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 am white, openly gay, old (53),not an academic (although I always hated that term since it tended to put others down who aren’t as intelligent), only have a BA degree, successful in my career (although I have been told by the mainstream media that my success has nothing to do with hard work but the fact that I am the product of white privilege) and a fiscal conservative. All that said, people, even your Professor, are capable of change. I point to the fact that both President Obama and Senator Clinton at one time opposed same sex marriage. I point to the fact that Senator Portman from Ohio, a staunch Republican, realized that when his own son acknowledged he was gay, he didn’t want his son to be denied the right to happiness and (hence) changed his stance on gay marriage. Their change is reflective of one’s ability to recognize their own ignorance and not their lack of caring of how other people might feel. Perhaps it is not the same as skin color racism and again, as a white privileged man, I can’t empathize with that situation since I have only been called a ‘fag’ when I held a boyfriend’s hand but President Obama, Senator Clinton and Senator Portman prove otherwise.
Again, I want to give my disclaimer, I am not an academic, I am merely a white man with a desire to judge others based on what is in their heart. So, thank you for sharing your story, and be the person to help your Professor change for the better,
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Finding it difficult to articulate my thoughts and emotions without appearing to be “uneducated.” First and foremost, no one has the right to tell someone to not consider it as a form of discrimination due to one’s gender or race. No one has the right to deprive someone of their experiences in life, especially coming from someone who is not a “minority” and most likely white or privileged. As a person of color or of an oppressed group, these are the issues that one encounters, on a daily basis. So simply because you don’t think it exists or are tired of hearing people use the race or gender card, is a bigger issue. One cannot simply ignore these obvious forms of discrimination, especially when one is the oppressed. Simply acknowledge it exists, but never tell someone to basically get over it.
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You fail. EVERYONE has the right to analyze what someone says and see if it is rational or irrational; if it corresponds to reality or is warped by a false narrative. In your idiot-view any claim of discrimination must be accepted as true. Yet the logic employed by race-hustlers and wannabe-victims is pathetic. It says ‘this happened, I am a minority, therefore this happened because I am a minority’. So the nearly 300-pond-black man who assaulted a police officer, tried to steal his gun, and was charging at the police officer when shot wasn’t shot due to his actions, he was shot because he was black. You then have the arrogance and stupidity to actually say “No one has the right to deprive someone of their experiences in life, especially coming from someone who is not a “minority” and most likely white or privileged”. You and liberals do exactly what you say no one has the right to do – deprive someone of their experiences in life – when you dismiss anything a white person says that doesn’t parrot the liberal agenda as ‘white privilege’.
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(a) In any case, English is not their language either, it’s descended from Lower German, while German is descended from Upper German – Both Lower and Upper German are descended from Sanskrit.
(b) Since it was the Spanish and Portuguese explorers who discovered America, tell him it’s not his country either.
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I once had a professor who hated my stance in enviromental science in apoltical/envioromental view and my grades suffered
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Tiffany, saw the story. I was in your shoes. I even had to fight professors because my posts went one way but my papers sounded like it was. Those plagarism checkers were off even the help was.
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In fairness to your professor, your readers, and ultimately yourself, you ought either to show the rest of the paper or to take down this blog post. Though I’m sure you didn’t expect the kind of response you’ve received, you were the one who brought this issue into the court of public opinion. You’re controlling the narrative here 100%. Your professor cannot speak out, because she has a responsibility to protect your privacy. It’s legitimate to ask what other comments your professor made on your paper, partly because her behavior seems so outrageous, and partly because you’ve shared only a tiny part of what was certainly a multi-page paper. It’s a fair request.
Having brought your professor to the public for judgment, you see what’s happening now. I understand you were very upset and wanted to express that, but you really cannot now retreat from the storm you’ve stirred up. It’s only a matter of time before people find out your professor’s name, her phone number, her Facebook page, where she lives, where her kids go to school, and God knows what else. She’ll get hate mail; she’ll probably get death threats. People are already petitioning the University for her to be fired, and you’ve read some of the vicious comments made about her in these comments. You’ve also seen some ghastly comments made about yourself, which I’m sure are horrifying to you.
