a letter to your school Literature & Language Essay

Your final writing task is a 1000 word letter to Boston University in which you ask for some type of specific change. In doing so you quote the authority of class learning, at minimum 4 different references to class book, things you watched, read on FB. You will unmute and read your almost final draft on Tuesday to the class. Pick an item that is focused, responsive to current times, and is advocacy based on your experience.

Dear,

You might think about starting your essay from the lens of SDOP (naming something structural that needs to change) or you might consider starting from IDOP1 (naming something interpersonal that needs to change). Either way the start of your essay is similar to the Module 1 writing experience ---- you are bringing us into the topic so that we care about it. And in doing so you might first start big and then introduce yourself (traffic of intersectionality) or you might begin by introducing yourself first and then go into naming oppression.

You probably want to remember that the reader of this is not Dr. Rani or anyone in the class, meaning don’t assume that they know the language of terms --- “school them” ---- meaning name things, define them, label them, and think about how the reference of class materials might help with that.

You want to make them care about this “thing” you want change for because it’s not about you, but that it is about a topic of issue that when changed improves the lives of many of your peers on campus. You can definitely convince BU of the “thing” because of this current moment! Like your BU took an ENTIRE DAY OFF to focus on anti-racism! You can look up that schedule of events or name that date, you can make note that BU student groups have remained active in getting together on zoom and advocating, you can name the racism Asians across campus experienced with COVID-19 in February prior to leaving BU, you can name Black Lives Matters and the realities of anti-blackness, you can name the dominant Whiteness that still circulates on campus with everything from counselors, faculty, etc.

The point of the letter is to harness this moment in time and be strategic about this! The letter is simultaneously from you as a member of a class on the topic of anti-racism and you are now a writer writing this, so yes, it’s first person, but there are many moments where you claim authority by depersonalizing your voice and asserting from quoting materials, articles, facts, data, etc. Thus this genre is a hybrid of both.

You are not required to submit this, I will not share it, and so as I have been saying in the conferences, I want you to push yourself to name things as they are ---- Whiteness is Whiteness (a system), racism is racism (not lack of diversity), etc. Name things with the boldness of many of the pieces you have been reading “and writing” about. Also lean into how much you have learned from each other, and finally DEBUNK THE MODEL MINORITY STATUS --- push away from the convenient ways Asians water down racism as they assume proximity to Whiteness. Speak truth to power. I’m not in the mind of giving explicit formula for this because in many ways, I am trusting you to write as you are, and you all have already exhibited your writing voice in the class.