Rutgers University has released a list of “anti-racist” initiatives to be incorporated into its lecture halls starting with the upcoming school year. Among them is decreased emphasis on traditional grammar.
In an email titled “Department actions in solidarity with Black Lives Matter,” English Department chair Rebecca Walkowitz wrote the initiatives are a “way to contribute to the eradication of systemic inequities facing black, indigenous, and people of color.”
Walkowitz described the initiative as “critical grammar.”
“[Critical grammar] challenges the familiar dogma that writing instruction should limit emphasis on grammar/sentence-level issues so as to not put students from multilingual, non-standard ‘academic’ English backgrounds at a disadvantage,” she wrote.
“Instead, it encourages students to develop a critical awareness of the variety of choices available to them with regard to micro-level issues in order to empower them and equip them to push against biases based on ‘written’ accents.”
Walkowitz called for a shift from awareness and prevention of racial injustice issues to an emphasis on “cultural change” at the Department.
Other initiatives being put into action at Rutgers include:
- Require all English instructors to remotely attend at least one workshop on “how to have an anti-racist classroom.”
- Organize two teach-ins focused on Black Lives Matter, anti-racism, police brutality, and prison reform.
- Develop internship initiatives to support the goals of “diversity and equity” and to “decolonize the Writing Center.”
- Design the reading for Rutgers Day 2021 to address anti-black racism and social justice.
- Organize readings in 2020-2021 addressing issues related to the Black Lives Matter movement and systemic racism.