Communicating race, ethnicity, and identity in technical communication

190 Pages·2017·1.498 MB·English

by  Pimentel, Octavio;Williams, Miriam F

COMMUNICATING RACE,
ETHNICITY, AND IDENTITY IN
TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION
Edited by
Miriam F. Williams
and
Octavio Pimentel
Texas State University
Baywood’s Technical Communications Series
Series Editor: Charles H. Sides
Baywood Publishing Company, Inc.
AMITYVILLE, NEW YORK
Copyright©2014byBaywoodPublishingCompany,Inc.,Amityville,NewYork
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or
by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photo-copying, recording, or by any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmericaonacid-freerecycledpaper.
BaywoodPublishingCompany,Inc.
26AustinAvenue
P.O.Box337
Amityville,NY 11701
[phone]
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: baywood.com
LibraryofCongressCatalogNumber: 2013027650
ISBN:978-0-89503-831-9(cloth:alk.paper)
ISBN:978-0-89503-832-6(paper)
ISBN:978-0-89503-834-0(e-pub)
ISBN:978-0-89503-833-3(e-pdf)
http://dx.doi.org/10.2190/CRE
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Communicatingrace,ethnicity,andidentityintechnicalcommunication /
EditedbyMiriamF.WilliamsandOctavioPimentel,TexasStateUniversity.
pagescm. -- (Baywood’sTechnicalCommunicationsSeries)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN978-0-89503-831-9(cloth : alk.paper) -- ISBN978-0-89503-832-6(pbk.)
-- ISBN978-0-89503-834-0(e-pub) -- ISBN978-0-89503-833-3(e-pdf) 1.
Interculturalcommunication--Socialaspects. 2. Businesscommunication--
Socialaspects. 3. Cross-culturalorientation--Socialaspects. 4.
Communicationoftechnicalinformation--Socialaspects. 5. Sociolinguistics.
I.Williams,MiriamF. II.Pimental,Octavio,1967-
P95.54.C662014
302.23--dc23
2013027650
Table of Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
MiriamF.Williams
SECTION I: HISTORICAL REPRESENTATIONS OF
RACE AND NATIONALITY IN HEALTH
AND SCIENCE COMMUNICATION
CHAPTER1. TheEugenicsAgenda: DeliberativeRhetoricand
TherapeuticDiscourseofHate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
FlouriceRichardson
SECTION II: SOCIAL JUSTICE AND ACTIVISM
IN TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION
CHAPTER2. UsingaHybridFormofTechnicalCommunication
toCombatEnvironmentalRacisminSouthTexas: ACaseStudy
ofSuzieCanales,aGrassrootsActivist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
DianaL.CárdenasandCristinaKirklighter
CHAPTER3. TheImportanceofEthnographicResearchin
ActivistNetworks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
NatashaN.Jones
SECTION III: CONTEMPORARY REPRESENTATIONS OF
RACE AND ETHNICITY ON SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES
CHAPTER4. TweetingCollaborativeIdentity: Race,ICTs,and
PerformingLatinidad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
CruzMedina
CHAPTER5. Taqueros,Luchadores,ylosBrits: U.S.Racial
Rhetoric,andItsGlobalInfluence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
OctavioPimentelandKatieGutierrez
iii
iv / COMMUNICATINGRACE,ETHNICITY,ANDIDENTITY
SECTION IV: REPORTING TECHNICAL
COMMUNICATION AT HISTORICALLY BLACK
COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES
CHAPTER6. HBCUInstitutionalReportingasIntercultural
TechnicalCommunication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
ThereisaColeman
SECTION V: USERS’ RIGHT TO THEIR
OWN LANGUAGE
CHAPTER7. AResponseto“Students’RighttoTheir
OwnLanguage” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
NancyWilsonandAlyssaCrow
CHAPTER8. Spanglish: ANewCommunicationTool. . . . . . . . . . 121
KrystleDanuz
SECTION VI: COMMUNICATING IDENTITY
ACROSS BORDERS, CULTURES,
AND DISCIPLINES
CHAPTER9. Americans’ChangingPerceptionsofIndian
CulturalIdentity: AnAnalysisofIndianCallCenters . . . . . . . . . . 135
KendallKelly
CHAPTER10. ThisBridgeCalledMyPen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
NellyRosario
Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Introduction
Miriam F. Williams
We are over a decade into a millennium in which emerging technologies have
forced us to redefine “tweet,“troll,”and “friend,” and reposition “I” asaprefix
for “pod,” “pad,” and “phone.” In the United States, technical communicators
are engaged in important research, examining the theoretical and practical
implications of these technologies in weakened economies and identifying
medicalandenvironmentalexigenciesintheageofAIDScrisesandSuperstorms.
