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’m really surprised you’ve been published as many times as you claim. It’s especially astounding because you did not even use the term ‘hence’ correctly. “Hence” is a final conjunction; hence it should not be used at the beginning of a sentence in formal writing, according to the Chicago Manual of Style. Other final conjunctions include thus, so and therefore. You could rephrase your sentence as: I am not feeling well;hence I am unable to work.”(cited)
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It is not wrong to be challenged and asked to look at things in another way, however, in the same breath, most of these people who are commenting about your situation have not faced what you have, so they don’t – can’t – really see nor understand you or your point of reference. No empathy offered, no listening or hearing ears – just cries of shut-up about what you think that experience really was for YOU. Some folks are going to continually ask to see some sort of proof so that there is credence to your ideas, thoughts and hurt. Don’t take it to heart. Many will try to equate what you are facing to something that occurred in their lives to invalidate your life experiences. Please, keep being you. There is no need to toughen up – not feeling and experiencing life is NOT living. This is your truth and you have the right to it. If there are corrections to be made, it is your life and you are a fighter and not afraid of growth or change, or challenges.
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I agree completely!!
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Tiffany, welcome to the real world. Regardless of race we all encounter situations when we are in the minority, when our intelligence and credentials are called into question, and when we are the only defenders of our world view. Allow me to give you an example. I have two earned graduate degrees from accredited universities. I needed three courses to meet a licensure requirement when I moved to a different state so I picked these classes up at the local state university. I am socially and politically a conservative. I am a conservative Christian. I do not compromise my belief system or world view. I challenged the liberal philosophies and professors in the classes I took. I challenged the other students to use critical thinking rather than just accept the textbooks as the final authority. I factually debated the students in these classes and those students responded with emotional arguments. Once, the professor stopped the discussion and had each student tell me how “I made them feel”. I was certainly placed in the spot light as being “abnormal”. One professor actually wrote on one of my papers that due to my conservative views I was not credible. I got A’s in all these classes but it wasn’t without bruises. The reality is I don’t care whether I am judged or accepted by others. I don’t expect others to accept my conservative views. My self-image and self-worth isn’t dependent upon the opinions of others. I have to live with myself and answer to God. In this world we all will suffer persecution. So, welcome to the real world.
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The College Professor should sue you for inciting racism where there is none. BTW cunt, I am Hispanic!
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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.
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Tenured university professor of 15 years. I’ll give my two cents. Whether people believe this is racism or not, it is important to recognize that a charge like this, made in front of a class, means you better as a teacher be 100 right, because if you’re not, you’ve just opened the school up to a lawsuit. The appropriate course of action if you’re sure a student has plagerized is to use some sort of software to prove it, call the student in for a one to one conversation, and then document that conversation. This professor sounds like they have an axe to grind and a hack. Additionally, imagine the other students in that class hearing this.
Tiffany, it appears that you have a history of high achieving, as a first generation college student myself, do understand that some people will never be able to handle this. Some people also do not understand that minority scholars can often go back and forth, producing work that is “reflective of the King’s English” while sounding completely different in casual conversation. If you feel that you have been wronged, and again, focus on this and not the racial component, then you should refer up. Students are not always right, but you do have the right to common decency. Also, it will do you no good to post your paper…
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what a dumb fuck. it’s means that this dumb ass bitch was rewriting it from someone else……This generation is full of cry baby dumb fucks like this broad
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Mark you’re just the model of intellect aren’t you?
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Why not follow the cut and paste directions and allow the professor to clarify or expound on ambiguities. Perhaps he has a bias against ” Hence “.
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Tiffany, I think you did the right thing by making this public. This definitely looks to me like an act of racism, and I’m a white man, for whatever that context is worth. I’m sorry so many people have left so many hateful comments here, and I hope you stay resolute in all of your pursuits. Best wishes!
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“Hence” as she used it is an awkward construct. It is most commonly used in formal writing and equates to an actual meaning of consequence “from here” or “because of this”. The small amount of her paper we can see does not tell us how she used this word to connect to the previous thought. Considering the sentence immediately previous has an exclamation point, a formal writer would know not to use “hence” as the opening for the next sentence.
Used as a final conjunction, an example of how not to use hence; “I am unable to work today, hence I am not feeling well.” A good example of how to use hence; “I am not feeling well; hence I am unable to work today.”
