Skip to content
2018
Volume 73, Issue 4
  • ISSN: 0010-096X
  • E-ISSN: 1939-9006

Abstract

This essay examines the discourse around the trigger warning through the analytic paradigm of racial literacy and the rhetorical frames of colorblind racism to illuminate how the trigger warning as currently conceptualized, even when framed as a means of equitable engagement, is mediated by and upholds the racial status quo.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.58680/ccc202232015
2022-06-01
2025-03-16
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Allen Ricky Lee “The Hidden Curriculum of Whiteness: White Teachers, White Territory, and White Community.” Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association. Montreal, Quebec, Canada 1999 ERIC Retrieved February 28, 2021
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Alvarez Adam H. et al. “Race, Trauma, and Education: What Educators Need to Know.” But I Don’t See Color: The Perils, Practices, and Possibilities of Antiracist Education Husband Terry Rotterdam Sense 2016 pp. 27 40
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Bass Scott A. Clark Mary L. “The Gravest Threat to Colleges Comes from Within.” The Chronicle of Higher Education September 28 2015
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Bellet Benjamin W. et al. “Trigger Warning: Empirical Evidence Ahead.” Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry 61 2018 pp. 143 141
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Bentley Michelle “Trigger Warnings and the Student Experience.” Learning and Teaching in Politics and International Studies 37 4 2017 pp. 470 485
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Boler Megan Feeling Power: Emotions and Education New York Routledge 1999
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Bonilla-Silva Eduardo Racism without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in America 5th Edition Lanham Rowman and Littlefield 2017
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Boysen Guy A. “Evidence-based Answers to Questions about Trigger Warnings for Clinically-Based Distress: A Review for Teachers.” Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology 3 2017 pp. 163 177
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Boysen Guy A. et al. “Instructors’ Use of Trigger Warnings and Behavior Warnings in Abnormal Psychology.” Teaching of Psychology 43 4 pp. 334 339
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Boysen Guy A. et al. “Trigger Warnings in Psychology Classes: What Do Students Think?” Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology 4 2 2018 pp. 69 80
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Cabrera Nolan L. et al. “Whiteness in Higher Education: The Invisible Missing Link in Diversity and Racial Analyses.” ASHE Higher Education Report 42 6 2017
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Campbell Bradley Manning Jason “Microaggression and Moral Cultures.” Comparative Sociology 13 2014 pp. 692 726
    [Google Scholar]
  13. “Campus Sexual Violence: Statistics.” RAINN.org https://www.rainn.org/statistics/campus-sexual-violence
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Clary-Lemon Jennifer “The Racialization of Composition Studies: Scholarly Rhetoric of Race since 1990.” College Composition and Communication 61 2 2009 pp. 1 17
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Comas-Diaz Lillian et al. “Racial Trauma: Theory, Research, and Healing: Introduction to the Special Issue.” American Psychologist 74 1 2019
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) Principles for the Postsecondary Teaching of Writing 2015 http://cccc.ncte.org/cccc/resources/positions/postsecondary writing
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Cottom Tessie McMillan “Should There Be Trigger Warnings on Syllabi?” The Society Pages March 13 2014 https://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2014/03/13/should-therebe-trigger-warnings-on-syllabi/
    [Google Scholar]
  18. DiAngelo Robin “White Fragility.” International Journal of Critical Pedagogy 3 3 2011 pp. 54 70
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Ellison John (Jay) “Dear Class of 2020 Students.” The University of Chicago Accessed February 10, 2019 https://news.uchicago.edu/sites/default/files/attachments/Dear_Class_of_2020_Students.pdf
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Filipovic Jill “We’ve Gone Too Far with ‘Trigger Warnings,” The Guardian March 5 2014
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Frankenberg Ruth The Social Construction of Whiteness: White Women, Race Matters Minneapolis University of Minnesota Press 1993
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Gay Roxane “The Illusion of Safety/The Safety of Illusion.” The Rumpus August 28 2012 https://therumpus.net/2012/08/the-illusion-of-safetythesafety-of-illusion/
