My name is Tiffany Martínez. As a McNair Fellow and student scholar, I’ve presented at national conferences in San Francisco, San Diego, and Miami. I have crafted a critical reflection piece that was published in a peer-reviewed journal managed by the Pell Institute for the Study of Higher Education and Council for Opportunity in Education. I have consistently juggled at least two jobs and maintained the status of a full-time student and Dean’s list recipient since my first year at Suffolk University. I have used this past summer to supervise a teen girls empower program and craft a thirty page intensive research project funded by the federal government. As a first generation college student, first generation U.S. citizen, and aspiring professor I have confronted a number of obstacles in order to earn every accomplishment and award I have accumulated. In the face of struggle, I have persevered and continuously produced content that is of high caliber.
I name these accomplishments because I understand the vitality of credentials in a society where people like me are not set up to succeed. My last name and appearance immediately instills a set of biases before I have the chance to open my mouth. These stereotypes and generalizations forced on marginalized communities are at times debilitating and painful. As a minority in my classrooms, I continuously hear my peers and professors use language that both covertly and overtly oppresses the communities I belong to. Therefore, I do not always feel safe when I attempt to advocate for my people in these spaces. In the journey to become a successful student, I swallow the “momentary” pain from these interactions and set my emotions aside so I can function productively as a student.
Today is different. At eight o’clock this morning, I felt both disrespected and invalidated. For years I have spent ample time dissecting the internalized racism that causes me to doubt myself, my abilities, and my aspirations. As a student in an institution extremely populated with high-income white counterparts, I have felt the bitter taste of not belonging. It took until I used my cloud of doubt and my sociological training to realize that my insecurities are rooted in the systems I navigate every day. I am just as capable if not more so than those around me and my accomplishments are earned.
This morning, my professor handed me back a paper (a literature review) in front of my entire class and exclaimed “this is not your language.” On the top of the page they wrote in blue ink: “Please go back and indicate where you cut and paste.” The period was included. They assumed that the work I turned in was not my own. My professor did not ask me if it was my language, instead they immediately blamed me in front of peers. On the second page the professor circled the word “hence” and wrote in between the typed lines “This is not your word.” The word “not” was underlined. Twice. My professor assumed someone like me would never use language like that. As I stood in the front of the class while a professor challenged my intelligence I could just imagine them reading my paper in their home thinking could someone like her write something like this?
In this interaction, my undergraduate career was both challenged and critiqued. It is worth repeating how my professor assumed I could not use the word “hence,” a simple transitory word that connected two relating statements. The professor assumed I could not produce quality research. The professor read a few pages that reflected my comprehension of complex sociological theories and terms and invalidated it all. Their blue pen was the catalyst that opened an ocean of self-doubt that I worked so hard to destroy. In front of my peers, I was criticized by a person who had the academic position I aimed to acquire. I am hurting because my professor assumed that the only way I could produce content as good as this was to “cut and paste.” I am hurting because for a brief moment I believed them.
Instead of working on my English paper that is due tomorrow, I felt it crucial to reflect on the pain that I am sick of swallowing. My work is a reflection of my growth in a society that sees me as the other. For too long I have others assume I am weak, unintelligent, and incapable of my own success. Another element of this invalidation is that as I sit here with teary eyes describing the distress I am too familiar with, the professor has probably forgotten all about it. My heartache can not be universally understood and until it is, I have to continue to fight. At this moment, there are students who will never understand the desolation that follows an underlined “not.” There are students who will be assumed capable without the need to list their credentials in the beginning of a reflective piece. How many degrees do I need for someone to believe I am an academic?
At this moment, I am in the process of advocating for myself to prove the merit of my content to people who will never understand what it is like to be someone like me. Some of you won’t understand how every word that I use to describe this moment was diligently selected in a way that would properly reflect my intellect. I understand that no matter how hard I try or how well I write, these biases will continue to exist around me. I understand that my need to fight against these social norms is necessary.
In reality, I am tired and I am exhausted. On one hand, this experience solidifies my desire to keep going and earn a PhD but on the other it is a confirmation of how I always knew others saw me. I am so emotional about this paper because in the phrase “this is not your word,” I look down at a blue inked reflection of how I see myself when I am most suspicious of my own success. The grade on my paper was not a letter, but two words: “needs work.” And it’s true. I am going to graduate in May and enter a grad program that will probably not have many people who look like me. The entire field of academia is broken and erases the narratives of people like me. We all have work to do to fix the lack of diversity and understanding among marginalized communities. We all have work to do.