This young lady may have a valid point about her professor but what we have been shown here supports his mark that it is not her word. Not in that she is not allowed to use it or smart enough to use it but it simply is used wrongly. Now that does not absolve her of plagiarism as we do not see the paper in its entirety. That she went to the media and not to the professor points to a flaw either in her character or her paper. We simply do not have enough evidence to take a stand.
However, her paper can either stand up to the test of plagiarism or it cannot; her reaction makes me assume there is more to this story sadly.
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/r/ThatHappened
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Why should she have to post her full paper? That’s besides that point. The point here is that a professor made an assumption that this student could not use “academic” language because of her ethnicity. And that’s not up for debate. The fact that so many of you are desperate to make racism in academia a non-issue is vile. She highlights this example against a tapestry of racist micro-aggressions she has faced over the course of her academic career–an experience I can deeply identify with.
As a Latina student, I’ve been redirected to ESL classes and spoken slowly to under the assumption that I’m non-fluent, had my test scores called into question, faced blatantly disproportionate grading scales–the list goes on and on. This isn’t a case of mass hysteria or a matter of “toughen up.” This is an institutional problem that plagues academia.
If you refuse to believe the thousands of students who have experienced similar slights, you lack empathy in a profound way. We go through academic prejudice that our white classmates do not.
That’s what this entry is about. Her professor flippantly accused her of being a cheater because to her it was unthinkable that she could be smart enough to write this essay. That is what this is about. Detracting from this fundamental point is derailing at its finest. And it’s horrifying.
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She used “hence” incorrectly. She ran to the media and did not ask for a meeting with her professor. SHE made assumptions and did not clarify them. Every college student has been challenged on plagiarism at some point in their career. “This is not your word” could mean used incorrectly, copied and pasted, or out of context.
If YOU think her professor is not aware of her academic background, you are looking for issues to call racist. This professor would KNOW all she accomplished. There is more to her story which takes nothing away from the legitimacy of others who have been stereotyped or deemed incapable based on race, religion, or sexuality.
Your experiences do not validate hers! And yes she should release the entire paragraph. If you know the meaning of “hence” and how it is used in formal writing, you know she used it incorrectly based on the little writing she shared.
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It is nice to read about your ONLINE support addressing Discrimination (Racis, Sexist etc. etc.) I already wrote to several people at Suffolk University expressing outrage at the behaviour of The Professor, and have recommended that Disciplinary Actiion be taken on the Professor, and I recommend that you do try and contact the Board of Regents to condemn the actions of the Professor, instead of just Mulling around and Brainstorming and acgtually doing someting about harassment and NOT just validate this king of BEHAVIOUR by REMAINING SILENT about HARASSMENT, DISCRIMINATION, and HATE. Please do something and not just sympathize and empathize and Blog about it and advertise it!
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So many vile and hateful emotions directed at a young woman expressing her feelings. I hope your husbands, wives, and children find you more understanding. I do not know Tiffany, and have never met her. But anyone who believes being a Hispanic, African American, Asian or any non-white American attending a small New England College does not have feelings of isolation is either being naive or indifferent. I am African American and attended Bowdoin over 20 years ago and felt many of the same feelings back then. Now, my feelings have either changed over time or have been modified to some degree.Then again, I also now live in California. I am asking any further commenters to simply allow Tiffany to have her same experience and allow her opinions to either change or stay the same as her experience allows. But to say there is no credence to ANY of her feelings, is simply denial on your part.
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Thank you
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I need to see more of the paper to see what is going on, but from what i saw you havr to cite and provide source information for your claims regarding numbers or assertions; even in a literature review. Also, i have personally never seen anyone use an exclamation mark on a lit. review such as she did. From what i saw, i would also question plagiarism; regardless of race or anything. I too am particular regarding plagiarism. I am latino and i dont this speaks to a racial issue. I feel this is just a strict teacher being very bold in what they think. I jave had many professors like that who were not racism. Its acadamia.
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Excuse any typos…i was on my phone haha
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Please stop with the manufactured outrage. What you wrote, well, what you posted, out of what you wrote, it sounds plagerized. End of story.
If you felt you were wrongly accused, have the professor run it through a checker program to see if any pieces pop up as plagiarized. But that might uncover even more details that you don’t want revealed…hmmm.
Instead of going the route of a sane person, you made this about race, pulling your ethnicity card, which is in my view, despiciable. Why? Because you KNOW this could result in the dismissal of a professor, all because you, a college student couldn’t put your “big girl pants” on & state your case to said professor. You had to slink on over to your blog, wrote this nasty post and then make sure that professional grienvance pushers, buzzfeed, vox, slate & others took notice.
