It was early in the morning and I was sitting in a coffee shop… and a couple came into the coffee shop with their twin baby girls. This woman sitting near me jumped up and greeted this couple with praise and said “I am so happy to see a Caucasian, Hetrosexual and probably God-fearing couple in this coffee shop!” The couple looked shocked, which rules out that they all knew each other. The couple then looked over at me with embarrassment… at that moment I felt like all eyes were on me and that I was expected to speak up. The husband ( I am aussming) then said he didn’t agree with what she was saying and started walking away. the woman went on to say to the wife (I am assuming) that “oh, he is probably those progressive types” in which the wife replied “no actually what your saying is not right”. The woman then proceeded to say that “yes, you should agree with your husband”… the mood in that coffee shop was akward. I was just in the middle of sending off a paper that was due in 15 minutes, so I couldn’t just leave… and so I was determined to focus on my paper, take a deep breathe and move on… needless to say I still wonder what triggered that woman to say that? And I am so grateful that I can use my education to deconstruct the instances of racism. 

-Victoria, BC

Compelled to defend my English expressions, Pedagogies, Lecture Content, and Teaching Assistants: Why is this so? To what extent is race/racism in the classroom a factor? From the perspective of Carl James (1994. p. 125), “The fact that race plays a role in teacher-student interaction is important and must be acknowledged and examined.”

-Professor Victoria, BC

My Teaching Assistants: When my Teaching Assistants are White men, students rarely complain about their grades and his grading. The opposite is true in the cases of my Teaching Assistants who are non-white females.

-Professor Victoria, BC

Students challenge the grammatical/syntax validity of Assignment Instructions and Test/Examination Questions: This happens quite often in my classrooms. After I return their graded first assignments and tests/exams to them, students often claim that the instructions and the questions are “confusing”, that is why they did not excel. A few times I verify this remark by giving my assignment instructions and selected test/exam questions to seasoned English Instructors/Professors for feedback. They don‟t see any grammatical/syntax confusion. Even occasionally a student will share my lecture content with parents and a parent would email to challenge its factual validity. This student interaction with my assignments, tests/examinations, and lecture content could be understood in the framework of Gillian Creese and Edith Kambere‟s (2002, p. 11) publication about the colour of English. One of their main findings is that “perceptions of language fluency are indeed, coloured,‟ forming tangible dimensions of racialization processes…”

-Professor Victoria, BC

 How do we call you: Mr. (and my last name) or Mr. (and my first name)? Another frequent question in the beginning of semester. Because of this I began to put “Dr.” (and my full name) on my course outlines, powerpoint presentations/lectures, my office doors, and timetables. These have not prevented students from addressing me as “Mr.” (and my first name usually)” or “Mr.” (and my last name. Why is it assumed that I am teaching in a college/university without a Doctorate or PhD? Perhaps, again we can get some clues from Carl James (1994, p. 129). My constructed image as “a visible minority”, “an immigrant”, “an other” makes me “a person whose colour and accent are indicators of [low] educational credentials, occupational status and location in society”.

-Professor Victoria, BC

 Accent: Students‟ remarks on the website ratemyprofessors.com and in-the- classroom course evaluations always include students‟ comments on my accent. Carl James (1994, p. 128) states that “In many cases, reference to accent is another way of referring to race and masking racial attitudes. It is also a way in which students try to locate me as an outsider…

-Professor Victoria, BC

“Where Are You From?” Like in the case of Professor Carl James (1994, p. 127), this question pops up in every class I have taught in the British Columbia post-secondary system for the past nineteen years. His explanation puts this interaction situation in the context of racism: “I would suggest that this question “Where are you from?” is of course more often asked of racial minority persons, thus making race, or racial difference, the pivotal point around which interactions are built” (Ibid.).

-Professor Victoria, BC

“How did you get here?” A student once asked me this question. I didn‟t understand where she was coming from, so I narrated my educational and employment journey to her. Now I know this could be racism because I did not fit the image of “white, English Canadian who spoke with perfection”. She was surprised. Therefore, she felt “a need to not only verify how I got there but also to ascertain that the status quo remains the same” (James 1994, p. 129). -Professor Victoria, BC

Students dropping my courses: High Attrition Rates: A few years ago I designed and taught a course called “Introduction to the Social Sciences”. The main objective of this course was to facilitate the integration and success of international students into social science classes in a Canadian post-secondary institution. The attrition rates were so high that they attracted my attention and that of my Department Chair who remarked to someone in my absence that the reason was my “thick accent”. My further investigation proved otherwise. It was more of the international students‟ notion that Canada is a “white country” and expected their teachers to be white than my accent. The following explanation Professor Carl James (1994, p. 129) provides for his own experiences helps me make sense of this particular experience of mine. According to him, “References to my race and accent are ways in which students establish that in the larger scheme of things in this society, I am what is termed „a visible minority,‟ „an immigrant,‟ „an other‟—a person whose colour and accent are indicators of educational credentials, occupational status and location in society. It is for these reasons that students would have expectations that their teachers would be “white, English Canadians who spoke with perfection.” Karl James explanation above may also account for students leaving my classes on the first day of classes immediately or a few minutes after I enter the classroom and they see me. - Professor Victoria, BC