Academia needs work.
TIFFANY MARTÍNEZ 
Dear Tiffany,
Please, stand strong. I am a senior professor at a university and I see these behaviors often. I think that you need to request a meeting with the Chair of the Department and the Dean. The professor owes you a public apology and they should put a letter in his personnel file documenting his/her poor pedagogy.
Best of luck,
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Tiffany, Do not give up, though unpleasant, but an incident like this and maybe many to come should not divert you from your goal. I am a college professor who cares on not having plagiarism in my students’ writings; thus, I switched to turnitinassignments via Blackboard to detect this problem. Stay the course and hope your professor read your genuine piece! Bara Sarraj
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Talk to he department chair AND the Dean of Students. INCLUDE your university’s diversity or EOO person if possible.
That professor acted in an egregiously racist and unprofessional manner and they can’t take steps to fix it if they don’t know
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Hi Tiffany,
My name is Francisco and I work for Channel 5 in Boston. I’m working on a story about what you experienced for our website and I was wondering if I could use the photo of the paper with credit to you, as well as if you had any other comments about what happened. Please email me when you get the chance.
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This reminds me of one of my favorite movies, Finding Forrester. Keep fighting the good fight and find that self confidence.
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No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. Good luck!
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What a brilliant response. May I use it on social media?
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Hi, thought I’d add that though I come from a family with immigrant roots like you but some decades earlier, I’m always rereading what I write in academic settings because I’m frequently worried that an idea I have might not originate with me, and I want to avoid plagiarism. So, I take segments that seem too smart and cut and paste in Google Scholar to see if it is mine or not. It’s just a good way to know and avoid things like this. Through my doctorate, my profs knew me and my writing and how I talk… and write. Good luck the rest of your academic career.
Paul (desc. of Stephen Hopkins and Wm. Brewster, and many from Ireland, Scandinavia, and Western Europe)
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I understand that our country has issues with how we view people. It’s insane that it is a problem. I try hard to treat everyone equally and think I do very well and make a good example for people when it comes to this.
However, what am I supposed to say when I’m treated with disrespect from teachers? I am constantly at my college treated with condescending attitudes and disrespect. I go to TxState. I am a white male in my early 30’s. I have had 3 instances with white math teachers that have almost made me give up on finishing my degree. I struggle to be viewed as someone who ‘cares’ in Spanish classes.
I do not want this misunderstood. I am not trying to take away struggles I will never fully see as you do. My concern is this attitude from professors seems to be accross our generation, which is viewed as lazy and spoiled. Education is broken, our society is broken, but respecting others is beyond broken.
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This reminds me of a professor of mine who wrote on my paper that I have issues with grammar. This after I had already completed a Masters degree and now going after my second. I was also a teacher of English at a local community college and had written and published as well as presented at a number of conferences. I also worked as a tutor, both on ground and online. She saw only that I was a minority in her class and made assumptions about me, suggesting that I take her class on grammar in the summer. Unless I have proof of plagiarism, I never accuse my students. Sadly, there are too many professors like this, ‘hence’ one of the reasons so many minorities cannot move forward despite their education. I still have colleagues who try to instruct me by sending suggestions on what I should teach my class, despite never having been in my classroom. When will this change?
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People are jerks in attempts to bolster their own self worth. Achievers rise above this behavior. The small-minded will decline while you grow. This is what they know and fear.
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As a Mexican American whose sights are set much like yours, I am saddened, although not entirely surprised, by this encounter! Imagine, now, the bias when job hunting? Latino Studies much?
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Reblogged this on Erisel's Writes.
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In academia there is no room for hurt feelings. If the first statement is not true, then none of the rest can be accepted.
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There is room for human decency everywhere.
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This comment is really interesting in that it doesn’t engage with the situation whatsoever. I can only guess it was motivated by…feelings.
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Dear Tiffany,
I work for an academic publisher. No institution can love you or possess the means to adequately judge you. Like all institutions it consist of many people and all people have flaws. Despite all the BS about rigger, the academic process is administered by humans and thus suffers from all the flaws that humans possess. No matter what level of academic success you eventually achieve your desire for acceptance will in someways be unrequited regardless of your ethnicity or gender. I do not say this to discourage you but to give you some perspective. If you love the pursuit of knowledge then academia has much to offer you. If you are interested in validation as a human then probably not. It would be dangerous to view yourself only through the lens provided by academia. It tends to be very focused and I am confident you have much more to offer the world than a very narrow beam of light.