I give NO QUARTER to a person that FOOLS around with another’s livelihood. You got a mark on your paper that upset you…so now this professor should lose their job? Do you realize how childish, petulant and ridiculous this makes you look?
You. Are. In. COLLEGE. This is not a place where they are required to tip toe around you & make you feel special. How DARE you try to have a professor taken up on review over this flimsy claim? And how dare people like these commenters enable you!
I’ll be writing Suffolk University as well, no one deserves to be reprimanded over a claim that holds no water like this. I hope others do the same. I think it’s awful that the default response by so many to perceived slights is to toss out the race card. Obviously this is done because you have no other avenue of attack, but it needs to stop, not every bad thing that happens to you is about you race, so stop trying to put people who criticize your work on trial by fire because of it.
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Well she didn’t get a grade on her paper, so she can’t exactly let go of the matter if she wants to pass the course. Plus, the way that the professor behaved was unprofessional, you cannot accuse someone of plagiarism in front of the entire class without any evidence. His opinion about whether the work is her and original is completely irrelevant. As you say, the professor could have just run the paper through this software that tells you how much of the work is original. It can all be resolved quite easily without any drama if people just take the necessary steps.
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“His opinion about whether the work is her and original is completely irrelevant.”
Where did you attend college? His opinion is the ONLY one that counts! “This is not your word” could imply a hundred different things. She did not ask for a meeting instead she ran to social media. We don’t know if he told her it failed a plagiarism checker. We don’t know anything except “This is not your word”.
Something is so wrong when this smart young woman, who will be a future leader in business, plays the race card without first investigating. She may be right or she may be wrong on the professor. Now she will never know because her 15 minutes of fame were more important than knowing the “why” of his words. Her PAST experiences influenced this one.
He would have had to explain this to me before I left his classroom. If not satisfactory I would have demanded a meeting with the department chair and the professor. How she handled this is on her; she is an adult with very adequate resources based on her previous academic achievements. Sympathy plays no place in the college world. We all have been challenged on things we thought we were wrongly accused of. It is how she handled it that is suspect, not what happened with the professor.
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Well Dave, his opinion IS irrelevant. You cannot just accuse students of something as serious as plagiarism without any evidence to support your claim. The professor cannot simply judge the originality of her work (i.e. whether she copied it from somewhere else) based on his opinion alone. His opinion on the quality of her work is another matter, but since he didn’t even give her a grade, we can’t know what he thought. Besides, most pieces of coursework have a set of criteria which they are graded against, so even in that scenario, it is not based solely on whether the professor liked the essay or not.
This is exactly why there is such brilliant software these days that the professor could have easily used to verify his suspicions of plagiarism. I think that your approach is the right way, I would have done the same. Yes, how she handled it is suspect. But it is also suspect that a professor would just tell a student in front of the entire classroom that she had essentially cut and pasted her essay from somewhere else, completely humiliating her, based on his suspicion alone. I’m sure we have all been accused of various things in our lives, but in the academic world this is the same as being accused of theft.
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If you can’t spell plagiarize, you have NO business criticizing this young woman. Shame. On. You.
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It is nice to read about your ONLINE support addressing Discrimination (Racis, Sexist etc. etc.) I already wrote to several people at Suffolk University expressing outrage at the behaviour of The Professor, and have recommended that Disciplinary Actiion be taken on the Professor, and I recommend that you do try and contact the Board of Regents to condemn the actions of the Professor, instead of just Mulling around and Brainstorming and acgtually doing someting about harassment and NOT just validate this king of BEHAVIOUR by REMAINING SILENT about HARASSMENT, DISCRIMINATION, and HATE. Please do something and not just sympathize and empathize and Blog about it and advertise it!
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Dear Tiffany,
It’s unfortunate that you’ve made this extremely irrational blog post which has now been picked up by a few major news outlets, especially for someone so bright as you and with the credentials you have. I feel embarrassed as a millennial that this is what young academics now immediately go to when their work is questioned. I also think it’s manipulative of you to omit your essay in its entirety, so we as the audience are unable to cross reference your work for any possible plagiarism. I am with the majority that the criticism your professor left you was not racially fueled or discriminative but rather he/she was questioning the tone of the paper and insinuating that it didn’t sound like your voice or writing style. “Hence” is a really odd word for any college student to use. As a college student myself I think I would have used “Therefore” or “However” before hence. You’ll need to grow a thicker skin if you plan on graduating and operating in the real world. Not everyone is out to get you because of your race ethnicity and it’s extremely immature for you to think that way. Good luck to you. You may consider apologizing to your professor. We all make mistakes and jump conclusions.
