"An Art of Truth in Things": Confronting Hiphop Illiteracies in Writing Classrooms at Predominantly White Colleges and Universities

Abstract

Th is article interrogates how hiphop composition pedagogies can interrupt what the author terms the “hiphop illiteracies” that circulate in predominantly white institutions (PWIs). An analysis of four college writing class-rooms that integrate hiphop texts at one PWI reveals pervasive anti-Black-ness in student attitudes, but also in the research and course design as well as in department-mandated course texts. Th e analysis demonstrates the need for writing pedagogies that name and teach Black language, writing, and meaning-making practices while also asking students, teachers, and admin-istrators to re fl exively examine their own identities’ locations vis-a-vis those practices. Th e author advocates a re fl exive pedagogy that asks students to locate themselves vis-a-vis power as a starting point for investigations of language and culture. Th e author concludes that hiphop pedagogies have signi fi cant critical social justice possibilities in institutionally white educational contexts, but these bene fi ts are not automatic and demand pedagogies of re-fl exivity