These episodes makes me think of what happened in China during the Cultural Revolution, when someone would denounce an individual, others accepted the accusation at face value and cried out against that individual, and people’s lives and careers were ruined. I’m sure you didn’t mean for this to happen, but in fact you put this in motion. You’ve brought this issue to trial by Internet, and everyone knows what follows.
I want to provide a factual answer to your question about how many degrees it will take for people to believe you are an academic. (I have a PhD from Columbia and chose not to enter the profession.) A degree will not be enough for you to be regarded as an academic. You’ll find when you get your PhD that you’ve earned the equivalent of a union card and nothing more. Everyone around you will have a PhD. It’s a big deal to your family; it’s nothing to your peers or your employer. You’ll be regarded as an academic when you start publishing in refereed journals. Conference papers don’t count. You’ll be taken seriously when you have tenure. Since you currently have no degrees, you have many years of work ahead of you. That’s the way it is.
Please don’t expect academia to love you. It will not, and your heart will be broken. Academia loves very few people. I’ve seen white males with Ivy League PhDs denied tenure because someone didn’t like them. I’ve seen white males with Ivy League PhDs double-crossed and stabbed in the back because someone didn’t like their research. I don’t need to tell you how much worse it can be for people who are not white males. Academia is not a home. Don’t expect it to wrap its arms around you. It’s a tough profession. You work very hard, for very little money and not much respect. I was a passionate undergraduate like you many years ago. The sooner you see the profession for what it is, the better off you’ll be. If you want to teach and do research, go for it. If you want to be loved, look elsewhere.
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Don’t forget
Salem Witch Trials
MCCarthy communist list
French revolution
These are all White And European events. But why would she use these tactics ??
All examples as well.
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This is hysterical.
https://scholarsandrogues.com/2016/11/02/the-tiffany-martinez-case-and-journalistic-malpractice-in-the-first-degree/
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Yeah, it is.
“In short, what we have here isn’t merely iffy reporting on an academic dustup. It’s a microcosm of what has happened to journalism in modern America”
But her experience can’t be a microcosm of the discrimination she has experienced on a daily basis?
I also love how the writer is one blogger telling another blogger that, in his opinion, she is being a bad journalist because she is writing her opinion (….on wordpress).
Also note how Martinez purposefully did not reveal the instructor’s gender, much less name, in this post, but the writer of the criticism is quick to defend the instructor who was never put on trial. Either the purpose of this blog post went completely over his head, or he is attempting reinforce the precise point that Martinez is making here – that her thoughts and experiences are invalidated based on her “other”ness.
Thank you for pointing out this blog post.
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Actually, the blogger is not ‘telling another blogger that, in his opinion, she is being a bad journalist because she is writing her opinion’. If you could pass a basic Reading Comprehension test you would know that he was telling the news outlets that is spreading her story as a case of discrimination without asking any questions or doing any research that they are bad journalists. The purpose of HIS blog went completely over YOUR head. smh and LOL.
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And I know it should be ‘are’, not ‘is’ in my reply. I changed the noun to ‘news outlets’ without changing the verb from is to are.
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I have repeatedly used large words in my writing throughout college and have never been called out on it by a professor. Obsequious, atramentous, etc. I am a white guy. If you grifted a whole sentence and he Googled it and had you dead to rights that would be one thing but considering you brought it to his higher ups and are still at the college, I doubt that happened.
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Observations:
1) You ended a sentence with a preposition.
2) Don’t you mean, “teen girls’ empowerment” program?
3) You bothered to use periods for “U.S.,” but not for “PhD,” which is uneven and a style issue.
4) You repeatedly use the singular “they” when referring to your professor to avoid “he” or “she”… but I think you do know your professor’s gender. Was omitting this information really that important?
