, and Sarah Shaffer (HATWC Team)