P.S. I also want to say that there are serious cases of discrimination that does happen in everyday in classrooms and colleges across the nation. Yours is not one of these cases.
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I don’t think anyone can judge what happened between you and your professor because none of us were there. If the paper is truly your work and you’re innocent of plagiarism, then I think you should make a complaint about your professor and get your paper marked properly. That is honestly the best way to resolve this issue, get a good grade and finish your degree. I’m a PhD student (about to finish) and I do have to warn you that academia is not a friendly place, regardless of your race. If you’re doing quality research and working with big names, it’s very competitive and you’re expected to work 24/7 without much praise or understanding from others. It’s not meant to put anyone off but something to be prepared for.
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so despite it having been said several times, i will reiterate because that is what my head was screaming as i read this (and the article that led me here): poor choice or words? perhaps…because what i sense the prof was inferring/alluding to and/or implying is PLAGIARISM….NOT RACISM. though i found it odd that out of all the words he chose “HENCE,” to call you out on, i have very little doubt he feels that this is the point at which he (she?) suspects foul play. in MY day…when racism was exactly as the word implies, as soon as i read the words, “this is not your language,” i immediately tsked and thought…BUSTED! lets call things as they are…and by the way, it’s especially not lost on me how much of a NON-ISSUE this would have been if it was a simple matter of suspected plagiarism instead of racism.
this comment was brought to you by a first generation Mexican-American female, Bachelor of Arts in English degree recipient, writer of many professor reviewed papers, suspect in no acts of plagiarism (ever), but most importantly, survivor of ACTUAL acts of racism.
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Tiffany,
I can sympathize with your issue here, being of mixed heritage. I’m in my thirties now but when I was in school I was faced with much of the same presumptions regarding my intellect and it’s overall capacity. Trust me when I say it doesn’t get any better. You’ll have to learn to lose some battles; hopefully for you, less than more. I wish our people, minorities as a whole, didn’t have to deal with issues like these in 2016, but ignorance is bliss. The problem, though, with expressing yourself in this particular medium, is that the majority of those invested in supplying an opinion will undoubtedly supply an ignorant one. I’ve seen a good few moronic comments here already. It used to sadden me but I learned the more things change the more they stay exactly the same.
The reality, however impossible this may be for whites to swallow, is that without living in the skin of a minority, you have no grounds for denying any of us the right to observe or interpret bias or racism. This isn’t my opinion, it’s logic. We may inhabit the same physical space but your world is dramatically different from ours.
You are correct, Tiffany. Academia needs work, but unfortunately so do white minds that are trapped in a world where racism apparently doesn’t exist.
Common sense and logic are powerful tools when we choose to accept them. The struggle is ours though. You are not alone.
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It is nice to read about your ONLINE support addressing Discrimination (Racis, Sexist etc. etc.) I already wrote to several people at Suffolk University expressing outrage at the behaviour of The Professor, and have recommended that Disciplinary Actiion be taken on the Professor, and I recommend that you do try and contact the Board of Regents to condemn the actions of the Professor, instead of just Mulling around and Brainstorming and acgtually doing someting about harassment and NOT just validate this king of BEHAVIOUR by REMAINING SILENT about HARASSMENT, DISCRIMINATION, and HATE. Please do something and not just sympathize and empathize and Blog about it and advertise it!
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Respectfully, I believe you are assuming the professor had a visual image of who you were and associated you, ethnically, when in fact most professors (1) have too many students to engage in such visualization and (2) probably did not even look at the name. “Hence” while a connector is not widely used much anymore and in the context of your paper (literature review) may have seemed out of place (completing a syllogism).
But to accuse the professor of racism is almost as bad as racism itself. Your accusation highlights an unfortunate trend in our society: people using the “race” card to attack unwanted criticism.
I’ve received the same comment in a literature review too– because I used parallel sentence construction and highly descriptive adjectives to describe a Browning poem. But the color of my skin did not generate the comment; nor did my Hispanic sounding name. It was simply that what I wrote (which were my own words) did not sound like my own words. It’s just that simple.
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I do not consider this racism and am so tired of hearing it. In my opinion, the wording the professor used “This is not your language” and “This is not your word” has nothing to do with race but rather whether or not you plagiarized within your paper. The professor should have not ridiculed you in front of the class, but you also should have met with the professor to discuss the issue. So stop complaining…it happens to everyone regardless of race.
