in some of the courses of the program, there was a consistency of microaggressions that I have observed. For example, during discussions in several classes, I observed white students routinely interrupt Black and Brown students and, at times, not hesitate to interrupt white women instructors while they lecture.

For example, instructors wanted grad students to engage in discussions about the content of the class. Most times, however, I sat quietly because I was not entirely sure that I was in a safe space. I would remain quiet for several weeks until I was sure that I was in a classroom where professors and students saw me as a person.

Fortunately, during my undergraduate years, a Black male professor took me under his wing and mentored me throughout my undergraduate and graduate years of study, giving me sound advice on life and my academic career. The most profound advice he gave me was, "Never apologize for wanting better for yourself."

I have witnessed Black and Brown students give their perspectives and share personal experiences in the classroom, only to hear the responses of white students who believed they could speak to those same experiences

the contagious assumption that we are living in a postracial world is simply an assumption. Universities and colleges pride themselves on inclusion and diversity but do faculty and staff truly understand and embrace diverse student-body members?

This essay will focus on inclusion in social spaces, specifically in educational settings where there is the presumption of inclusion, yet my experiences indicate otherwise.

From my teenage years, I have managed to train myself to speak and act in a manner that is nonthreatening to whites, making them feel comfortable, all the while not invoking any stereotypical behavior or speech that would embarrass myself or Black people as a whole.

Code-switching helps us understand how andwhen we (and literary characters) change languagevarieties according to situation, audience, and purpose.

hroughout, Joe speaks in the vernacular: "Lemmespeak to mah wife a minute and Ah'm goin' seede man" (Hurston 37). In this way, Joe signals ingroup status by using his speech mirroring the language of those he lead

In the United States, standardized English is the variety used by businesses, education,and the government. However, at times, other varieties convey power within a community.

If contrastive analysis helps us identify what aspectsof language contrast in dialectally diverse texts,code-switching reveals how characters' languagereflects context.

Language comes in varieties (sometimescalled dialects).• All language varieties are structured.• Language varieties are linguistically equal(Adger, Wolfram, and Christian; Wolframand Schilling-Estes)

When teaching texts that usedifferent varieties of English, we must assume students are unfamiliar with reading that variety, evenif you hear them speak it (and even write it) on aregular basis.

e'll explore how studentscan use language to interrogate issues of identity,power, prestige, and prejudice in society.

The University of Pennsylvania is a predominantly white institution, En Low pointed out, so she code-switches from her regular way of speaking -- which she has been told by peers sounds "not really educated" and "really slang heavy" -- into a softer tone unless surrounded by close friends. It took some effort at the call center, even more so with the pressure applied by a supervisor who would closely monitor calls and criticize employees if they didn't get people to donate enough money to the Ivy League school. After just three weeks, it got to be too much.

The results, published in 1999, found a significant difference in the number of appointments granted to the "callers" with minority dialects and confirmed that racism can extend to phone conversations.

John Baugh studied after he experienced discrimination during a housing search in the late 1980s. He found that Bay Area landlords who invited him over the phone to view apartments would often express surprise that he is black when he arrived

Code-switching, or altering the way you speak based on the audience, is a widespread phenomenon among those whose accents and dialects stray from the national standard