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 
I was outraged reading your piece. I am a professor in a ranch university and I would despise any colleague who would be such an idiot. Keep being strong. You are not the ‘other’. They are the dominants and each insult they address to you is a way to keep their dominance when they see it disappear.
LikeLike
When I presented my PhD project proposal, one of the evaluators asked me if I had written the proposal myself. Upon hearing my answer (YES), she responded, “Obviously your supervisor wrote this but I’ll pretend that you could write with this level of quality”. I was shocked and looked to my supervisor to say something, but he just sat there silently…..
LikeLiked by 1 person
Stay strong, Tiffany! You have so many people behind you, and academia needs you!
LikeLike
Agree. You are amazing! Keep going. 🙂
LikeLike
My second name is Castro and I am quite able to use the word “hence”. Which by the way is not super advanced, native English. If you read stuff often, whatever the stuff, you’ll for sure come across it often -which gives you an idea of how much that professor reads 😀
Also, I am quite good at telling racist, biased people to “f*ck off” when necessary. So my English must not be that bad.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Shocked Tiffany, but not entirely without sympathy for a marker who may have been marking scripts for hours before she/he turned up your one. That said, and as a marking-slave myself, I’m damned sure I wouldn’t have been so quick to point the finger, Sadly, its indicative of the sceued power relations of education that someone thinks this is okay to do. And happily, you’ve made me think again about whether academics should be the primary source of evaluation. Do I want people to leave Uni waiting for others to tell them what’s “good” work, or do I want them to be able to decide this for themselves?
LikeLike
So odd. I can only imagine how frustrating and annoying this would be. On what planet is “hence” an unusual word?
LikeLiked by 1 person
On the planet of people who don’t read, no matter how much professorships they have! 😀
LikeLike
Ok I meant to say “how much of a professor they are”, then I changed and wanted to say “how many professorships they have”, and ended up looking like someone who doesn’t read either :___D
LikeLiked by 1 person
I like your phrase – he or she does seem to have too much professorship!
LikeLike
Jus by sharing your story you inspired me to work harder, I deal with it everyday and it’s really getting old. We can make a difference by becoming the difference, those people will never change. Stay strong stay beautiful. I stand with you
*he’s just mad your smarter than him
LikeLike
I am a Suffolk grad, class of 2010, and also a woman of color who went on to get an advanced degree. More than anything, I want you to know you are not alone in this fight. There are Suffolk alumna out there who intimately know the knots in your stomach, and, despite never meeting you, are so proud of your academic achievements and your strength to continue to fight for our place in acdemia.
While I was not a McNair scholar while at Suffolk, some of my dearest friends were, and I have never been prouder than this moment to say we all have graduate degrees. I have no doubt we will be able to celebrate your similar success in the near future.
I have found that this fight for our rightful spot at the table was easiest when I looked to my friends and saw them succeeding. I truly hope you have found other young woman of color who are striving along side you. Best wishes in your continued achivements.
LikeLike
All my sympathies. I am Chinese, but grew up mostly in an English speaking environment. I have also been accused of plagiarism in the past because it was “unbelievable” that I was capable of producing the work I did. It hurt. It hurts. And it has made me reluctant to put myself forward and claim what is due me. I applaud you for not allowing this to stand in your way. I wish you the best, and I concur with those who have mentioned escalating this. Even as I would understand if you did not. Rocking the boat isn’t always beneficial.
LikeLike
I was accused of plagiarism once before by an art professor (hispanic) on my final research so I can relate. Fucking pissed me off and never forgot about that. It was because as Martinez describes, that as freshman undergrad, my professor thought I wasn’t capable of an extensive vocabulary and that I was not capable of critical thought. Now as a developmental English professor I`m sometimes dubious of student essays but I KNOW MY STUDENTS. I am able to discern rhetorical capacities that tell me about them and helps guide my teaching of them as well. I feel this professor really lacks the diligence of knowing his students. To me, when I read: “this is not your word”, I read “this is not your language”. The subtle and covert nature of this is disturbing in academia. To conclude, professional ignorant assholes exist but we must not be afraid to defend our intellectual capacities. Drink the hemlock!! Cheers assholes!!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Performance Attribution Bias– those is the dominate group are inherently talented, while those in the minority got lucky or had help.