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No it doesn’t. But how would you know, or is it an …assumption?
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Yes it does. For those of us who have graduated from college (have you??) we have been met with opposition from our professors. I can think of a few photography critiques where the professor questioned my motive for the piece. He didn’t do it based on my skin color either! He did it based on the work I produced.
No ones making assumptions except you.
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You do not know me. You do not know the color of my skin, what I believe in, or where I come from. So why don’t you stop making assumptions and let people express their opinions. If you simply want to start an argument, do not start with me.
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No, this doesn’t happen frequently with ALL students. Black and Hispanic students are never going to be WASP; they will always be looked at differently. If you are white you’ll never understand the extra scrutiny a student of color goes through. There is a well known quote said among African-American families, “you must be twice as better, to be considered half as good.”
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I would hope and expect that someone at the professor level of academia would be able to articulate something much more clearly than what happened here.
>”This is not your word” has nothing to do with race.
Completely invalid considering you know nothing of the person who wrote those words, nor whether the student in question *did* plagiarize.
>So stop complaining…it happens to everyone regardless of race.
That doesn’t make it any more acceptable for a professor to act like an imbecile, nor does it make it less possible that this was free of racial bias.
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You do not know me. You do not know the color of my skin, what I believe in, or where I come from. So why don’t you stop making assumptions and let people express their opinions.
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Please post your full paper so that we can judge the language for ourselves in context. Without it you have asked us to take a position on an elephant by just touching the tip of its tail. I won’t do that, and you shouldn’t ask your readers to do that,. unless you’re more interested in scoring points than in a quest for truth. It would also be helpful to put up a paper marked up by a different professor, so we can see the language in it for purposes of comparison. Thank you.
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This is the best response so far.
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Since you both agree that the paper should be posted, perhaps she can share the professor’s name as well??? I mean, fair is fair right?
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The professor didn’t mean language as in spanish or german. He should have said voice, like it doesn’t sound like something you would say. It doesn’t match the verbage you used in the rest of the paper.
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Amy, I can guarantee you that in America we are taught to write such papers in a proffesional matter. Hence, such papers will NOT sound like the student’s spoken “verbage.”
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Post the whole paper although from various sources, it sounds like you are guilty of stealing work and you were busted. Fess up and admit your mistake before you make things worse.
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Your teacher is not required to “validate” you. No one is. What the hell kind of system do you live in where you have to receive a gold star from everyone? As a teacher, my first question is “Did you plagiarize?” I could give two shits about your credentials, anyone can cheat. I’ve seen a really great student who goes out in the community and does service work, is in tons of clubs and cheat on a test. I have to give them a zero for it because I don’t care what your race, creed, or work ethic is; I’m grading it based on what you submitted. I’d like to see this masterpiece of yours. If it’s SO fantastic, let us have a look at it! I’ll copy paste it into a plagiarism checker, or is that racist, too?
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Hope I didn’t hurt your snowflake feelings.
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Stan, that’s the problem. It’s called assumption. The professor didn’t check her work, therefore, should not be quick to jump to conclusions.
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Actually, Chris the issue is that this young woman immediately jumped to conclusions without thinking. Did she speak to her professor before contacting Buzzfeed or writing this blog post? Doubt it…
Since she made the leap from hence, “being not her word” to that being some kind of slight against her race, I’d say this young woman has a lot of emotional growth to do.
Shes not as smart as she thinks she is to make this leap, but this type of reaction seems to be all we get from the professional grievance minders that populate college campuses these days. How can a professor do their job if they must live in fear of a baseless accusation such as this? How can they teach a student anything?
They can’t. Which is why college students graduate & are dumber than when they went into college.
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I agree entirely that the comment “This is not your word” suggests a racial bias. As far as I am concerned any word in the language you are using is “your” word. Why must you be limited by others’ perception of what words you should or should not use?
I have seen comments suggesting that the use of the word was “archaic, pretentious, plagiarism”, really? These are all subjective opinions, but if the instructor felt that was the case they could have said so directly and not implied plagiarism based on their perception that this was a word she would not normally use. It implies that she would not use the word because of her background which, in and of itself, suggests racial bias. Would they have said the same if the student writer had a different background? Probably less likely.
Regardless, you have achieved much in your young life and must continue on your path with increased passion and perseverance. You cannot let small minds and ignorance get in your way. Best wishes for your continued success!