Though we know this as an age of austerity, colleges and universities around
the country continue to seek new technical communication faculty, and our
students continue to obtain employment with job titles ranging from the
ubiquitous “technical writer” to “international regulatory affairs specialist.”
Still, and unfortunately, we lag behind our colleagues in other areas of English
studies (literature, rhetoric and composition, and creative writing) in finding
waystowrestlewithtwocoreelementsofAmericanidentity—raceandethnicity.
Insomecases,emphasizedinthisbook,theseelementsofouridentityshapeuser
experiences as much as education, literacy, gender, nationality, or any of the
other criteria we use to analyze audiences. In other chapters, issues of race and
ethnicity shift from the audience to the technical communicator, whose identity
as a person of color or not informs their rhetorical moves and whether these
movesareeffective.
The purpose of this book is to move our field’s discussion beyond issues
of diversity in the practice of technical communication, which is certainly
important, to discussions of how race and ethnicity inform the production and
distribution of technical communicationwithin the United States. As important,
this book is an attempt to uncover those communicative practices used to
negatively impact historically marginalized groups and identify new practices
1
2 / COMMUNICATINGRACE,ETHNICITY,ANDIDENTITY
that can be used to encourage cultural competence within institutions and
communities.
This book, like our field, is an interdisciplinary effort. While all authors
have taught or practiced technical communication, their backgrounds include
studies in technical communication, rhetoric and composition, creative writing,
and higher education. As co-editor of this book, it was as important for me to
solicit the research of scholars in technical communication as it was to see
howscholarsinotherfieldsunderstandandinterpretwhatwedo,especiallyasit
relates to their research interests in race and ethnicity. It was quite instructive
towitnesshowthescholarsfrom“outside”oftechnicalcommunicationgrappled
withthepreceptsofourfieldasweinherentlydowithotherfields.
For the sake of clarity, the book is organized into six sections: historical
representationsofraceandethnicityinhealthandsciencecommunication;social
justice and activismin technical communication;considering race and ethnicity
in social media; reporting and teaching technical communication at historically
Blackcolleges and universities and atHispanic-serving institutions;users’ right
to their own language; and communicating identity across borders, cultures,
and disciplines. After reading these chapters, you will find that there is much
overlap within these categories, which serves as evidence that the scholars’
work represented in this edited collection address recurring issues that begin to
fillaliteraturegapinourfield.
The first section of the book, Historical Representations of Race and
Nationality in Health and Science Communication, includes “The Eugenics
Agenda: Deliberative Rhetoric and Therapeutic Discourse of Hate” by Flourice
Richardson. Richardson’s research is the collection’s sole examination of his-
torical artifacts related to race and technical communication. In this chapter,
Richardson takes on the arduous task of examining scientific and technical
reports related to North Carolina’s eugenics movement, which shockingly
lasted until the mid-1970s. Although artifacts documenting extremely unethical
and inhumane acts such as eugenics are often difficult to research and read,
they help us to draw important lessons. The co-editors of this collection are
thankful that we were able to obtain this important historical study for your
consideration.