This professor should be forced to blind grade. Students should be assigned a number or code that he is not aware of. And papers are submitted under this code. He may be able to teach, but he obviously has a deep bias and should not be allowed to judge performance or potential.
I’m teach diversity& inclusion to large corporations (mostly tech) and one of the first changes I recommend is that all resumes being reviewed have the name, zip code, and the name of their school removed. A blind review- when this is done the increase of people of color and women being asked to interview increases 30-45%.
I’ve been doing this for a long time and daily my heart breaks a little more when I’m faced with such disgusting and blatant bias.
Harvard University has Project Implicit allowing anyone to test their own unconscious bias. We all have them, but We have to be aware of them and acknowledge how that bias can negatively impact a single person- and make a conscious effort to check our own bias.
https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html
LikeLike
Reblogged this on ACADEME BLOG.
LikeLike
I’m sorry you choose to view the world this way. In addition, a turnitin similarity score or similar could back up your claim that you have been unfairly accused of plagiarism.
Regards,
John
LikeLiked by 1 person
This is 100% not about how she has chosen to view the world. To suggest such linguistically invalidates her experiences. Just because her experimece are not your own does not make them untrue. I’m sorry you’ve chosen to let your own privilege blind you to how someone else’s gender and ethnicity informs their interactions with the world.
LikeLiked by 3 people
(Bemoaning my own clumsy typing — sorry Tiffany!)
LikeLike
I think I can safely say, O brave John Doe, that we’re all sorry you decided to stop and spew your smarmy, condescending effluvia masquerading as “wisdom” all over a situation that clearly does not happen to you, and that you have no investment in. An accusation of plagiarism revolving on a single word is so shoddy as to not even be a plausible fig leaf, and the burden of proof rests with the accuser, NOT the accused. Whatever you may think of *her* worldview, I find yours to be so impoverished of empathy and so infested with self-righteousness that if it were imposed on you from outside I’d consider it an act of torture. Since you presumably constructed it for yourself, though, I can only say that living with it must be the only appropriate punishment.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Really? She is being chastised by you (a white dude) for her perspective? Wow! Color me surprised. What’s wrong with you, John? Why can’t you see that the problem here was with and from the professor.
And, get this: she should never have to put her paper into a plagiarism checking product. The professor can run it on his own if he’s not sure the work is properly cited. But it’s not her job to do that if he didn’t assign it from the beginning. Furthermore, those programs are wrong all.the.time! And if he’s convinced she copied and pasted, it shouldn’t take him too long to find out by googling a few passages that he finds questionable. It’s what responsible, respectable professors do. They don’t say loudly in class in front of everyone else that the words aren’t yours. That’s an asshole move used exclusively to demean the student, to gaslight her!
But as a middle aged white guy, I guess you don’t know much about any of that.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It is unfortunate that your zealotry obscures you from exploring the basic assumptions behind the story told here. In a situation with accusations this serious it is never wise to side with a party based purely on their account. I am also not middle aged nor white.
Best wishes,
John
LikeLike
Don’t you dare diminish this situation or blame her.
LikeLike
I’ve also taught college in both the US and the UK, and I echo that you should take this further. Faced with these doubts (and we have all faced suspected and actual plagiarism) I check turnitin and google, and if I have no evidence and still have doubts (having checked the student’s previous work and my own potential stereotyped views) I call the student to a private meeting to discuss the work. If this person has those kind of low expectations of women/people of colour, then they need to be addressed. Take care, and congratulations on producing such a well-written paper.
LikeLike
I am constantly surprised that I can still be surprised at how systemic patriarchy and racism can be, even at the collegiate level, especially in a time when we really should be beyond all that rubbish.
Maybe it’s because I was fortunate to work at the Renaissance Faire in my youth, where the only things that mattered was your intelligence, your creativity, and your soul. Age, size, shape, color, education, religion, income, gender, orientation… none of that mattered. At Faire the quality of one’s character takes precedence above all else. It is a lesson that I treasure, along with all the good friends who taught it to me.