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If it is PLAGIARIZED it is not HER word. I feel she should post the entire paper. It is easy to check. As an instructor, there is a software called TURNITIN where the paper can be uploaded and scanned and it searches the internet and spits back how much is plagiarized.
It doesn’t suggest racial bias and commenters like you are just enablers..
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Racism is subjective
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You’re a hypocrite, I’m sure you’re a pc crusader that goes around telling people what they can and cannot say all the time.
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I am even more behind you now, Tiffany! It seems only bigots (yes, there are other words than ‘racists’) bothered to respond to your post. I’ll bet they are all white, upper middle income ‘students’ who feel this is a post-racist society. Ha! As a Baby-Boomer, I have experienced and still experience the issues you indicated, in spite of all my degrees and published works. I have never plagiarized but have had my work called into question. Wake-up you privileged ones! You can’t see the forest for the trees of your privilege! The world is not what you see behind your white and rose-colored glasses!
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Again – easy enough – post the paper
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Behind your white and rose colored glasses?
Well, you Beverly win the prize for idiot #2 today…
If this young woman copied this word off another body of work IT IS plagerism. End of story. She cheated. Not a slight against her heritage…but, keep it coming, those of us with common sense need to have people to prove wrong.
It gives us purpose…plus, the ridiculousness that some SJW’S post gives me a good laugh. Thanks for that.
You live in the United States, a place where there is no room for this PC, identity based politics you’re pushing. Do you think the job market will wrap you in feathers & keep you insulated from the worlds ills? It won’t. Time to stop manufacturing grievances & join the rest of us on planet earth.
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Totally agree!! Students of color will always be scrutinized more. I understand Tiffany’s frustrations. I get it. Grow through this experience and be empowered by it , Tiffany. Be strong.
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Get over yourself. This isn’t racism. You are the racist trying to divide people, because you felt slighted. You are a vile disgusting creature.
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I’m sure the words that you put forth are coming from a greater vocabulary and knowledge. Academica is not the place to put down others, however it does occur that the most intellectual is challenged. Plagerism is common in academica. Rosalind franklin used x ray crystalography to take the first pictures of dna. She was plagerised. Yes academia is rigorous, however I personally have never been acused of plagerisng. Have you? How would it make you feel? What would you do?
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Is this the first paper you have turned into this professor. If he has already seen your work via other papers, then he may be accurately able to say, “this doesn’t sound like her, this isn’t the type of verbage and wording that she would use”. I don’t see or read anywhere where the professor was claiming that those words don’t belong to you because of your skin color. If he knows how you write and he knows how you speak, he may be assuming that those words are pulled from somewhere else and didn’t come from you. This has nothing to do with racism.
Racism: a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race.
No where did I read that the Teacher said the words that you used were causing you to be less superior then another person. Racism – horrible word by the way, we should get rid of it because there really isn’t different races. Skin color makes up less then .01% of our Human make up. If anything most people who use the world racist really mean Prejudice and prejudice is actually a very healthy thing that all humans, animals and living things have to protect them and keep them safe. Anyways, the teacher was not being racist toward you if he honestly thinks that you do not normally use that type of verbiage and wants to know how or why you used it, especially if it didn’t come from you. Do you have other papers that you have produced using that same language that an outside reader can determine that it would be normal for you to use that type of language in your paper?
This whole article and news story just seems stupidly blown up. Nothing to see here, back to reality of which messed up candidate will actually win the election and either make big changes, or continue to screw us.
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I know I have some punctuation errors, Period outside the “, Verbiage spelled wrong, a period instead of a question mark. Please forgive me, as I am writing from a cell phone.
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I think that you are a racist male. Shame on you. I could feel the pain right through the screen. You (probably white male Racist) probably trust Trump to be president, too. Shame, shame shame. You cannot feel pain or justification through her letter. But normal people will.
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Calling a man you don’t know a “white male” is racist. So you’re the racist, you racist. I’m #triggered.
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The ignorance radiating off of your comment makes me want to slam my head against the corner of a stucco house.
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How kind… some privileged white guy took time out of his day to teach you the definition of racism and prejudice. ::EYE ROLL::
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Was this paper written in a style that you don’t normally use? If so, the professor was justified in questioning whether it was totally your work. So you didn’t get the grade you wanted. So now you’re crying about it. Talk to your white professor. I know the professor you’re complaining about is white because only white people are racist. Maybe, just maybe, you’ll be forced to admit you took shortcuts with this paper. Grow up and stop wanting a free ride just because of your ethnic background.
