Navigating Conversational Turns: Grounding Difficult Discussions on Racism

Abstract

This issue of Praxis focuses our attentions and intentions on “diversity in the writing center.” This focus seems inherently “good”: diversity is something everyone can, and should, support. We find, however, that this diversity work gets really exciting, unnerving, and potentially frustrating–but still good–when we think about how differences are more than just differences: they become unfair organizers of our lives, providing some of us with fewer opportunities, less insider knowledge, and limited access. Other articles in this issue take up gender, language, culture, physical ability, and learning style. In our piece, we invite you to consider how race intersects with these other differences, influencing “deeply embedded logics and patterns” of everyday writing center practice (Geller et al., 87). We also want you to consider with us what makes conversations about racism difficult and what we might do to sustain open, honest, and still difficult conversations with an aim toward dismantling the systematic racism that shapes our lives.