And so it is very disappointing to see such bias permeates in the real world, especially academia.
We are supposed to be rational, intelligent human beings with a social conscience. And even though we are inundated with systemic, subconscious messages of fear and distrust of “others”, we are more than capable of overcoming our mental knee jerk reaction and recognize the emotion for what it is – social whitewashing.
“Hence” is a word, and it is in the dictionary. It belongs to everyone.
It’s clear you have the strength to carry on, despite the occasional boils on the buttox of academia that yoi come across.
Let this experience fuel your fire to overcome, excel, and surpass your own expectations, doubts, and fears.
LikeLike
Tiffany, I’m so sorry this happened to you. I echo the others who have recommended you report this incident. Your college most likely has a Title IX Coordinator for non-discrimination. Contact that person, or if you’re uncomfortable, at least share your blog post with them. The dean or another faculty member may minimize the incident, but the Title IX Coodinator will have to take it seriously. Undoubtedly, this incident is not the first time this professor has belittled a student. Perhaps it should be the last.
LikeLiked by 3 people
UK Head of Department and Professor here. If I suspect plagiarism I use TurnitIn and Google. I might have a chat with the student as one can often tell pretty quickly when a student understands their own argument. But I would *never* do this. This is a power play by a lecturer who is scared of smart students and, as we are all saying, probably prejudiced (whether they realise it or not).
Be assertive: go to the Dean. Wishing you all the luck. Judging by this piece of writing you are smart and talented.
LikeLike
I ache for you, child. I write this with tears in my eyes for I know your pain, not first hand, but through my daughter. She is a brilliant scholar, yet because she was born physically handicapped, she has been cruelly and repeatedly stigmatised by the very institutions that should model tolerance and opportunity for the rest of society. She came late to sociology — she had planned on a career in astrobiology before blatant discrimination slammed those doors shut — but is currently working on her masters with the intention of becoming an advocate for the marginalised whose voices have been silenced and dreams broken by institutionalised racism, ableism, and other pervasive forms of bigotry. So take what comfort you can in knowing that others also see the problem, are working on solutions, and welcome your strong, authentic voice to join the chorus demanding change in academia and in society at large.
LikeLiked by 1 person
While reading this, I was myself transported to my very similar experience in academia. This is the marginization that most people not of color will never understand. My heart broke with yours and I felt your pain in every word you wrote. All I can say, DON’T STOP! This country and this world can only ever change with multitude of brace souls willing to right wrongs. So, don’t stop believing you are the intelligent and deserving young woman you know you are. Don’t stop pursuing your goals and dreams. Don’t stop bringing attention to the marginization of people in our society. Don’t let these small acts of pain towards you and others stand unnoticed. Don’t stop being you. Thank you for writing this piece and making me, a Hispanic woman and mother of two intelligent and capable Hispanic young women, very proud.
LikeLike
I am a faculty member and I urge you to act on this further. I would NOT start with the professor first, but instead go to a Dean with this, who will guide you on the best way to proceed. It is important that you connect with a different person in a position of influence: one of the limitations of academia is that professors run their classrooms without any oversight, which makes it hard for us to work to create healthy learning environments across an institution. I am confident that there are people at your institution who care, A LOT, that this happened to you but can’t do anything if they do not know. There are faculty on every campus who are working to ensure that students can study and learn without being derailed by bias, but we can’t tackle what we can’t see, so I hope you go to your Dean of students with this.
LikeLiked by 6 people
I am so sorry to read this. As a capable person, with an undoubted intelligence, you have taken a moral an intellectual high road in this piece that I applaud.
It’s especially laudable since the lecturer in question seems to be a vile, racist cockwomble. I do hope you’ve taken a formal route of complaint against this person, although I know from personal experience that there are times when it’s very easy for bystanders to urge you to take legal/formal action, while the realities of doing do are often neither a good use of your energy, nor a satisfying path of resolution. If this threatens your grade or your status at the college, I’d still urge you to do it, along with the many others commenting.
