Students became invested in “their article” once they felt the sense of excitement and commitment that the original research and writing inspired in the authors. For example, in her DLP essay about language and power in legal contexts, Sharese King analyzed the trial of George Zimmerman, who was charged with killing Trayvon Martin, a young unarmed Black man, in Florida in 2012. Zimmerman was ultimately acquitted of the crime—a decision that many saw as a miscarriage of justice.
King’s work analyzes how jurors largely disregarded the testimony of a key witness, Rachel Jeantel, because she used African American Language or “Ebonics” on the stand. King had done the research and co-written the original article years ago, but in the workshop, she was reminded of why she cared. The research was personal, she said, because these kinds of racist judgments could just as easily happen to her or her family. This personal connection, in turn, drew the students into her piece because they recognized that racist judgments about language could impact them too.
For the students, working with “their” author led to new and empowering insights on language, education, and justice. Undergraduate Sitara Vaidy, for instance, worked with the author Barbra Meek on the essay, “What Makes the Indian Sound Indian,” which critiques harmful stereotypes of First Nations characters in Disney movies. After working on the article and watching Pocahantas again, Sitara shared that she was shocked she hadn’t picked up on the racialized linguistic stereotypes in the animated film before.
DISRUPTING HIERARCHIES THROUGH LANGUAGE
The insights we gained about language, culture, and power went beyond the academic content of the workshop; they came out of our efforts to dismantle educational hierarchies that are reinforced through language. Even sitting with their teams during lunch provided a chance to disrupt these assumptions.
When Danna and Athalia ate lunch together that first day with their author, Ariana Mangual Figueroa, Ariana casually began to use English, Spanish, and Spanglish. The students responded in turn. In her bio for what would be the first article published, Ariana listed Spanish, English, and Spanglish (with an explanation) as the languages in her life. After that, we noticed many other DLP team members also began including “Spanglish” or “African American Language” in their bios, implicitly acknowledging that their many ways of speaking were assets not deficits.
