The transracial aesthetic labour of an international teaching assistant

Abstract

PurposeThis paper introduces the concept of transracial aesthetic labour to understand why and how an international teaching assistant (ITA) vocally changes meanings of his racial identity.Design/methodology/approachThe paper uses a narrative analysis to detail instances of transracial aesthetic labour.FindingsFor the ITA, this labour involved orally distancing from or aligning with particular Indian stereotypes for specific contexts.Research limitations/implicationsTransracial aesthetic labour may occur in other industries that deem race an integral part of sounding right or looking good for the job.Practical implicationsThe findings highlight the need for ITAs and universities to rethink the meaning of transracial to combat racist perceptions of ITAs' speech.Originality/valueThe paper advances the aesthetic labour literature by exploring how race is vocally performed for this labour and introducing ITAs as aesthetic labourers.

Aesthetic labour and diversity on the shopfloor: the experiences of women workers in fashion retail

“…To management, Tai did not meet their aesthetic demands of an Asian worker like Hye-Jin, Amporn, and Joon. Therefore, Tai became a liability for Orchards, as they could not fully harness her aesthetic labour and make her sound "exotic enough" (Ramjattan, 2019(Ramjattan, , 2021. Tai rebelled against these standards and eventually was fired, as her aesthetic labour could not be controlled by management.…”

“…Tai rebelled against these standards and eventually was fired, as her aesthetic labour could not be controlled by management. Although she "looked right" being of Asian descent, her inability to sound exotic or foreign failed to meet the expectations of management's White sense (Delgado and Stefancic, 2012;Ramjattan, 2019Ramjattan, , 2021. Xiu like Hye-Jin, can speak Mandarin and is proactive in selling.…”

“…In particular, race, which has been increasingly noted as an important aspect of aesthetic labour (i.e., Wissinger, 2012;Walters, 2018). Despite the emerging interest in aesthetic labour within scholarly literature, studies that explicitly focus on the intersections between aesthetic labour and race are relatively limited with a few exceptions, such as Nath (2011), Wissinger (2012), Walters (2018Walters ( , 2021, Robinson (2021), and Ramjattan (2021). These studies were mostly conducted in North America and offshored Indian call centres.…”

Fairness, Justice, and the Certification of Teaching Competence for International Teaching Assistants

“…In this commentary, I continue to explore these types of inconsistencies and challenges by noting that the "foreign TA problem" must be understood as a demand for ITAs to sound a particular way as academic workers. Having to perform what is called aesthetic labor, ITAs are obliged to perform such labor due to the neoliberalization of North American universities as well as their role in upholding White-coded manners of speech as the standard for oral communication (Ramjattan, 2021).…”

The “Foreign TA Problem” as a Demand for Aesthetic Labor

“…In this commentary, I continue to explore these types of inconsistencies and challenges by noting that the “foreign TA problem” must be understood as a demand for ITAs to sound a particular way as academic workers. Having to perform what is called aesthetic labor, ITAs are obliged to perform such labor due to the neoliberalization of North American universities as well as their role in upholding White‐coded manners of speech as the standard for oral communication (Ramjattan, 2021).…”