Teaching Racial Literacy

Book excerpt: Racial literacy, a collection of discursive and decoding skills that allow individuals to interrogate race and racism as well as representation and personal identity, is vital in a contemporary society that professes meritocracy and post-racialism yet where racism and racialism continue to give rise to fear, violence, and inequity. Because racial literacy requires individuals to develop a cache of discursive tools with which to critically read and respond to particular situations and broader societal practices as well as to investigate the rhetorical practices and power of racial ideology, there is no venue better fitted to the development of racial literacy than the college composition classroom. From the planning stages through the end of the semester, this book provides practical strategies for designing and implementing racial literacy curricula in the composition classroom and across the curriculum. Drawing upon an award-winning three-year ethnographic teacher research project, the author offers curricular suggestions and teacher resources instructors can use to increase student engagement, improve student writing, and help students harness the tools of racial literacy, including awareness of structural inequity and discursive modes with which to respond to social injustice.