The only thing I can say is to echo other people who have spoken up in these comments: you’ve got the right attitude about the work. I’m not special or howlingly successful, but if I could give a young person one piece of advice as I look back from approaching my 40s, it’s that getting your head down and doing the work is more powerful than anything else. There will be the rich, there will be the well connected, there will be the upper/middle class, there will be straight white men, there will be people of a more favoured ethnicity than you… none of them will do the work.
If you do the work, you’ll get there, because there will come a time when they *need* you. It’s started to happen for me, and it’s happened for others I know. Do the work. Spend your time wisely (including sometimes diverting energy to removing people whose stupidity threatens your progress) and keep going, and you’ll get there. You seem bright and hard working, if anyone can do it, you can.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Please tell me that you marched into the administrative offices of the university and demanded an apology?!? This is not only unacceptable, it is vicious. I have taught people for a good portion of my life, and I would not treat a five year old child this way, let alone an adult. The person who humiliated you in such a cavalier fashion is a fool and needs to be re-acquainted – forcibly – with the reason some of us teach in the first place. 😦
LikeLiked by 1 person
Reblogged this on Word Conjurer.
LikeLike
You are fighting the wrong fight. Don’t fight to be accepted. Fight to accept yourself and believe in yourselve.
The same thing happened to me once.
But I knew I was right.
While I am white, I grew up very poor and didn’t have much social information to use as a tool. I did not get my degree until my early 50’s. Why did I wait. I felt too dumb and stupid to accomplish this. After all I didn’t get my GED until 40. Then someone explained that I learned a lot just by growing up. You see I quit school in my junior year because I reasoned that I didn’t need a high school diploma to work in the fields and packaging plants my mother worked in. That was all I could see.
I know that I don’t
have the same credentials as you. I just know that when I got knocked down I kept getting back up. (It’s a great song).
I’m retired now and have had some pretty good jobs. Enough to live in retirement reasonably well.
You keep picking em up and putting em down.
And, fuck them who want to hold you back.
LikeLike
I’m so terribly sorry you were treated like that. You’re intelligent and articulate. Don’t let them destroy your work! ❤
LikeLike
I’m so sorry you had to have this experience. Thank you for sharing it and helping to shed light on how it made you feel and all the emotional toll this has on young scholars.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The accusation of plagiarism is a serious one, it is the most heinous academic crime and an allegation that should not be made without proof. If you are innocent you should defend yourself with the university authorities. Or, if you have the strength, request a 1:1 meeting and quietly confront your tutor and point out their error and ask for him to apologise in front of your class. Do not let your hurt fester and blight your learning experience. As an aside, I have often lamented the fact that the quality of English demonstrated by my overseas students is as good, if not better, than that of native speakers.
LikeLiked by 4 people
As a former professor, I am appalled. I can’t imagine how angry and hurt you must have felt.
I was under the impression that most instructors have Turnitin or other similar tools at their disposal. All I had to do was have it submit the work and I’d be informed if anything were lifted verbatim as well as if any sentences were extremely similar to other work. Of course, this requires the professor to submit it (takes moments) and then review the results. It also cannot look at everything ever written, so if someone borrowed from something not in the system there was no way for it to be identified. I also still had to review it for content and to see if it met the requirements of the assignment; it took out of my hands any worries or concerns about original content.
LikeLiked by 1 person
As a POC alumna of a top-15 PWI, I hurt for you as I read this. The persistent stereotype that those “like us” cannot possibly be academic, much less articulate, is so frustrating, discouraging, and at times hard to endure. I agree with those above who say that you should report this professor; unfounded claims can come back to bite you, especially if you don’t defend yourself.
You are worth so much more than this disheartening incident. Fighting against this ignorant and racist mentality in academia is not easy by any means, but know that you are not alone.
I’m rooting for you, Tiffany! Much love.
LikeLike
Hi from Australia.
I know I can’t know how his feels but thank you for giving the time and emotional energy to speak up about it.
Fervently wishing you success and the right treatment from the university. Sharing and watching how this goes.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I am so deeply troubled by the actions of your teacher and the clear racist bias they have against you.