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Hello Betty,
My wife is Hispanic and I am white so I am not a racist. This lady is off her rocker! Thanks for standing up for all of us horrible white folks!!! You nailed it!!!
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You need to grow up. Whose the racist now. Shame, Shame, Shame on you. You are a pitiful and jealous person.
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I am hispanic and have the same story line as you in terms of “white counterparts” in a major university with full ride and the works. Everyone feels entitled to everything and uses the race card. I bet your parents never used the race nor did mine. Suck it up and grow up. I am ashamed of people like you, what good you have done to better yourself or our family’s situation, you destroy in a minute.
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It is not that you could not use the word ‘hence,’ but rather you should not use that word. Do you ever use that word when you are talking? Do you ever use that word in a presentation? Hopefully not. You should write how you speak.
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Hense you too, are a racist, who needs to grow up. But I do not see this happening to a bigot like you.
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You need to stop calling people racist. You might hurt someone’s feelings. #triggered
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yea I see how you get pissed off because your reading comprehension is poor, not your language, meaning your voice changed on the paper it’s fairly obvious. But you figured calling him a racist and going on some long winded rant would save you from disciplinary action, like expulsion, be an adult accept responsibility for your actions .
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I, I, I III, Dotted with “I”. I see where you’re going with this. Very sad for you.
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Post the full paper so we can check it for plagiarism. I have a feeling you will never post the paper. Not afraid to throw out accusations of racism, but I guarantee you will never post your paper for us to see.
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Agreed
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The biggest problem you have with this publication at this point, is that you haven’t spent any time talking to your teacher. You took someone who’s likely had an impressive career as an instructor and had an asterisk added next to his name (for what has seemingly been proven to be plagiarism at its finest) all because you have bought into a narrative of racism that, at least for him, likely does not exist. I don’t know what your relationship is to this professor, but I do know that ALL (meaning 100%) of the professors I’ve had issues with have stepped back once I visited them in their offices and spoken to them… like an adult. God help those who suffer under your PhD. Making assumptions and creating rhetoric because you’re too lazy to deal with this like an adult just further proves the biases that exist against undergrads. No doubt you’re an intelligent young woman, that’s obvious in your post here, but you’re also lazy. Post the entire document and allow for peer review… oh and cite your sources for your research… then let’s see how much racial degradation and discrimination you’ve indeed suffered.
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You do the word Justice, a disservice.
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Same exact thing happened to me, only I am a white student and my professor was a Latino woman. Should i scream “racism” because she made a public statement then left a personal note on my paper? Nevermind that nobody in the class knew who my professor was directing the comments to, racism is racism. No, wait, only white people can be racist in this country. Nevermind. I guess I don’t have a comment afterall
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Get over it, and stop making excuses. How sad that you have to lean back on your ethnicity instead of being a grown up and accepting that you actually have to earn your degree by working and placing an effort. Life isn’t instant oatmeal!
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Sue, I’m not sure that you are thinking clearly. First, the word “hence” is common and standard in academia. If it is not common for the professor, then perhaps the professor has not been much exposed to print or reading in general. And if a word “belongs” to an ethnic group, then can, for example, only Greeks use the word “isosceles” to describe a triangle. Finally, if the esteemed professor had concerns about plagiarism, there are several tools readily available on the Internet that will identify it. Don’t be overly respectful of professors; they can have significant limitations, including indolence.
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Here’s the problem with the above. You ask about plagiarism, yet it’s not even mentioned in her “oh, feel sorry for me and my emotional development being scarred by someone.” This whole blog is simply her complaining and has no means to an end. Feeling “invalidated” only comes if you take it that way. It’s ridiculous. Also, where is the rest of her paper? I will GLADLY check that shit for plagiarism.
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Your complaint essay here sounds archaic but it is actually badly written. You have too many different thoughts in one long sentence and you assume readers can follow your reasoning. No, it is as bad as your professor pointed out about your writing style and the terrible flow of supposed logic in your sentence structure.
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Dear Luke,
I have little doubt these are your words. I have taken the liberty of suggesting some edits to your posting to make your points clearer. Sorry but the website didn’t allow for ‘track changes’.
-starts-
“Tiffany, your posting is poorly written. You have included too many ideas in overlong sentences making it difficult for your readers to follow your reasoning. Your writing style is as bad as your professor has judged; the way you structure your sentences undermines the logical flow of your arguments”.