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Gerdes Kendall “Trauma, Trigger Warnings, and the Rhetoric of Sensitivity.” Rhetoric Society Quarterly 49 1 2019 pp. 3 24
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Grayson Mara Lee Race Talk in the Age of the Trigger Warning: Recognizing and Challenging Classroom Cultures of Silence Rowman and Littlefield 2020
    [Google Scholar]
  25. Grayson Mara Lee “Race Talk in the College Composition Classroom: Narrative Song Lyrics as Texts for Racial Literacy.” Teaching English in the Two-Year College 45 2 2017 pp. 143 167
    [Google Scholar]
  26. Grayson Mara Lee “The Trigger Warning and the Pathologizing White Rhetoric of Trauma-Informed Pedagogy.” Rhetoric of Health of Medicine 4 4 2022 pp. 413 45
    [Google Scholar]
  27. Grayson Mara Lee Wolfsdorf Adam “Courageous Conversations in the Age of the Trigger Warning.” From Disagreement to Discourse: A Chronicle of Controversies in Schooling and Education Duroyode Beth Bryant Rhonda Information Age Publishing 2019
    [Google Scholar]
  28. Guinier Lani “From Racial Liberalism to Racial Literacy: Brown v. Board of Education and the Interest-Divergence Dilemma.” The Journal of American History 91 1 2004 pp. pp. 92 118
    [Google Scholar]
  29. Hanlon Aaron “The Trigger Warning Myth.” The New Republic Fall 2015 pp. 53 55
    [Google Scholar]
  30. Helms Janet E. Black and White Racial Identity: Theory, Research, and Practice Westport Praeger 1990
    [Google Scholar]
  31. Huckin Thomas “Content Analysis: What Texts Talk About.” What Writing Does and How It Does It Bazerman Charles Prior Paul New York, NY Routledge 2009 pp. 13 32
    [Google Scholar]
  32. Inoue Asao B. “Friday Plenary Address: Racism in Writing Programs and the CWPA.” WPA: Writing Program Administration 40 1 2016 pp. 134 154
    [Google Scholar]
  33. Jarvie Jenny “Trigger Happy.” The New Republic March 3 2014
    [Google Scholar]
  34. Johnston Emily R. “Pathologizing the Wounded?: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in an Era of Gun Violence.” Rhetoric of Health & Medicine 3 1 2020 pp. 1 33
    [Google Scholar]
  35. Kareem Jamila “A Critical Race Analysis of Transition-Level Writing Curriculum to Support the Racially Diverse Two-Year College.” Teaching English in the Two-Year College 46 4 2019 pp. 271 296
    [Google Scholar]
  36. Keisch Deborah M. Scott Tim “U.S. Education Reform and the Maintenance of White Supremacy through Structural Violence.” Landscapes of Violence 3 3 2015 pp. 1 44
    [Google Scholar]
  37. Kennedy Tammie M. et al. “The Matter of Whiteness: Or, Why Whiteness Studies is Important to Rhetoric and Composition Studies.” Rhetoric Review 24 4 2005 pp. 359 373
    [Google Scholar]
  38. Knox Emily J. M. Trigger Warnings: History, Theory, Context Lanham Rowman & Littlefield 2017
    [Google Scholar]
  39. Leiter Brian “Academic Ethics: The Legal Tangle of ‘Trigger Warnings.’” The Chronicle of Higher Education November 13 2016
    [Google Scholar]
  40. Leonardo Zeus Manning Logan “White Historical Activity Theory: Toward a Critical Understanding of White Zones of Proximal Development.” Race, Ethnicity, and Education 2015 pp. 1 15
    [Google Scholar]
  41. Lockhart Eleanor Amaranth “Why Trigger Warnings are Beneficial, Perhaps Even Necessary.” First Amendment Studies 50 2 2016 pp. 59 69
    [Google Scholar]
  42. Lopez Omar S. et al. “Veterans in the College Classroom: Guidelines for Instructional Practices.” Adult Learning 27 4 2015 pp. 143 151
    [Google Scholar]
  43. Lothian Alexis “Choose Not to Warn: Trigger Warnings and Content Notes from Fan Culture to Feminist Pedagogy.” Feminist Studies 42 3 2016 pp. 743 756
    [Google Scholar]
  44. “LSA Statement on Race.” Linguistic Society of America https://www.linguisticsociety.org/content/lsastatement-race
    [Google Scholar]
  45. Lukianoff Greg Haidt Jonathan “The Coddling of the American Mind,” The Atlantic September 2015
    [Google Scholar]
  46. Lukianoff Greg Haidt Jonathan The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas are Setting Up a Generation for Failure New York Penguin 2018
    [Google Scholar]
  47. Manne Kanne “Why I Use Trigger Warnings.” The New York Times September 19 2015
    [Google Scholar]
  48. Marcotte Amanda “The Year of the Trigger Warning,” Slate December 30 2013 http://slate.com/human-inter est/2013/12/trigger-warnings-fromthe-feminist-blogosphere-to-shondarhimes-in-2013.html
    [Google Scholar]
  49. Martin Joe C. Frisby Brandi N. “Institution-wide Trigger Warnings: A Case Study of a University’s ‘Common Reading.’” Knox pp. 153 164
    [Google Scholar]
  50. Martinez Aja Y. “‘The American Way:’ Resisting the Empire of Force and Color-blind Racism.” College English 71 6 2009 pp. 584 595
    [Google Scholar]
  51. McFarland Jami “On Privilege, Authority, and Abuses of Professorial Power.” Knox pp. 165 178
    [Google Scholar]
  52. Meshelski Kristina “Are Trigger Warnings for White People?” Daily Nous July 9 2014 http://dailynous.com/2014/07/09/are-trigger-warnings-for-white-people-guest-post-bykristina-meshelski/
