An Arizona State University professor is calling for an end to what he calls “white supremacy language” and suggests a labor-based grading system should replace the current way of grading.
During a discussion online, Asao Inoue, a professor of rhetoric and composition at ASU, said “White language supremacy in writing classrooms is due to the uneven and diverse linguistic legacies that everyone inherits, and the racialized white discourses that are used as standards, which give privilege to those students who embody those habits of white language already”.
Inoue also claimed that white supremacy culture “makes up the culture and normal practices of our classrooms and disciplines”.
In order to combat issues from white supremacy culture, Inoue suggests a labor-based grading system that would redistribute “power in ways that allow for more diverse habits of language to circulate”.
Inoue has created the term “Habits of White Language” to describe the current way papers are graded by teachers.
In his presentation, Inoue said “Labor-based grading structurally changes everyone’s relationship to dominant standards of English that come from elite, masculine, heteronormative, ableist, white racial groups of speakers”.
This system means assignments would be weighed based on how much “labor” students put into their schoolwork. Grades would not be assigned solely based on quality of work or grammar.
Inoue told Fox News “These new conditions can provide a wider group of students who come from a more diverse set of language backgrounds, to thrive and learn”.
He also pointed out that he does not want to get rid of grammar and language instruction and said “I AM arguing that we create better conditions in classrooms for all students, no matter their language backgrounds”.
