And don't get him started on that cracka cursive.
Posted on 02/25/2017 5:23:14 PM PST by MarvinStinson
The chief writing instructor at the University of Washington, Tacoma, is trying to dismantle the rules of grammar because he believes they are racist—and the college has given its endorsement to his campaign.
Posters that appeared this week in the college’s writing center are part of a new effort to teach students that the conventional rules on how to structure sentences and form ideas in written language are perpetuating inequality and “white supremacy.”
“Racism is the normal condition of things. Racism is pervasive. It is in the systems, structures, rules, languages, expectations and guidelines that make up our classes, school, and society,” the poster claims. It goes on to say that critiquing a student’s use of language, or implying that there is any one grammatical standard within the English language, is inherently discriminatory.
The writing center director, Dr. Asao Inoue, is the brains behind the operation to up-end students’ regressive notions of language. He is a “searcher of anti-racist writing assessment,” according to his Twitter profile, and has published two books on how to promote a “socially just future” by dismantling academic structures that reward proper grammar and usage.
The University of Washington did not immediately respond to Heat Street‘s request for comment, but vice chancellor of student affairs, Dr. Jill Purdy, noted in her own official statement that the program “is a great example of how we are striving to act against racism. Language is the bridge between ideas and action, so how we use words has a lot of influence on what we think and do.”
Grammar, according to the posters in the writing center, can “justify placing people in hierarchies or restricting opportunities and privileges because of the way people communicate in particular versions of English.”
To solve the problem, the program intends to help students become aware of “social justice” issues in their everyday life, and to help them “check their privileges”—particularly those that result in unconscious racism.
They also appear to say that they will not deduct from grades—even in English classes in an English department—for failing to use proper grammar. “We promise to emphasize the importance of rhetorical situations over grammatical ‘correctness’ in the production of texts,” a “commitment” on the poster reads. “We promise to challenge conventional word choices and writing explanations.”
Inoue also holds seminars on how to identify and correct “white supremacy” in grading writing assignments; self-help workshops for actual (yet self-identified) grammar Nazis.
His tolerance does have a limit, though. He really does not like Donald Trump.
What has this guy ever written that wasn’t for academia and therefore, irrelevant?
Such rubbish. Grammar is about clarity and nuance in expression of thought.
If you cannot speak or write clearly, you cannot think clearly, or express yourself clearly.
There are some human activities, particularly in STEM, and perhaps the arts, where if you have talent and skill you can be wildly successful. But even in those cases, all things being equal, those who can express themselves clearly and eloquently have an advantage.
But in general, grammar is a critical success skill.
To teach people that because they are of a certain race they don’t need grammatical skills is an especially heinous form of racism.
I guess Rachel Dolezal and Fauxcahontas beat him to their respective “Claims to Fame”, so he had to come up with this one.
Why could he not have emulated Marcel Marceau?
My Grammar is 102 and she ain`t no racist.
And don't get him started on that cracka cursive.
These schools also show how worthless they are.
What if the only adjectives and adverbs people want to use are swears?
When there are no real problems they create fantasy problems. Also when they want to try to become some new idiot expert in their ‘field’.
But see they cant use the dialectic and delphi techniques to get what they want, if there is not some conflict to exploit, real or artificially created by them.
My Grammar got run over by a reindeer.
I would bet all of Jay Z’s contracts in his Fortune 500 companies are meticulously constructed (written) in very specific “Academic English (the language of money$) terminology)!
Well, it is white.. for at least a while. ;)
Here’s his website. Scroll down for the fun stuff!
He seems pretty articulate himself. If his students aren’t, though, nooooo problem!
A modernist form of idiocy.
Noam Comsky, please pick up the white courtesy phone.
Paging Noam Chomsky....
His presumption is that different races are not equally capable of learning grammar and spelling. He is being explicitly racist.
I’ve known some who were so inarticulate they could not put two words together, without using the term “You know” or profanity as filler between words.
Ever been chastised for using “big” words?
Some would be thrilled to dumb us all down to their level. Turn mundane conversation into a classroom, it’s fun.
So as not to offend, must we now teach only “Ebonics” in the schools as the proper form of American English? If that were to be instituted then, of course there would be a new Negro lingo within a couple of years and Negroes would commence to be terribly offended all over again that their patois is not taught as English. Being offended is a terminal and incurable syndrome.
Yo ‘bouttime dis here racist grammar sheeit got taken seriously Jus’ like Orenthawl James.
Hey, perfesser — cash me ousside, how bow dah.
Robert Frost translated into eubonics.
Yo Whose woods deez is ah think ah know.
His crib iz in da village though;
He will not see me stopping here
ta watch his woods fill up wif snow.
muh motha f*ckin little horse mus’ think it queer
ta stop without uh farmhouse near
Between da woods an’ frozen lake
da darkest evening o’ da year.
He gives his harness bells uh shake
ta ax if dere iz some mistake.
da only other sound’s da sweep
o’ easy wind an’ downy flake.
da woods is lovely, dark an’ deep,
But ah gots promises ta keep,
an’ miles ta go ‘bfoe ah sleep,
an’ miles ta go ‘bfoe ah sleep just like mammy.
True dat!
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