University Writing Center Rejected Proper English, Calling It “Linguistic White Supremacy”

There was a time when being a white supremacist meant something (for starters, that you were one in a million). Today, though, it appears that anyone can be a white supremacist. Why, all journalist Larry Elder had to do to become “the black face of white supremacy” was seek California’s governorship. And now all you need to do to become the linguistic face of white supremacy is uphold Standard American English (SAE).

That is, according to certain “intellectuals” — such as those at the Metropolitan State University of Denver’s (MSUD’s) Writing Center.

Yes, that’s right. Don’t dare tell students not to speak like a cross between Snoop Dogg and the rapist in the film Deliverance. Otherwise, you could be guilty of “anti-black linguistic racism.”

No, “Woke” Is Not Dead

Reporting on the story Monday, National Review (NR) wrote that MSUD’s writing center urged educators to dispense with SAE

in since-deleted materials published under its “Anti-Racist Practices for Your Classroom” guidance on the university’s website.

The writing center even rejected that SAE exists at all, and “fully support[s] students in using their English (whatever that may be) in communicating their thoughts and ideas,” according to a page that has since been removed from its website.

The center’s reasons for rejecting SAE include the assumption that there is a “correct” way to write, the implication that there is a “standard” when the United States does not have a regulating body, that SAE “is a social construct that privileges white communities and maintains social and racial hierarchies,” and that SAE privileges white society over other ethnicities.

Having gotten blowback, however, the university is now doing damage control. As NR also informs:

MSU Denver told National Review it is aware of the content and that it does not reflect the official policy of the university.

“The University has removed that content and is working with the Writing Center to review it to ensure alignment with the institution’s mission, values and academic best practices,” an MSU Denver spokesperson told NR. “MSU Denver remains committed to rigorous academic standards and preparing all students for success in life and careers.”

So that should be it for the story, right? Not exactly.

Not the First Rodeo

It’s not just that whoever formulated the woke policy is still, presumably, in the writing center’s employ. (This means that the individual will, like a mole, be around to influence curriculum.) It’s also that this isn’t an isolated incident, but is part of a long metastasizing intellectual cancer. The writing center tacitly admitted as much, too.

As American Thinker wrote Monday, adding to the story:

The writing center said its directive was based on compliance with the Conference on College Composition and Communication’s June 2020 statement “DEMAND[ing] Black Linguistic Justice.”

“We demand teachers stop using academic language and standard English as the accepted communicative norm, which reflects White Mainstream English,” says the statement. “We demand teachers develop and teach Black Linguistic Consciousness that works to decolonize the mind (and/or) language, unlearn white supremacy, and unravel anti-Black linguistic racism!”

In fact, this disrespect for language standards greatly predates even 2020’s intensified racial politics — and racial politics itself. For example, more than a decade ago we heard about “creative spelling.” This is where a student is allowed to spell words any way they sound to him.

Now, I said at the time that we should respond by offering teachers and administrators thus inclined “creative paychecks.” Really, though, some may wonder if implicit in this is the following thinking.

“It’s really hard teaching students proper English — especially with discipline lacking in modern zoos schools. So we’ll just let the kids spell words any way they want and call it a new pedagogy!” That’s how you make slackerism sound sublime.

Elevating Bad Ethics

Then there’s making bad ethics echo ethereality. That is, MSUD’s writing center also proposed “Restorative Justice Approaches to Plagiarism.” As NR further explained (and note: This rationale was presumably formulated with a straight face):

The softball approach to plagiarism includes advising professors to consider that students do not know what plagiarism is, that the student may come from a country where copying work is a sign of respect, the student is overwhelmed, or the student lacks confidence and care to complete the coursework successfully.

Then again, we could go way out on a limb and theorize that the student is a lazy, unethical ne’er-do-well.

All this said, the writing center policy’s originator did have a point. It’s important, too, to explain it better than he understands it.

Can We Be Serious?

Noam Chomsky, the famed linguist and infamous Khmer Rouge apologist, once pointed out the obvious. If everyone spoke “black English” (derived from redneck English), he told us, it would be the norm. It would be “correct.” So, yes, SAE is a “social construct,” as the writing center says.

Moreover, while France has the Académie Française (the “French Academy”), which establishes official language rules, the U.S. has no corresponding body. So the writing center is correct about that, too. But this misses much.

First, are only government entities significant? For we have many private organizations that publish language rules such as in the The Chicago Manual of Style.

More importantly, however, while language rules are always social constructs, something else is an objective truth. To wit:

A civilization must have a common language spoken in a common way to be as united as possible.

In our civilization, this is called Standard American English. And, no, you don’t get to rejigger it based on some cock-and-bull new theory conjured up last Thursday.

What’s more, since this is our (necessary) standard, how we speak is integral to our self-presentation. It influences how others judge us.

So you can tell a black student to reject “linguistic white supremacy.” But you’ll be seriously handicapping him with respect to getting good employment and functioning in intellectual arenas. Note here, too, that English isn’t just our language. It’s the international language of business — not, though, in the Ebonics form.

The even bigger picture here is that, contrary to recent claims, wokeness isn’t dead. The good news is that regarding schooling, there’s a simple way to determine if an educational paradigm should be embraced. That is, if it’s younger than the kids who’d be subject to it, it’s probably inanity disguised as erudition.