Thread by @monicacbell

One thing I suppose we can be grateful for during this time of pandemic is that Zoom sometimes captures these moments. We need to have more real conversations about manifestations of racism in higher education. TW: blatant anti-Blackness 1/

https://twitter.com/hahmad1996/status/1369786323293310985

Some students/alums @GeorgetownLaw are calling for various interventions, but one thing I wish were also on their list is a set of pedagogical trainings for all faculty about how bias may be affecting their teaching, interactions with, and perspectives on students. 2/

The unspoken "justification" for the racist view Sandra Sellers espouses here is, of course, affirmative action -- coupled with Richard Sanders' discredited "mismatch hypothesis." The basic idea is that Black students don't do well because they don't deserve to be admitted. 3/

It's important to name that because *so many faculty*--of many racial groups and political persuasions--buy into this view. And it poisons the way they interact with Black folks in intellectual spaces. 4/

When we say something smart, it's a pleasant surprise. 🙄 If we get something wrong, it's because we're Black and don't belong there.

It's not because we're human beings, like everyone else, who occasionally make mistakes. 5/

In my own collected 10+ years teaching in these types of settings, I've never had a Black student who I perceived to be on the "bottom" of my class. Never. Not once. 6/

I don't keep track of student comments by their racial group. 🤦🏿‍♀️ But if I counted the number of jumbled comments that I needed to reason through as a professor, I am pretty sure that most of those comments weren't made by Black students. 7/

Plus, teaching is part of my job. If a student says something jumbled in response to something I've said or assigned, I've communicated in an unclear way.

There is also pedagogical value in a jumbled comment. If one of my students is confused, so are others. 8/

Also: Teasing through "jumbled comments" has produced some of the most exciting mutual insights I've experienced as a teacher. 9/

If one stops using race as a lens to interpret a challenging comment, then one can perhaps see the insight the comment offers.

Maybe professors with this problem just aren't smart enough or good enough listeners to recognize a comment that is actually helpful. 10/

Finally, as someone who has made a *lot* of anxiety-fueled jumbled comments in my day:

I tend to slip into saying things that are unclear when my spirit is aware that the listener expects me, as part of my group, to say something wrong or unintelligent. 11/

Claude Steele labelled it more than two decades ago -- "stereotype threat." 12/ apa.org/research/actio…

It's hard for students to keep engaging at 100% and trying to prove themselves when they can already sense that the dynamic is infected with bias.

If we want Black students to perform well, we have to *believe in them.* And there's no non-racist reason not to. 13/

So, to all the professors who hold similar views to Sandra Sellers but who haven't yet been caught on Zoom:

Please interrogate how you interact with Black students. Please reflect upon the expectations you hold about Black presence in intellectual space. 14/

Recognize that if you are seeing Black students at "the bottom" of your classes from year to year: It's probably your fault.

Again: The problem isn't (meager) diversity efforts. It's you. 15/end