ECU English Professors Condemn “Mainstream English” as the “Language of Power”

“We understand the painful history of English becoming a global language and acknowledge that there is no singular or correct English” 

“Assignments and grading criteria that promote white language supremacy adversely affect students”

These are the people who are supposed to teach students how to write.

The embrace of social justice ideology as the only way to view the world has led ECU English professors to abandon regular standards of English when assessing student writing.

Seventeen ECU professors of English and/or education, plus six professors in other departments, publicly condemned “mainstream English” as the “language of power.” The signatories comprise nearly one-fifth of ECU’s entire English Department.

In their own words, they believe that requiring student writing assignments to adhere to traditional grammar rules harms students and violates “linguistic justice” values.

“We are deeply concerned with campus practices surrounding racial linguistic justice,” the professors wrote, “and [we] acknowledge that we must begin to change the ways we assess writing.”

‘Culture of White Supremacy’

The English professors’ condemnation of mainstream English came in a lengthy missive posted prominently on ECU’s University Writing Center website. The Center’s director, Dr. Nicole Caswell, is a professor in ECU’s English Department.

The writing center nominally exists as a resource to help students become better writers. But according to the Center’s website, “Our energies are dedicated to affecting positive change in the antiracist movement”:

“In the University Writing Center, we understand the painful history of English becoming a global language and acknowledge that there is no singular or ‘correct English’…We challenge faculty, staff, and administration to dismantle racist power structures of language by educating ECU students about how white mainstream English became the language of power.”

The professors assert that holding students to traditional standards of English may “unintentionally perpetuate racism.”

They call for improved awareness on “systems of oppression,” and warn that failure to do so “perpetuates a culture of white supremacy.”

‘Good writin gone look and sound a bit different’

We have no objection to universities exploring different forms of writing. Doing so is fully within the bounds of academic freedom. Though we were previously unfamiliar with the term “linguistic justice,” it is surely a subject of some scholarly debate.

But by embracing “linguistic justice,” instead of merely discussing the concept as one of many perspectives on rhetoric, one questions whether these seventeen ECU professors, including nearly one-fifth of the English Department, are adequately preparing students for the professional world.

To help answer that question, it’s instructive to review an example of nontraditional English that the professors cited and that they apparently view as acceptable writing: “This mean too that good writin gone look and sound a bit different than some may now expect.”

Would you hire somebody who put that sentence on a cover letter?

They also offered advice to their colleagues on how they, too, can “promote antiracism” in analyzing student writing. They should deemphasize “correct grammar” and not “privilege correctness.”

Would you eschew “correctness” when analyzing a prospective job applicant?

In adherence to social justice and antiracism ideology, this group of influential ECU professors, which includes one department chair, has abandoned professional standards for writing. In doing so, they’re likely harming ECU students’ prospects for future employment.

There’s a problem in higher education.