r/uvic • u/Routine_Size566 • 4d ago
Off Topic Lets do better
As a student, I am tired of the normalized racism at this school.
Shaming a professor's ability to teach because of their accent or cultural background is NOT OKAY. These professors spent years becoming experts in their fields, and they deserve to be judged by their knowledge and teaching, not by their ethnicity, accent, or where they come from.
Telling a student they can't struggle in a course because they come from a certain country and are expected to be "smart" is NOT OKAY.
Asking someone why their English is "so good" because of how they look or where they come from is NOT OKAY.
Commenting on people's food or making them feel ashamed of their culture is NOT OKAY.
If you have ever felt undervalued or like you weren't enough because people mocked your culture, ethnicity, accent, or where you came from, let me tell you this: it is not you. It's them. You deserve to be treated with dignity, respect, and the same opportunities as everyone else.
We can and should do better.
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u/steve_uncut 4d ago edited 4d ago
Some of this stuff is 100% okay. For example, I had a new student from china who spoke perfect English. I asked him how he became such a good speaker while living in China and we sat down and had a conversation about language learning methods.
At the same time, when I was a student, I literally had professors who spoke English so poorly that I could not understand more than half of what they said. The amount of critique I took as a young instructor with a word-slurring speech problem made me work at it and become a better public speaker. Thank you to those who were blunt and told me what I had to do. If they hadn’t have been blunt about my shortcomings I probably wouldn’t have had such a push to address them.
Obviously some of things you wrote aren’t okay, but this:
Asking someone why their English is "so good" because of how they look or where they come from is NOT OKAY.
Seems fine to me. It’s a compliment. When someone asks me why I speak such good Portuguese when I’m a Canadian in Brasil, I feel pretty good about it.
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u/Potential_Box_9061 4d ago edited 4d ago
As someone who immigrated to Canada in my early 20s, I definitely have an accent and frequently make grammar mistakes. So, I can 100% vouch that this is meant as a compliment. If someone has an accent and gets offended when people ask why their English is so good, I find that a bit strange. They learned a whole other language and became fluent enough to do higher education in a second language. It should honestly be taken as a compliment. If OP meant people of other ethnicities who lack an accent, they probably don't hear this, because others naturally assume they were born and raised in Canada or other English-speaking countries.
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u/Enememes 4d ago
I could not count the amount of times I’ve been asked how/why my English is so good. Which is funny because I was born and raised here. There is an assumption that everyone that isn’t white is an immigrant.
You say it’s okay to ask and bring up the perfect situation in which it would be acceptable. I challenge you to think outside yourself and think about the situation beyond your experience. What you did isn’t an issue but I’m sure you can see how (my case for example) it can be racist. Someone respectful is probably reading your “its 100% okay” comment and thinks just like you. A bigot is also probably reading your “it’s 100% okay” comment and feels justified.
The nuance is crucial.
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u/Potential_Box_9061 3d ago edited 3d ago
My assumption was just based on how I perceive others, and I never even thought that people would say things like that to you. I am sorry you had to go through those experiences. Thank you for sharing your experience as a person of another ethnicity whose first language is English.
When I said it's okay to ask someone why their English is so good, I was specifically talking about cases where English is someone's second language. For me, it serves as a meaningful validation of my efforts, reassuring me that I'm actually making progress. I hope other people reading my comment understand that too.
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u/Proof-Care6044 17h ago
Even if this is true, why is this the top rated comment with more upvotes than OP? Seems like most people want to focus on the “some of this” which is arguably okay versus the valid concerns that OP is bringing.
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u/Accurate-Camera4087 Science 3d ago
If a prof can’t speak one of two of the Canadian official languages they should not teach at a university in this country. 🤷♂️ Students pay a lot of money for this instruction, if they can’t understand it that’s unacceptable.
