Navigating the Black WA Experience
written by Cheaka Wilson, Justin Lee, Immaculata Daikpor, and Bethany Winters
A lot of the course content covered in the Writing 1C course highlights important questions to consider when working with a student writer: are they comfortable in the conference? What thinking processes motivate their writing style? Is their agency being affirmed? However, what happens when we turn the lens on the Black WA? How does their racial identity influence conference dynamics?
Here are some examples of the way which a few Black WAs describe their personal experience:
As a Black WA, the way in which I am perceived (or expect to possibly be perceived) influences my position on the directive/non-directive spectrum. Physical appearance and gender, among my other identities and characteristics, also affect my approach to WAing and intersect with my Black identity such that I am conscious of how I come across. I am always aware of how my work as a WA is being interpreted, and whether I must ‘prove’ my knowledge of a certain subject (and thus be more directive) or prevent myself from ‘dominating’ the space and making a student uncomfortable. My Black identity and the framework of intersectionality very much influence the manner in which I give suggestions and conduct conferences as a whole.
In addition, it makes it much more difficult to establish rapport in the initial moments of the WA Conference. Personally, I believe establishing rapport is essential to beginning a WA Conference because it forms a level of comfortability that then ushers in an air of collaboration, which is essential to having an effective WA conference. When the WAee is of a different race, the desire to establish this communicative relationship is sometimes overshadowed by the hyperawareness of my Blackness resulting in discomfort and awkwardness, as highlighted in Ray Youngblood’s inquiry of “Discomfort Among Writing Center WAs.”
These experiences highlight the need for the Writing Program to reflect more critically about its role in ameliorating the experiences of Black WAs. The anti-racism WPMs of 2020 yielded some plans for catering to their needs and generated outward-facing statements and general goals to work towards, but this did not offer a legitimate space for Black WAs to address specific problems related to their racial identity. More sustainable support for Black WAs would be the opportunity for students to critically examine the influence of racial identities on the role of a WA within the Writing 1C course. It would also be beneficial for the Writing Program to implement an official open channel for WAs to confidentially discuss race-related issues.
At times when a WA is concerned about the role that their race has played in a conference, what mechanisms does the Writing Center currently have to critically address these issues? What more can be done? Should there perhaps be a week in the Writing 1C syllabus where students discuss how they would navigate racial tensions within conferences? Should the Writing Center organize more anti-racism workshops, similar to the one organized last semester?