The BELAs are an organically formed community of BIPOC community college, technical college, and university English teachers, all female, non-binary, or queer, who since 2020 have been grappling with the following contradiction: for those of us who are racially minoritized, teaching the English language—inseparable as it is from whiteness—promises to open doors to economic opportunity. Yet, at the same time it demands our participation in the continued wielding of English as an instrument of colonial domination and racial violence, prolonging its long legacy through contemporary pedagogical and industry practices. BELAs, short for BIPOC ELAs (English Language Acquisition, or ELA) is the name of the department that some of us belong to. The ten BELAs meet weekly and have developed a statewide institute shared with more than 40 other BIPOC teachers over the past three years.