This essay argues that international teaching assistants (ITAs) bring to their writing and teaching of writing a perspective shaped by translation. They occupy intercultural spaces that make them acutely sensitive to complexities of language, and by extension, to the struggle to write well. Their struggle to write across languages and cultures can and should be recognized and mobilized in the teaching of writing, not only as an effort to achieve writing competence but also as a deflection of dominant ideologies inherent in dominant languages. This essay suggests that WAC practitioners activate this between-language experience toward producing writing instruction that is culturally and racially aware by considering ITAs models of translational consciousnesses--mindsets habituated to the process of working between languages and cultures and increasingly valuable to universities where the ability to understand and discuss cultural and racial difference is central to the collegiality of the institution. As WAC practitioners, we must help our ITAs recognize the significance and value of their conditions of translation in order to begin to unpack the layers of complexity that cultural and racial difference brings to writing practices across campus.