5) Your theme of persecution inspired by minority success seems a tad self-indulgent. Everyone is different. Why do you think that you are the most different among your classmates? Your classmates are different from you and from each other in ways I’m sure you haven’t yet considered. Why obsess over something as tedious as race, gender, or surname? I know that blogs didn’t exist in 1970, but you’re not offering anything new here that couldn’t have been written in 1970.
Suggestion:
May I suggest that you ditch the “snowflake” sentiment? You’ll be happier, and so will others. This phase of your life is supposed to be filled with conflict, opportunity, and emotion as you contemplate the world and your place in it. Ideas about right and wrong, good and bad, more/less important, and so forth should be swirling all about you, and you should embrace these discussions rather than fear them.
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I found a different web page with more of the first page on it. Now I see that the professor corrected several things just in the first paragraph that were incorrect grammatically and research paper-wise. You chose the “Hence” to write about, and maybe you are correct in that observation, but to have all those other problems in your writing at the university level was a problem. Without being able to read the whole paper there is no way for anyone online to know how well the rest of the paper was, but I can see that the few things they corrected just in the first page were correct, you made mistakes. Possibly with the other problems your writing did not flow the way it should and sounded choppy, thus prompting them to suspect you coped and pasted material. You could be completely correct that the professor was a racist and needed to have their reputation ruined forever in academia, but the small amount of writing that I was able to read was not at a university level and needed to be corrected. I am sorry that you experience racism but you need to make sure your assignments that you turn in are correct. See ya.
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This is an issue of formal logic, from your perspective and that of the professor. The professor’s statement was, definitively, “Hence” “is not your word”. There was no room for doubt, a sweeping statement fallacy, in my opinion. Wish she had uses phrases like “It is to my opinion, I believe, I think, my point of view”. One of the strongest attributes of having attained a measure of education is never to be sure “about nothing”, never cocksure, no unsupported absolutes. It is a sad day and unfortunately there are many of those days.
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I’m so sorry you have to deal with the crap that you are reading in these comments. Having written hundreds of papers worth of academic research myself (unlike the majority of those commenting) I can say that it in no way, shape, or form is the word “hence” unusual to use in a research paper. I’ve used it dozens of times. What is surprising is the INCREDIBLY bad decision of the teacher to publicly accuse a student of plagiarism. I would be dumbfounded if I ever saw this situation happen in a class I took. It is pretty clear that racism is at play here. Thank you for sharing your story, and stay strong in the face of all these haters. Know that we believe you!
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It’s not the least bit clear that racism is at play here. First, you have NO IDEA if she plagiarized, as you don’t have access to more than a couple of partial sentences from an entire paper. Second, even if she did not plagiarize, there is no basis for you to say “it is pretty clear that racism is at play here”. In fact, asserting that is breathtaking in its arrogance and its stupidity. Maybe the professor just made a mistake. Maybe the professor had a bad day. Maybe it’s a bad professor, a not uncommon occurrence with tenure. Ooh, maybe it’s sexism! And, most probably, maybe the exact same thing would have happened if a white male student turned in a badly written paper that flowed so poorly it seemed to be copied and pasted together and that used a word that this writer had never shown a familiarity with before.
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Having earned a masters degree in “Adult Education, Leadership and Policy” along with a masters certificate in “Teaching Adult Learners” along with my four under grad degrees, I can say with some authority that the professor who made those comments on Tiffany Martinez’s paper and to her person was completely unprofessional and should be FIRED.
This is NOT what a competent and engaged writing professor does to an intelligent and well-educated young woman. The comments on the paper go against EVERYTHING I ever learned in grad school about educating adults and how to “workshop” a written work.
This is a disgrace and the people who are attacking TM are equally pathetic. The racism that lies hidden in so many people just needs someone like Donald Trump to bring it out, and I guess even those in Academia are impacted by Trump and his special brand of morals. They may laugh at him in public, but its clear they share is racist, elitist values in private.
Don’t give up Tiffany. Continue to fight. Don’t allow any of these pathetic trolls and racists silence you. Fight the good fight and NEVER give up.
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Oh shut up. Tiffany Martinez is clearly not “well-educated”. Read her writing. She writes like a mediocre 9th-grader.