    [Google Scholar]
  53. Miles Matthew B. et al. Qualitative Data Analysis: A Methods Sourcebook. Third Edition Los Angeles Sage 2014
    [Google Scholar]
  54. Morse Janice M. “‘Data Were Saturated . . . ’” Qualitative Health Research 25 5 2015 pp. 587 588
    [Google Scholar]
  55. Orem Sarah Simpkins Neil “Weepy Rhetoric, Trigger Warnings, and the Work of Making Mental Illness Visible in the Writing Classroom.” Enculturation: A Journal of Rhetoric, Writing, and Culture 2015 http://enculturation.net/weepy-rhetoric
    [Google Scholar]
  56. Owens Ernest “The Real Trouble with Trigger Warnings.” Philadelphia August 7 2018 https://www.philly mag.com/news/2018/08/07/triggerwarnings-fragility/
    [Google Scholar]
  57. Pierce Chester Television and Education. Beverly Hills Sage 1978
    [Google Scholar]
  58. Prendergast Catherine “Race: The Absent Presence in Composition Studies.” College Composition and Communication 50 1 1998 pp. 36 53
    [Google Scholar]
  59. Rae Logan “Re-focusing the Debate on Trigger Warnings: Privilege, Trauma, and Disability in the Classroom.” First Amendment Studies 50 2 2016 pp. 95 102
    [Google Scholar]
  60. Ruiz Iris D. Sánchez Raúl Decolonizing Rhetoric and Composition Studies: New Latinx Keywords for Theory and Pedagogy. New York Palgrave MacMillan 2016
    [Google Scholar]
  61. Sanson Mevagh et al. “Trigger Warnings are Trivially Helpful at Reducing Negative Affect, Intrusive Thoughts, and Avoidance.” Clinical Psychological Science 7 4 pp. 778 793
    [Google Scholar]
  62. Sibrava Nicholas J. et al. “Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in African American and Latinx Adults: Clinical Course and the Role of Racial and Ethnic Discrimination.” American Psychologist 74 1 2019 pp. 101 116
    [Google Scholar]
  63. Skutnabb-Kangas Tove “Linguicism.” The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics Blackwell 2015 https://doi.org/10.1002/9781405198431.wbeal1460
    [Google Scholar]
  64. Spencer Leland G. Kulbaga Theresa A. “Trigger Warnings as Respect for Student Boundaries in University Classrooms.” Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy 15 1 2018 pp. 106 122
    [Google Scholar]
  65. Stokes Mason “In Defense of Trigger Warnings.” The Chronicle of Higher Education May 29 2014
    [Google Scholar]
  66. Sue Derald Wing Microaggressions in Everyday Life: Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation Hoboken Wiley 2010
    [Google Scholar]
  67. Sue Derald Wing Race Talk and the Conspiracy of Silence: Understanding and Facilitating Difficult Dialogues on Race Hoboken Wiley 2015
    [Google Scholar]
  68. Swartz Ellen “Emancipatory Narratives: Rewriting the Master Script in the School Curriculum.” The Journal of Negro Education 61 3 1992 pp. 341 355
    [Google Scholar]
  69. Tatum Beverly Daniel “Talking about Race, Learning about Racism: The Application of Racial Identity Development Theory in the Classroom.” Harvard Educational Review 62 1 1992 pp. 1 24
    [Google Scholar]
  70. Tayles Melissa “Trauma-Informed Writing Pedagogy: Ways to Support Student Writers Affected by Trauma and Traumatic Stress.” Teaching English in the Two-Year College 48 3 2021 pp. 295 313
    [Google Scholar]
  71. Twine France Winddance “A White Side of Black Britain: The Concept of Racial Literacy.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 27 6 2004 pp. 878 907
    [Google Scholar]
  72. Vatz Richard E. “The Academically Destructive Nature of Trigger Warnings.” First Amendment Studies 50 2 2016 pp. 51 58
    [Google Scholar]
  73. Vetter Amy Hungerford-Kressor Holly “‘We Gotta Change First:’ Racial Literacy in a High School English Classroom.” Journal of Language and Literacy Education 10 1 2014 pp. 82 99
    [Google Scholar]
  74. Washick Bonnie “An ‘App’ for That: The Case against the ‘Equal Access’ Argument for Trigger Warnings.” Knox pp. 88 122
    [Google Scholar]
  75. Winans Amy “Cultivating Racial Literacy in White, Segregated Settings: Emotions as Site of Ethical Engagement and Inquiry.” Curriculum Inquiry 40 3 2010 pp. 475 491
    [Google Scholar]
  76. Winterich Julie A. “A Middle Ground on Trigger Warnings.” Inside Higher Ed October 9 2015
    [Google Scholar]
  77. Wolfsdorf Adam “When It Comes to High School English, Let’s Put Away the Triggers.” English Journal 108 1 2018 pp. 39 44
    [Google Scholar]
  78. Zurbriggen Eileen L. “Preventing Secondary Traumatization in the Undergraduate Classroom: Lessons from Theory and Clinical Practice.” Psychological Times: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy 3 3 2011 pp. 223 228
    [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.58680/ccc202232015
Loading
/content/journals/10.58680/ccc202232015
Loading

Data & Media loading...

  • Article Type: Research Article
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error
Please enter a valid_number test