The second section of this book, Social Justice and Activism in Technical
Communication, includes two fascinating qualitative studies. In Chapter 2,
“Using a Hybrid Form of Technical Communication to Combat Environmental
RacisminSouth Texas:A CaseStudyof SuzieCanales,aGrassroots Activist,”
Diana L. Cárdenas and Cristina Kirklighter demonstrate how a “hybrid form
of technical communication” is used by a Latina activist in a South Texas
community struggling with environmental hazards. In Chapter 3, “The Impor-
tanceofEthnographic ResearchinActivistNetworks,” NatashaN.Jones’study
of “activist networks” problematizes our very notion of activism and identity in
INTRODUCTION / 3
her ethnographic examinationof anonprofit organization’s institutionalidentity
andcommunicativepracticesusedtoexoneratetwowrongfullyconvictedWhite
prisonersinWashingtonState.
In the third section of the book, Contemporary Representations of Race and
Ethnicity on Social Networking Sites, we leave North Carolina, South Texas,
and Washington State for intriguing studies in cyberspace, specifically Twitter
and YouTube. In this section, Cruz Medina’s chapter, “Tweeting Collaborative
Identity:Race,ICTs,and PerformingLatinidad,”includesaliteraturereview of
scholarship on race and information and communication technologies (ICTs),
which supports his examinationof the use of Twitter in a predominatelyLatino
writing classroom. Also in this section, Octavio Pimentel and Katie Gutierrez’s
chapter,“Taqueros,Luchadores,ylosBrits:U.S.RacialRhetoricandItsGlobal
Influence,” uses critical discourse analysis to analyze racist YouTube videos,
YouTube’s policies regarding these types of videos, and user responses (i.e.,
comments)tothesevideos.
Thefourthsection,ReportingTechnicalCommunicationatHistoricallyBlack
Colleges and Universities, includes a chapter related to institutional reports at
historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs). Thereisa Coleman elo-
quently and persuasively argues that her work as an accreditation liaison
andinstitutionalresearcheratanHBCUrequiredcompetence,notonlyinstatis-
tical analysis, data collection, and interpretation, but in intercultural technical
communication.
Thefifthsection,Users’RighttoTheirOwnLanguage,includestwothought-
provoking chapters that do not ask us to redefine our principles of effective
technical communication,but do challenge our interpretation of clear language,
at least in multicultural contexts. Nancy Wilson, a writing center director, and
Alyssa Crow, a graduate student studying rhetoric and composition, present a
technical communication-centered analysis of NCTE’s “Student’s Right to
TheirOwnLanguage,”intheirchapter,“AResponseto‘Students’RighttoTheir
OwnLanguage.’”KrystleDanuz,anInternationalRegulatoryAffairsSpecialist,
effectively demonstrates what implementation of Wilson and Crow’s argument
might look like in practice in her chapter, “Spanglish: A New Communication
Tool.”
In the final section of the book, Communicating Identity Across Borders,
Cultures,andDisciplines,weconcludewithtwochaptersthatdiscusstheculture
andidentityofusersandwriters.KendallKelly’schapter“Americans’Changing
Perceptions of Indian Cultural Identity: An Analysis of Indian Call Centers”
is an enlightening qualitative research study that speaks to American tech-
nologyusers’preconceivednotionsof“theother,”whilealsogivingusexamples
of how technical communicators in India adjust to or resist these notions.
We conclude the book with a beautifully written creative nonfiction essay,
“This Bridge Called My Pen,” by Nelly Rosario, whose discussion of her own
4 / COMMUNICATINGRACE,ETHNICITY,ANDIDENTITY
identityasaDominicanAmerican,MITeducatedengineer,andnationalaward-
winning creative writer, invites us to explore the metacognitive proc-
esses of communicators (technical, creative, or both) who write across cultures
anddisciplines.
Octavio Pimentel and I would like to thank all of these authors for their
wonderful contributions to this book. We are hopeful that this edited collection
will facilitate many thoughtful conversations about race, ethnicity, and identity
intechnicalcommunication.
SECTION I
Historical Representations of Race
and Nationality in Health and
Science Communication