Good luck.
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I hope you turned this assignment back with this retort, adding, “a copy of this has also been submitted to the dean where I have requested a meeting to discuss the needs of minorities in this school.” This is completely disgusting.
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You know, not that it makes this right as it will NEVER be right, but this happens every day in 100 different ways to other people too.
I am caucasion but FAT. I have always had to go against the stereotypes that label me stupid, slow, lazy, food motivated (you know, would do anything for a cookie, ugh!!!!) or any of the other labels i had to constantly fight in my nursing career. Not just bosses but families feeling the need to ask personal questions about my weight and “letting myself go”.
I am in a long list of tall fat people in my family. You would think i would have thicker skin, but the CONSTANT judgement about what is in my grocery cart, to lunch bag, to dinner out st a restaurant is exhausting. Try being fat and eating dessert!! You can be a fall out drunk and get more respect than me at that point.
Some would argue mine is self made. See, now that’s another judgment, follow me around you’ll see your lacking ideas.
Now to make it even worse, a back injury and psoriatic arthritis make me use a walker. Yet I constantly feel the need to defend myself because we all know i am just fat right? Just one of those fat people that loves to use a walker and draw more judgement.
Ok, so ultimately what i am trying to say, is that you are not alone. Stupid people make stupid judgements. Was this bad???? YOU BETCHA!!! Disrespectful CHECK!!! Ultimately tho, in truth it’s their issue, their way to see things!!! You are doing something amazing!!!! Don’t let ignorance hinder or taint what you have attained so far!!! You’re amazing. So hold your head up high, hence the shit out of people who dare judge you, and know there are thousands of us, walking next to you every day that feel the exact same way!!
The best revenge we all know, is SUCCESS!!!!!!
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You should tell the professor that all of the words were cut-and-pasted from Webster’s dictionary, and that the word processor was your brain.
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Hopefully you are bouyed but the comments I have been reading. I am sorry this happened to you. After having read your articulate letter I would love to nothing more than give you the hug you deserve and then tear down the logical fallacies of your so called
Professor. Or at least teach him how to use google or any of the much more advanced anti-plagiarism services available.
I am torn between advocating for you to push back and work towards him having consequences or rising above. Either way chart your own course and find strength in the words and love emanating from all of us.
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I would also love to have edited my post. 😉
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I hear and feel your pain. The professor was guilty of malpractice as an educator to have called anyone out like that. But for one brief millisecond i want everyone to realize how insane it is in this world of internet access to believe that anyones work is their own. Grade a few papers yourself and seek to discern anyone’s voice eminating from them. Discerning the authorship of anyone’s writing is an exercise in futility. The internet is killing writing and artistic integrity.
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You are an amazingly strong person. You have to be to get to where you are now. The generations to come need a professor just like you. Someone who sees each individual student, knows what it is like to me misjudged and unfairly graded. Please don’t give up. I can’t imagine your hurt. But I know the world needs you.
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Tiffany, when so many of us are prepared to side with you it shows that the tide is slowly changing. That what matters is an individual’s worth and not the color of their skin or their sex or their ethnic origin. The only way to fight prejudice and bring about change is to do what you are doing: create transparency, call out the BS you encounter, seek to connect with others who understand what you are going through, and make of your life and career the kind of success that will make people like the professor who put that idiotic remark on your paper feel exactly the kind of myopic, cognitive Mesozoic regressions they are.
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Be happy you are in the subject of English and not
Math, Physics, Engineering or Computer Science.
1.)Einstein – non-conformist Jew in Germany. Likes to wear
his hair funny. – Physics
2.)Ada Lovelace – no original thoughts, just a language
translator – Computer Science Woman.
3.)Nikola Tesla – seemingly UNBELIEVABLE scientific claims.
Regarded as ‘mad scientist.’ – electrical engineering.
I leave the rest of the fun to you to discover.
Remember, my name is ethnic Chinese, but somewhat
‘mangled’ – thank heavens. Maybe one of these days I
will change it.
Conclusion: Academia and other ‘institutions’ are NOT
your friend. Maybe the INTERNET is. joke – On the
Internet Nobody knows you are a ‘dog’ or woman and
NOBODY CARES.
I CRITICIZE YOU FOR NOT ENOUGH SATIRE. Quality and
Satire and yes, trolling is sometimes fun can be a
method of vengeance, historically speaking.