As a Student Affairs professional and a conduct officer in higher education, you have a right to ask for due process when such an allegation is made against you. YOUR TEACHER NEEDS TO PROVIDE EVIDENCE OF PLAGIARISM. If the thoughts and ideas are yours, you do not need to provide proof that you copy/pasted from anywhere, especially if your research paper is properly cited and sourced.
Moreover, your next steps need to be filing a complaint of discrimination with the department chair or institution’s chief diversity officer. You have the right to ask for fair and equal treatment in the classroom plus grades and evaluation FREE OF BIAS AND DISCRIMINATION.
I know it sounds like a lot of work, but you have rights and you have to fight for them. This teacher SHOULD NOT be allowed to critique and be derogatory based on her opinions and attitudes.
Yea, academia needs work and we need to keep fighting from inside the system to combat institutional and individual racism.
Kudos to you for speaking up and sharing your obstacles with the world.
I arrived in the United States as an international student at 17 and still 16 years later, my ability to communicate verbally and written in the English language is looked at with marvel! “How come you have such good English?” Well, I’ve studied in the English-medium my entire life and moreover, had to master your language in order to communicate with you!
Stay strong and DO NOT let foolish people and behavior stand in the way of your dreams. You clearly have a lot of support from us in the world via social media, reach out personally if you need more. I’m putting it out there 🙂
LikeLiked by 3 people
Reach out via email if you need to talk through your rights as a student: karishnakamath@gmail.com – good luck!!!
LikeLike
That’s absolutely horrible.
LikeLike
Tiffany, first and foremost, it’s very apparent that you are intelligent, and that would have come across even if you’d tried half as hard as you did here to make us believe you. What you have here is an individual who, for whatever reason, maybe it’s racism, maybe he just doesn’t like you, chose to demean you in front of your peers. As someone who’s faced that before many times, I can tell you to chin up and put it behind you. It’s not worth dwelling on. It’s not how the world views you and certainly not how you should view yourself. Report him/her. Do not, and I repeat, do not, let this person take your confidence, your ambition, your drive or your commitment to excellence. He/She does not deserve that power. You wish to be considered an academic? Get your work published. Then hand-deliver it to the same professor, without a word. All the best to you my dear. I have full confidence we’ll be hearing about you in the future.
LikeLike
A brutal indictment of a system that doesn’t realize its own flaws. I wish you strength in your pursuits.
LikeLike
I could tell from the moment I started reading your post that you indeed are intelligent and have your own voice when it comes to writing. I have both my Bachelor’s and my Masters degrees, and the latter is the one I struggled with the most, the one that gave me the most self-doubt. Though my struggles were certainly different from yours, I encourage you not to give up and let one person define who you are as a person or as an academic. You’ve obviously worked hard to get where you are today, and I say keep going; prove them wrong. I used to tutor high school students, and the ones who went on to college to be first generation as well always made me feel proud. I’ve always thought first generation students are some of the best and hardest workers. Please keep going; you can do it 🙂
LikeLike
Thank you for writing this. I see institutionalized racism all the time, now that I’m aware of it. My heart aches for you.
It is such a disgrace that you were treated like that. Not only was that unprofessional , it was obviously biased. You deserve so much better, from academia, and this world.
Good luck on your journey.
I stand with you. ✊
LikeLike
Beautifully written, Tiffany. You need to keep going. Also, I hear you, Aronwy. As a citizen of a formerly colonised country myself, it’s a shame that I know the coloniser’s language better than my own. And yet they have the temerity to ask me how my English got so good!
LikeLike
Reblogged this on sequoyasays and commented:
academia does need work! America has an extensive history on systemic racism in education towards people of color and needs to fix it.
