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Once a qpoc student came to my office upset with me for not shutting down a white student who talked too much during a class discussion on Black feminism. I asked them if they think they can relate to my position in that same classroom. We kept talking and listening and...
...it was a hard and productive discussion. I need to teach everyone in the class, but I also need to make sure I am keeping us on task and safe and accountable (mostly on my end). The student wanted a classroom space they realised they could also contribute to building...
...we both learned from each other that day, in that private convo. That’s the best case scenario: not easy, often frustrating, loaded with opportunities for misunderstanding, but ultimately about making possible the conditions for learning and growing, together, with empathy.
Our students need to know more about our precarious position in the academy: it’s true. Especially for grad student workers and adjunct/non contract faculty. But we can’t pretend that somehow we aren’t also in a position of power relative to our students. Solidarity takes work.
Was I defensive at first? Fuck yeah. I’m a young racialized woman in my first job at a PWI (this was at NYU) teaching one of the few Black studies classes available that term. I got defensive. But I was being given an opportunity to learn and grow *with* my student. So I took it.
