My syllabus asks people to respect differences and how individuals wish to be addressed. And yet, I managed to offend a colleague who previewed recent updates by including “LGBTQ” in the text.
“How can you forget the plus?” she demanded. Not asked. Not suggested. Demanded.
Honestly, it was an oversight, but the tone of the colleague suggested I had made an intentional (or unconscious) choice to commit a microaggression against the “+” individuals.
Asking a colleague or two from other institutions to review my syllabus was a part of my routine each year. I believe that we improve as educators when we seek out perspectives from other colleges and universities. My hope is that my courses offer parity with courses at other universities.
Now, I’m not so sure I want feedback.
I just forgot a plus sign. For all I know, Word autocorrected my typing. Who knows? But it was a missing symbol that clearly meant a lot more than I would have anticipated.
When I began reporting and writing in the 1980s, I learned that you always use the preferred language of specific communities. Newspapers and magazines evolved from using homosexual to gay, because that was a community preference. We now use “queer” when asked. LGB was replaced by LGBT and then LGBTQ. Today, LGBTQ+ has been adopted by some publications and it is what I tend to use.
I grumbled about my mistake and the response to a friend who teaches in another discipline.
“I get it. I objected to BIPOC in a departmental statement during a Zoom meeting. I don’t like person of color.” I could anticipate where he was going with this. “I was told I must be a racist relic from the past.”
My friend identifies as, and is, Black. He doesn’t like Caribbean-American or African-American and really dislikes the “AA” notation for Black.
“Thankfully, other people on the call laughed out loud.”
I asked why BIPOC was problematic, and he did his best to explain. I am paraphrasing with permission:
“Black, Indigenous, and People of Color? What about Lantix people who are light-skinned? What about Asian-Pacific Americans? What about people from any number of places who aren’t quite ‘people of color’ to other Americans, but are outsiders? No. The protests today are about Black lives. The Black experience. We can be allies and still want this moment to be distinct.”
I hadn’t really pondered how Asian-Americans must feel about BIPOC. Are they included or not? That’s a question I cannot answer.
This university professor went on to explain that he realizes he has deeply offended one or two other people in his program.
I’m worried that the educated elites, often white people in positions of economic and social privilege, are turning on each other with these quick, emotional responses to language. With the best of intentions, these individuals are trying to police language aggressively.
Yes, we should ask people to use Deaf, Blind, Black, and so on. We should use LGBTQ+ and queer when asked to do so.
One slip of the keyboard doesn’t merit a lecture on bias. Just make the suggestion politely. Don’t tell a Black person right now that BIPOC is more inclusive. Ask why someone objects to a label and listen.
I’m fortunate that no student has objected to my syllabi over the years. Each year, I try to update the language and I try to be respectful of pronouns and so on.
My concern is that colleagues will “cancel” each other, ending friendships and professional relationships over words and acronyms that are constantly evolving. Language is unstable; as educators, we know that.
We need to be better examples, as educators.