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at the onset of the pandemIC, like many people around the globe, I was anxious and fearful. The novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, was dangerous and mysterious. There were, and still are, many misconceptions and unknowns about the transmission, effects, and treatment of this virus, resulting in pervasive uncertainty and confusion. As an African American woman, I am a member of two groups frequently mistreated and underserved in healthcare -women and African Americans. Consistent with other health disparities, people of color -and particularly African Americans -are more likely to contract and die from the virus. 1 Not surprisingly, then, I was terrified not only of getting sick but also of how I might be mistreated or underserved by those in charge of my care. I felt that if I were to contract this virus, I would surely die. This may seem like an unreasonable fear, but the risk of contracting COVID-19 combined with recent health diagnoses heightened my sense of precarity.Shortly before the pandemic, I had undergone several diagnostic medical tests. I learned that I was on the verge of diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. A sleep study revealed that I was experiencing severe sleep apnea. Specifically, my breathing stopped 32 times

In this manuscript, two normalistas-teachers, who are Women of Color in the United States, reflected on our experiences as educators. In a chronological narrative structure, we each told stories related to our experiences with languages and literacy. Using Anzaldúa’s autohistoria-teoría—a decolonial research methodology—we constructed situated knowledge based on our personal reflections of our experiences. More specifically, we uncovered ways we have been conduits of white language supremacy, interrogated how white language supremacy has impacted our teaching, and revealed our growth in our stance towards linguistic justice. Through the lens of raciolinguistics, we reveal our own victimization, internalized racist linguicism, and subsequent perpetuation of linguistic imperialism. Because of our professional successes as a result of English proficiency, we bought into the myth that acquiring Standard American English was necessary to ensure the success of students with racialized identities and failed to fully value language plurality. At this point in our professional journeys, however, we are committed to work characterized by 1) a recognition of the ways language and race are inextricably entwined, 2) evidenced appreciation for non-Western language varieties, 3) use of translanguaging as resistance, 4) culturally sustaining writing instruction (Woodard, Vaughan, & Machado, 2017), and 5) multimodal communication practices. Our manuscript is important because it models the kind of vulnerability, theorization, and critical reflection necessary for scholars whose work aims for decoloniality. It represents our commitment to decolonization of the self.

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