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Nikola Tesla biography
1.)minority from Serbia
2.)immigrant
3.)defrauded in Edison’s laboratory
4.)high eccentric and HAD TOO MUCH PRIDE
5.)man, but very gentle. loved to feed pigeons, rather
than shooting lions.
6.)strangely eccentric and maybe kindof nutty? talked
about death rays, saucer type spaceships.
YOUR iphone smartphone wireless charger using ‘magnetic
wave resonance’ and battery powered cars is based on
Tesla electrical engineering.
Favorite Movie is Idiocracy. Welcome to the land of
idiocrats. Where did you copy that ‘beautiful prose’?
you cheater!
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Ms. Martinez please use this experience to help define who you really are: not a stereotype within the narrow confines that limit your teacher’s perspective, but in the limitless horizons that you already see unfolding before you. Your article reveals a young woman with initiative and professionalism befitting someone with more experience than you age would normally display. Every life’s journey will encounter cold, harsh rain. Experiencing storms like this earlier in your journey makes you better prepared for the road ahead.
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I am so,so sorry. Your professor, I’m sure, will not apologize to you. So, please let me do so for her.
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I just want to tell you that you are beautiful in every way- your writing is reflective of that. You have moved me to tears with what I just read. I know that I could not possibly understand the acceptance that I have come to take for granted that you have to work for every single moment. I know it exists but I do not understand it.
But I want you to know that I am proud of you. You are the type of woman I want my daughter to aspire to be. The type of woman that I actively strive to be every day. You exemplify everything I want her to aspire to. A hard working woman, successful despite whatever odds she is up against… knowing that despite the ignorance and challenges she faces, that she must fight on for herself and for those who will follow her. You are a leader. You are beautiful.
Words can not describe how sorry I feel to hear of your experiences. But I stand behind you, even as a stranger whom you have never met… woman to woman. Please keep up your fight. Please continue with your successes. Never ever give up hope, never ever give up on yourself, because your aspirations and dreams inspire me.
God bless you.
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It is important to remember that those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach. Those who can’t teach, lecture. And those who can’t even lecture, write textbooks……..
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That is truly stupid.
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Sounds like you need to have a talk with their department chair about bias, especially in a sociology class.
Also, just going to take a guess here. They’re white, right?
Anyway, to the chair, go to the compliance office, bring a bunch of your papers including that one and send a clear message to the institution and that professor in particular about your worth as a student. No one deserves to be treated that way.
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Beautifully written reflection on a very misguided opinion by a narrow minded professor. Unfortunately academia is full of professors like yours. Hold fast to your goals and believe in your abilities. You will persevere!
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Tiffany, although I am a white, middle class individual, in my 50’s who was forced back into college to compete with younger professionals in my field of nursing, I want to include a thought for you. I have recently begun my post graduate education and although I hold a Bachelor’s degree, was told my writing is juvenile, and I have continued APA problems, although none were specifically identified. I was also told in a telephone conversation with the professor, that my thinking is right-brained, and that ‘this is a left-brained class’. (the class is nursing theory). I have to agree with you that today’s academia is so intent on resting on their doctorate degrees and looking down on others on their way up that they have lost sight of what it is like to be working fulltime jobs, attending school full time and in my case caring for an aging parent with Alzheimer’s on the weekend that they are ridiculously ignorant to their student’s lives. I sympathize with you, but I feel your pain, not in a racially challenged way, but I wanted to let you know that this may not be a bigoted comment, but just a totally inappropriate one. Good luck in your studies, and I hope you can influence many students interested in academia to think before they comment!
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Thank you!! As a “non-traditional” student getting ready to graduate from my Masters program and head to PhD, I can say this speaks volumes to not only race and gender, but to age as well. I have been told my writing is juvenile and lacks breadth yet I’m a published student and have presented at several regional and national conferences. It’s egoist at its best.
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It was both an unprofessional and a bigotted response. Just like academia can by ageist(which was what happened to you), it can also be racist. And it is ok to call it as it is. The thing is this; white racist people can be everywhere. Yes even in Sociology classes. Why are white people so afraid of anything being perceived as racist?
When the professor assumed that this student’s paper was too good to be hers, and pointed out a word like “hence” as not her word. He/she was being purely, unadulteratedly RACIST. There was no evidence for him to feel that way other than the fact he looked at her skin and jumped to that conclusion.
As a black woman who is also a Nurse. I know too well what she speaks of. I have dealt with it all through my academic career.The instituition of Education is RACIST too.