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You are a moron. When a teacher writes “this is not your word” they mean you took the word from another source, likely the source you copied from, because the word is entirely out of character for your speech. It has absolutely NOTHING to do with your race. I’ve written this statement on hundreds of essays in my career, belonging to students of all races, ages, and genders. You need to stop blaming every problem you have on racism. I realize the culture has trained you to lean on this crutch every time something doesn’t go your way, but you’ve turned racism into an imaginary boogeyman lurking around every corner.
Your paper was not targeted as a result of racism. It was targeted because you’re stupid, and you reinforced your stupidity with this ridiculous blog. Pull your head out!
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Devon, that you would start off your comment writing, “You are a moron” clearly indicates that YOU are actually the moron. Also I doubt very highly that you are an educator, unless you’re a very bad educator and teach in reform schools for violent teens. But no, I doubt you’re actually an educator. A liar is more like it. A real educator would not write the things you’ve just written. I cannot recall ever writing on a paper, “This is not your word” to a student, for ANY reason. The comment was inappropriate and can only be perceived as being racist. Not only is it racist but its also sexist. Racism is real, or do you think because it does not impact you, then its not really a reality? LOL…go back to school Devon, you’re a “moron.”
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YOU are a moron. Look at the “logic” you just employed! You have declared that, because you never used the phrase ‘this is not your word’, any professor who does use it is not a real educator. And clearly you are dead wrong in stating that ‘the comment can only be perceived as racist’. Thousands of people have said they don’t perceive it as racist, genius. The dumbest thing you and SJWs employ is the “logic” of ‘this happened, it happened to a minority, therefore it happened because the person was a minority’.
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“Not only is it racist but its[sic] also sexist.”
*it’s
Was that correction racist, sexist, or both?
“The comment was inappropriate and can only be perceived as being racist.”
That’s arrant nonsense. It’s a stretch to declare that it’s possibly racist, but if you can’t come up with any other explanations – particularly if you’ve taken the time to peruse a bit of her writing – then the problem lies with your imagination and judgment.
As for being inappropriate, possibly. For starters, we don’t know that the professor was wrong. Her writing is poor and contains errors of all sorts; it’s not unlikely that the professor reading her submission has a better sense of her ‘voice’ than do you.
“Devon, that you would start off your comment writing, “You are a moron” clearly indicates that YOU are actually the moron.”
So your logic is that calling someone a moron demonstrates that one is a moron. Okay, let’s run with this…
“Devon, you’re a “moron.””
Do you need me to point out the obvious?
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“I’ve written this statement on hundreds of essays in my career” implies that you have a job in the field of education. “You are a moron” and “you’re stupid” indicate clearly that you are not an educator, and certainly not a person of quality, character, or good judgment. I pity the students who have had to tolerate you for any length of time.
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Writing academically is a formal task. We frequently use vocabulary and syntax that we wouldn’t in casual writing or conversation. I myself have used “hence” in academic writing. I doubt I have used it in other settings. So it can be my word in certain situations, and it can be Tiffany’s, too. Also, it is quite easy to trace plagiarism these days. As a former university professor, I did so more than once.
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Always nice to hear from a bigoted bag of dicks. Thanks for showing your true character, Devon.
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Sorry, that was unfair of me. Maybe “professor” Devon can explain how you can accuse someone of plagiarism based on their use of a single word. Also, while on the subject – I couldn’t help but notice you repeatedly used the word “the”, Devon. Since you didn’t invent the word “the” I am officially accusing you of plagiarism – assuming we are still operating in Devon-land and it’s wacky rules.