-ends-
You may wish to reflect on the last point. The prof did not comment on her writing so much as assert it was an example of someone else’s writing.
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This is absolutely ridiculous. It sickens me that someone would attempt to ruin a teachers reputation for their own personal gain and publicity. Shame on you!
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Tisha, shame on you. You no not whateth you safety.
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What I’m more surprised is you not saying “fuck” and “shit” for about fifteen billion times in the span of eight paragraphs. Still your language though.
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Write in French or German… then nobody will doubt you’re an intellectual or you’re smart. You’ll be the superior master race.
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It only took a little Googling to find the document that you appear to have plagiarized this from. How about posting your entire work so that it can be peer reviewed.
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From an article today in Forbes “Why so many Millennials experience Imposter Syndrome”
“Seventy percent of young people experience Imposter Syndrome. People who experience Imposter Syndrome are high achievers unable to internalize and accept their success, often attributing their accomplishments to luck rather than to ability, and fear that others will eventually unmask them as frauds. Millennials are most likely to experience Imposter Syndrome not only because of technological advancements within their lifetime, societal pressures and social media comparisons, but also because of their parents.
Millennials are members of the trophy generation, raised by parents who send mixed messages — alternating between over-praise and criticism. According to the American Psychological Association this increases the risk of fraudulent feelings. Also, when the feelings which most accompany Imposter Syndrome are unearthed (stress, anxiety and depression), it becomes obvious why the generation also called Generation Stress is most likely to experience Imposter Syndrome.
Though millennials are the largest generation in America’s workforce, many feel they still have “something to prove”, that they must validate their talent, credentials and accomplishments. Research from Ernst & Young affirms these feelings. Though the number of millennials taking on leadership roles has surged, in a 2013 survey one leading challenge cited across all generations was a lack of comfort with younger employees managing older workers. In the same survey, just 39% of respondents perceive millennials as hard workers.”
The reason that millennials feel this way is that many were raised in environments where everyone got the same praise no matter the effort. Everybody got trophy for just showing up. We have a whole generation of little hot house flowers so delicate the slightest touch might make them fall apart. And when they do actually get to some semblance (ooops not a word I use often, I must be a racist) of the real world, they don’t have the tools to handle any little set back. So what do they do? They lash out. And what is the easiest fastest accusation that can deflect and shut down the person you perceive is persecuting you on a college campus. Racism justified or not if it works and you are affirmed by the mob with hugs and exclamations of sympathy, that’s all that matters. Until next time.
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My professor assumed someone like me would never use language like that. – ever think that the person “like you” was a 18-20 something college student and not an ethnic thing????!!!!!
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all you need is just a publicity! better to concentrate on education and respect those who teach you!
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I have my Undergrad and Master’s from Indiana University/Purdue University at the Indianapolis campus, and I will say without a doubt, you PLAGIRIZED! You were caught and now you are trying to hide behind ethnic discrimination.
It’s people like you that make it hard for those who have truly been discriminated against to be taken seriously.
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Observations of the general form “Without a doubt, you PLAGIRIZED!” usually shouldn’t be taken too seriously. Capital letters for emphasis, ugh. The principal word, capitalized and misspelled. Double ugh.
Regardless of your silly mode of expression, you have no idea whether she plagiarized or not. Where’s the evidence that she did? This is how you come across: “It sounds like her teacher said she plagiarized, so she must have. Besides, I have a Master’s degree, and that gives my logic (or lack thereof) the weight of authority.” Uh-huh.
Based on her blog post, which is decently written, I find it easy to believe she could use “hence” properly, all by herself. Yes, it would be nice to see her entire paper, but she may have any number of good reasons for not sharing the whole thing.
But why pay attention to me, MPA2000? Way back there I used “thereof,” which is clearly not my word. (It is actually the word of Eoferth, the dyslexic bard of Hotfree, but who cares about the history of English connectives anyway.)
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Maybe, the professor’s comment is “this is not your work”? The source material wasn’t sited correctly?
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How about posting the full paper so we can read it?
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It won’t happen. Her 15 minutes of fame is more important than the facts. However, this 15 minutes will lead to a menial libtard job someday. No serious company will want a trouble maker on staff
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I had the exact quote written on a paper of mine in 1988 – it wasn’t a racist thing!!!!! The teach said that my comment didn’t sound like something I would write – we talked and guess what there was no issue. Sick of all these people crying racism over this kind of crap when there is real racism out there. whaaaaa whaaaa whaaaa toughen up!!!!!
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