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Your professor was completely inappropriate and unprofessional. They should not exclaim anything about anyone’s grade or work in front of the group. They should ask to talk to you and not mark up your paper with assumptions. I would only mark a paper, if I knew the source a students used. I know it is hurtful and tiresome, but they should be reported.
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You have every right to be upset when treated in this manner, but never doubt yourself. You know your accomplishments. Carry on and achieve your goals, then treat others as you wish to be treated. Only by the rest of us behaving properly can cowards like that be put in their place. Good luck and GOD Bless.
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All I can say is I am so sorry! This is an injustice!
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What an arrogant prick! How did/will you respond?!
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When in college years ago, I experienced similar discrimination against women. Various remarks on papers and exams seemed discriminatory and nick-picking. I decided to only use my initials with my last name so instructors wouldn’t recognize me as female. In one class the professor was returning tests, praising high test scores. Mine was the second highest. He called out my name. When he realized I was a female, he threw the paper on my desk and said something to the effect of “Oh, it’s you”, implying he was shocked I was a women.
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This right here. Tiffany, I share both your pain and your outrage. I want to offer you words of encouragment and solidarity in the hopes that what I say consoles you, but for selfish reasons too: that I internalize these words so we can both equip ourselves mentally and emotionally for the battle ahead. I have two degrees from Stanford and entered a grad program at Notre Dame in 2012. On the last day of the first semester I was accused of plagiarism for turning in personal notes for an oral presentation which included sections that had been cut and pasted (so I could remind myself of what certain terminology meant during my presentation). I now know that you don’t turn anything in without proper citation format, but it was a rookie mistake for someone who had been out of school for twelve years. After just three hours, the academic dishonesty charges were dropped. I flew home the next day with a lower lip full of cold sores…devastated, ashamed and at a loss for words to tell my family that the student they knew who has been on scholarship since the fourth grade almost lost his current and future funding. I came back the next semester and fought hard to put it behind me. Unfortunately it cemented my fate; whether faculty wanted to admit it or not, the mere accusation reified their assumptions and impressions of me: I was an underperforming student of color whose two degrees from Stanford was either a result of some sort of fluke or from previous academic dishonesty. I was monitored, surveilled and threatened every semester with expulsion from the program. I was eventually told (in November mind you) that “in all likelihood I would not be invited back next year”. I graduated with a second masters degree, but not before the program emailed me the night before commencement to say they didn’t think I was eligible to walk. I went home for a year, reapplied and have started my first year at USC. A few weeks ago, I was in class and turned in a reading response for a seminar in which I raised an academic critique about a piece of literature’s use of terminology and characterization of the LGBT community of which I am a member. The professor, instead of presenting my critique and opening the floor up to discuss it simply said “I read your critique and frankly think you made all that up in your head”. “Disrespected and invalidated” INDEED. The icing on the cake was that my mother was visiting and came with me to class that day. Because my mom is white, straight and has not been in a traditional graduate program environment, she wasn’t aware of (or woke to) this all too common dismissal in the academy. She instead chastized me after class for getting visibly upset. I had a sit-down with this professor to explain to him “why I take things so personally” and that despite my vastly different background and perspective as a biracial gay man (with a history of child abuse) that it is wholly unacceptable to me to be charactertized as crazy. Different? Yes. Unique and eccentric? At times. Under-represented and under-valued?! All the damn time…but never crazy. I come across many professors, co-workers, peers (and sometimes family) who label my actions or behavior as either “angry black man” or over-sensitive & over-dramatic gay man. This is my long-winded way of saying Tiffany: I see you, I know what you are going through and unfortuantely it does NOT get better in either graduate school or in the tenure track journey. I recommend a two-pronged approach of therapy and stayng connected to the various forms of support on your campus (El Centro, friends, grad student orgs, etc.). If you remember anything form this lengthy post, let it be that the academy desperately needs you. If you leave, you let them win and your identities and groups will continue to be under-represented and inherently under-appreciated. It does little for us in the moment, but we have to commit ourselves to being soldiers in a war that will have more than our fair share of personal and lost battles. Much love and support to you on this academic journey.
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Don’t let idiots like this stop you. Keep working hard and one day when you’re well known and respected for your work no one will remember this bigot( probably a Trump supporter also).
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Hey howdy and a big hug to you. You’re a very good writer from what I can see in this post, able to articulate your views without being vague or misunderstood. If anything, when you go for your Ph.D., I think you have a topic already! That said, what’s up this professor’s rear end? (never mind, don’t want to know) I know I’ve written so many papers in my school years. Now I’m trying fiction (which is tricky as hell to me).
