Actions for Racial Justice
Statement from the Ethnicity, Race, and Multilingualism Committee
July 1, 2020
The Ethnicity, Race, and Multilingualism (ERM) Committee in Literacy research Association (LRA) is committed to equity and justice. The purpose of this statement is to reaffirm the committee’s stance against all forms of systemic racism. We aim to raise awareness of racial injustice and provide specific suggestions on how the LRA community can take actions for change.
Recently, we are experiencing a resurgence of racist acts against underrepresented groups within the United States. These unequal treatments include, but are not limited to: the brutal murders against countless Black people including George Floyd, the xenophobic violent acts against Asian people in relations to the Coronavirus, and the dehumanizing acts of the internment camps at the United States and Mexico border. These are only a few examples that represent how systemic racism has been deeply rooted in the society. The committee stands in solidarity with Black Lives Matter and condemns all forms of racism and violence.
The ERM committee recognizes that awareness about racism is not sufficient and more sustainable actions for racial justice are fundamental for change. The committee suggests the following actions that we as literacy researchers and teacher educators can collectively do together. These suggestions are not exhaustive.
First, our literacy community can conduct more empirical studies in context to identify racial issues and their impact on students’ literacy learning and achievement through students’ voices. More grant money should be allocated to support the studies that can capture nuanced contexts to find real issues. Second, our literacy community can examine whether and how teacher education programs prepare pre- and inservice teachers for anti-racism. Programs need to include at least one required course on the history of race and literacy to help learners understand how racism is institutional, personal, explicit, and implicit. Third, teacher educators can offer pre- and in-service teachers with more authentic fieldwork experiences in communities of color throughout the teacher education programs. Fourth, teacher educators can examine whether and how their previous and current course readings are diverse and include more work by scholars with ethnically and linguistically diverse backgrounds to promote more diverse and critical perspectives. Finally, conference organizers and editorial boards in the literacy field can invite more research regarding racial issues on a regular basis, not as a one-time, special theme issue.
These actions can create a more inclusive, safe, justice-based, and educational environment for our children to live and thrive. Our collective actions as literacy researchers and teacher educators can plant seeds toward that environment. The ERM committee joins the LRA community that continues to grow as responsible literacy leaders for racial justice.
ERM Committee:
Allison Briceno, Carol Brochin, Xia Chao, Tiffany A. Flowers, Laura M. Jiménez, Kwangok Song, and Bogum Yoon (Chair)