LikeLike
Stand Fast battle hard and don’t give up till its over. This is the read education. (for your prof. he hasn’t been educated properly)
LikeLike
I have two words for you: GET HIM. You belong, they are your words. Though he would rather you not have them and he’s jealous that they flow through you and onto your page where in him they stick in his mouth like glue… These are indeed your words. The halls of academia will be changed by people who look like you, and that scares people who look like him. Implicit bias is real, and he has failed you as a professor in his inability to acknowledge it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
This was a real emotional read for me, and I didn’t expect it to hit so hard. I am holding space for you right now, and it’s filled with love. The number of times I’ve experienced what you’re describing here is countless. I stand with you, hermana. Just know that you are loved and there are others fighting the good fight alongside you. We’ll break every barrier that comes our way. Even those that seek to destroy us emotionally and psychologically.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Dear Tiffany Martinez,
I can readily picture all the reasons you might choose to swallow this, and work it out from there. You know your circumstances better than I do, a white, privileged male.
My wife teaches at a continuation high school. Several years ago, she brought me papers “written” by student’s whose ‘voice’ changed, dramatically upwards. I would then read the paper, and then cut and paste a search string for google. IF I found (which was always – the change in use of language was that profound), I gave her a link demonstrating that most if not all of the ‘paper’ was in fact stolen from elsewhere. Sandy would then go back to the student, paper graded “F,” and show them where that paper came from on the internet.
The principle is this. My wife did NOT respond without proof. She understood her role perfectly, as the one making the accusation, she had to have proof in hand – NOT an opinion. She did not call up any student to the front of the room and make the accusation, to demean a student. She had a private conversation with the student.
I used to work as a ‘reporter’ for Biofuels Digest. I was responsible from coming up with article summaries, and a link to the full text. When I was working with a press release, I was free to copy and paste to my heart’s content. Press releases are understood to be copied shamelessly. Some days, I couldn’t find a press release, and had to work from a written news article. At that point, I switched to what I was VERY carefully taught in my Master’s program. To avoid plagiarism, I needed to change one word in five, or use quotation marks and in providing the link to the original article, I cited my source. I also used additional language, like “IBT” or “name of reporter” stated “insert cut and paste.”
Other thoughts… If you are applying to other programs for a PhD, the Professor’s public statement constitutes liable. An unfounded statement, that could cost you. That constitutes grounds for a complaint. If that professor is going to make that claim – that professor actually has to provide facts, showing whom you stole it from. If there is a professor your trust and feel comfortable with, you might want to seek their advice.
For what it’s worth, in reading your writing, I’m comfortable and confident you have your own voice, and that it is authentically yours. Keep rocking it – you’re doing great.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Fuck racism. Fuck racist professors.
Yes, academia needs fixing. As a white academic, I promise to speak up if/when I hear something like this.
LikeLike
This is so deflating but unfortunately there are many many many people out there who will stand in your way to your goals.
My advice, GO report him to the dean!!! You have a long track record of achievement and you can produce other papers that prove you are the author of the paper in question.
LikeLike
Looking at the photo first, I thought it was trying to say the word choice was -so- wrong– weird since it was just a little connecting word. Reading your experience, Prof means “keep out. these words are mine, not yours.” He can’t keep the words, unfortunately he can be a barrier in your path.
LikeLike
Wow this is so powerful. I am also a McNair Scholar and I am experiencing a lot of what you wrote about. I would love to talk to you about this. Fuck systems of power. I am in solidarity with you.
LikeLike
…Echoing all the other encouragement. This is tragic — and tragically common. All YOUR beautiful words here are incredibly moving. You got this.
(Reposted on IntegratedSchools.org)
LikeLike
Oh, Tiffany! If I were there, I’d hug you. Or slug that ignorant professor. We need you. We all need you, with your lithe love of language and your heart strong statements that redirect us all toward what matters. Life, and learning, and compassion. Please know how deeply your righteous outrage is shared. Thank you for describing this perfect example of prejudice, that most subtle and easily excused violation, sanctioned by the institution and tradition of professorial authority, that must be rooted out. Now. Now. Now.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I feel your pain. I grew up hearing, speaking, reading and writing English; it is the main official language in my country (Singapore), and I have a degree in English, yet while I was working for a major publishing firm I was told that I could not copyedit, nor could I use other local copyeditors, because we were not “native speakers” of the language and therefore could not possibly understand its nuances. We were forced to hire (much more expensive) copyeditors from the US, who made tons of what we felt were obvious and horrendous errors, instead. It was massively frustrating.
LikeLike