At the start of each semester, as a reminder, I would read my first draft of any research paper, then read the final result–I could barely recognize it as coming from me! The words were just so polished and right, different than the little dozens of mistakes I made in my class pages! I always had to remind myself that I was capable of being understood and get the point out without babbling on the page. It takes practice for me–LOTS of it, though I love it more than anything and have done it all my life.
For some, writing is much easier or the “proper” technique just comes through. One would think a professor would know that with more time comes great editing and work, the chance to say it the way you meant it with your best skills to the fore. What this prof’s problem is, I can’t get. Must have the nose so high in the air they can’t see anything. Hugs to you and keep going strong.
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I think a dismissal is in order just for the fact you were humiliated in front of the class alone. Add to it that these were bogus allegations and it’s deplorable that this alleged shaper of minds is still employed.
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When I was a sophomore in high school, our English teacher assigned us to write a short story. Of course, I waited until Sunday evening to begin writing the story. My parents went to dinner with some friends and I stayed home to work on a short story. Mom and dad got home at 11:30 pm, and I was still writing.
The next day I turned in my story. A couple of weeks later our teacher returned our stories. However, at the end of the class she announced that one student had plagiarized the short story assignment. Many of my friends had read my story and thought it was amazing, so they said I should go up after class to make sure our teacher didn’t think I was the one who plagiarized. I did receive an A+ on the story.
So, after class I spoke with her. Yes, she thought I had copied the story from somewhere. I was crushed. I had never worked so long and hard on any assignment. I ran out of the classroom, out of the school, and all the way to my mother’s office where I broke down in tears.
I am white and my teacher was white. This was not a matter of race … just a teacher’s perception of what she “thought” I was capable of creating. She did not know my background. She did not know that in grade school some of my friends and I played games of telling stories, or that I spent hours writing poetry in my freshman year of high school.
She made assumptions about me and my abilities. This happens to all of us in life. I did not let her opinion of my abilities stop me, no matter how much it hurt. Whether we are white, black, brown, gay, heterosexual, bisexual, Catholic, Protestant, Hindu, Muslim, Spanish, Estonian, Nigerian, or of whatever background, people are constantly evaluating us. Rightly or wrongly. We have to believe in ourselves and move forward regardless of what others may think about us. As a woman who started law school when I was forty, there were roadblocks just to getting my juris doctorate. Did I hesitate at times? Sure. That is part of the overall process to growth as a person. The key to success in life is believing in yourself when others do not. Is it easy? No. Is it worth it? Yes!
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If that happened here in Canada, I believe the professor would be dismissed before the day was over. Seeing what is going on in the electoral campaign, I would say the problem is less a problem with academia than it is a problem with America.
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Tiffany, I am so sorry someone put you through that. As a faculty member of a major public university, I am involved in an effort to expand inclusion on my campus now, with everything that means. The first place we started was with a definition of inclusion. As you know, it cannot just mean access, numbers. Among the other features of true lived inclusion must be respect. And I know that your story is not an anomaly. I spent a year and a “diversity infusion institute” put on by the school where I earned my PhD. One of the very first stories I heard was told by a black woman, who is a professor asked her to stay after class, and when the rest of the students had filed out, asked her who had written her paper for her. At least he had the decency not to humiliate her publicly. Please know that we know – you are a scholar. Let us know when you have received an apology, and know that your voice of courage will lift others in your shoes and give them courage as well.
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Well, if a word will ruin a career, Siri just ruined mine since I cannot find any way to edit my comment!
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One word does not make your career. Continue on with your PhD so you can use this momentary setback as a piece of wisdom. Especially if you will be working with students in the future yourself. What does not kill you makes you stronger.
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Reblogged this on The African Hippy and commented:
Wow. Academia battles.
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I’m a Chemistry professor and am beyond appalled. Yes academia does have a lot of work to do. So sorry for the ignorance this professor showed.
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Ms. Martinez… Please never let anyone make you question yourself. Allow yourself to question your thinking, your opinions… but to only question to rethink. NEVER question your intelligence or academic abilities for one minute. For some, this takes a lifetime to learn, so get this out of the way now, while you’re young.
I think what your professor did was more about him/her than you. Your professor had a prejudgement about you and the way your paper got marked is evidence of that. The fact that he/she did not privately question you (if there were any legit questions) shows it was a discriminatory judgement.
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This professor IS an idiot and a bigot.
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