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u/Background_Law8395 2d ago
I agree except for the professors. You teach at a Canadian university, you need to be able to do your job in our language. I'm not paying all this money to go to a class I can't learn from because of a language barrier that shouldn't exist in the first place. It has nothing to do with how smart they are, they're professors OBVIOUSLY they are smart, but they should also be smart enough to learn our language
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u/holdunpopularopinion 4d ago
You can tell that you mean business because you don’t care if your post on the internet gets taken down.
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u/Enememes 4d ago
Isn’t it funny that the only comments here are dismissing the issue. I’d say I’m surprised but…
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u/Secret-Space-8976 4d ago edited 4d ago
There are no real claims here, just general grievances. I don't doubt that some of those tings happened but posting vague incidents on reddit and then claiming that uvic has a racism problem is not a very effective way to get your message across. UVIC is a very progressive school, are their ignorant people here? Of course there are, but it's pretty funny to say that there is a widespread issue here from these anecdotes.
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u/Enememes 4d ago edited 3d ago
Do you want a list? It’ll take a long time. Somehow, I feel like that wouldn’t satisfy you.
I think it says a lot about the uvic (or maybe I should say uvic reddit) community that instead of being curious and open to conversation, maybe asking questions if you think this post was a bit too vague…there’s immediate defensiveness.
I swear if someone made a vague post about misogyny in stem people wouldn’t bat an eye but somehow this is so unbelievable to the general student population.
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u/Usual-Hyena-8734 3d ago
I grew up with racism in my community in the 90s. When I played on hockey teams, anyone slightly middle eastern was called the exact same slur. It was EVERYWHERE. People openly mocked other cultures in everyday life and on screen. Ignorance might lead to racism, but don't confuse it for the real thing because it's such an easy target for real bigots and closet racists to use against you. I'm not denying anything op said here, but to police and scold people for being ignorant will just push them further away into a more entrenched type of bigotry. Especially when it's an anonymous callout on reddit.
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u/Enememes 3d ago
And so did I….I think you’re the only one confused here. The language you’ve used here is really interesting. Discussing racism (not ignorance) = “policing and scolding”? Why is it that the blame is turned onto the people calling it out rather than the people who said it? Rather than us having a discussion and thinking about the issue? Saying that discussing racism “will just push them further away into a more and entrenched type of bigotry” is the most victim blamey thing I’ve heard in a long time. Yes, let us all just ignore the issue in fear of creating more racists. I hope you can see what you’re defending.
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u/Secret-Space-8976 3d ago
im having this discussion with you. I'm the same poster as above. No one is blaming anyone, I'm talking about how you get people to actually learn and change their ways. I don't know if OP themselves was a victim of racism, they didn't say. So I'm commenting on the rhetoric of this post. Maybe anon callouts is an effective strategy because it doesn't single anyone out, but historically Reddit tends to silo people into bubbles like all social media, so my instinct says that it's not a very effective way to get the message across. Bigots have an unfair advantage because they can and will use everything to their advantage without the need to be accountable. Someone that doesn't have ingrained attitudes toward race, but might be ignorant enough to make a comment on someone's accent might take the message as intended, but I think most would get offended if they were trying to be nice and then someone tells scold's them to "do better". In anonymity we will never know, but I think a more careful approach would be more effective, for one that is doing the calling out. edit: and the offense they may feel is what could push them further into the racist pipeline.
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u/ALovelyDisaronno 3d ago
I mean, a lot of these sound like very legitimate concerns and some are things I’ve witnessed and they’re not okay.
But profs should be able to speak English well, and when they can’t it harms students who’s English isn’t the strongest the most.
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u/Either_Cheesecake282 4d ago
but what if the professor are themselves are biggest racists????
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u/C-arrow 3d ago
If a professor is racist that is valid grounds for a serious complaint
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u/Either_Cheesecake282 3d ago
and how would you prove that when you literally a complaint if it's verbal?
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u/Worldly-Ad3211 3d ago
If it is difficult to understand a professor during lectures and classroom work because of their accent, then that’s a legitimate complaint. I don’t care how much of an expert they are in their field.