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A wild thing people are doing, whilst they try to bury Ms. Martinez’s testimony and perpetuate fantasy: telling her she should be more sensitive to the supposedly ambiguous intentions embedded in this professor’s commentary while literally criticizing her for her language usage. People, if this professor were aiming to constructively criticize anyone for avoiding their true, “authentic, writing voice,” they would neither need nor deserve your defense for their lazy, vague, and easily misconstrued commentary. They are paid to teach people to write clearly and should, therefore, be able to say what they mean without hordes of sweaty, self-aggrandizing slobs sussing out their true intentions and illuminating them for Ms. Martinez on the internet. Aside from that, they were obviously not attempting to encourage Ms. Martinez to ~be her best self~, an endeavor she clearly pursues on her own time. This person made a humiliating accusation which needs no additional patronizing narratives woven into it. It is obvious that this young person has reflected on the experience and I’m glad she’s shared it. I am proud to be in the same city as you Ms. Martinez! You are an excellent writer, not only for your mastery of our obnoxious, white-supremacist, English conventions, but for your ability and willingness to convey personal vulnerabilities in refreshing ways. I am inspired by you. Keep going!
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You’re an idiot.
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Talking about “racial prejudice”, I have to ask you first how good is your logic. First of all you have to take a deep breath and really consider that you might indeed be part of an inferior genetic pool (in the sense of not being able to develop or discover what you did not after all, this would sound a bit funny, I know). Nature is cruel with us all. Take this simple fact: you are been “stereotyped” based on a group who’s success is best proven if you would act inside the group. Even if it would take a lot of sacrifice from your part. Like I am fighting my way in my poor country but I am not cowardly running away -my country being the place I have been evolving from thousands of years, not some paper so-called “official” or even by birth. Because even if you would have been born on Mars, you would still inherit human genes and be human, not Martian. And in this regard you would never, ever have the same rights like the Martians on Mars, assuming they would really exist. I hope that you are not going to think about the poor Amerindians again, because it is not the living space or Amerindians space that you are trying to push yourself in, but it is about European communities largely lived or developed by white people where you try to enter or violate them with your presence. So the best answer to your “racial bias” is to prove us all the opposite, by staying inside your own genetic pool. If you cannot go to Mexico and compete with the academic groups of Mexicans against European-based academia, then the answer is that this is not “racial prejudice”, but the crude unforgiving reality. And the fact that you could not cope or understand this yourself with your own brain would show quite good that you are not the brightest of the misfortuned racial group.
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Dracula,
Your comment here makes absolutely NO sense at all. Its nearly comical in its bizarro elitism. Tiffany has ever right to feel she was discriminated against by the ignorant professor who did this to her. Every right because the fact is, she ((was)) discriminated against. The professor, whoever this moron is, really thought he or she had the right to make denigrating comments, both verbal and written to a young woman who is intelligent and articulate BECAUSE SHE WAS NOT WHITE.
This professor should be DEMOTED or at least forced to take, at their own expense some “sensitivity training” classes or seminars. We don’t need this kind of tedious elitism. We need unity and compassion for one another. I am a creative writing instructor and have conducted many workshops. I would NEVER presume to write or say the kinds of ignorant things this professor said to Tiffany.
I think your comments here are simple projection. Do you know that that is? If not, look it up. Perhaps its you, Dracula, who is not as intelligent as you’d like to think you are or as you phrased it, perhaps you are someone who demonstrates “quite good” that you are not “the brightest” of your group? Yeah, I’d say that’s about right. LOL…:)
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Wrong, stupid. You retarded Millennials have been trained to trigger at any an all perceived racism/sexism/gender bias no matter how benign. The teacher used a statement that teachers the world over have been using for decades to tell students of all races that they’ve been caught using a word they copied from someone or somewhere else. It has nothing. Whatsoever. To do. With race.
And you’re also wrong and stupid to say this lady has a right to feel she was discriminated against. People to not have a right to feel discriminated against whenever they wish. Because people are retarded, and feel discriminated against when they are NOT being discriminated against. People have a right to feel something, but once it’s pointed out that that person feels that way because they are a moron, that person should apologize, feel ashamed of themselves, and go back to living their life.
This professor should NOT be “demoted” purely because a bunch of brain-dead idiots like you saw racism where there wasn’t any. Instead, you and everyone like you should pull their heads out of their colons.
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I agree completely the professor was out of line writing “this is not your word.” As someone else noted here, the word’s common enough in academic writing (e.g. 4M+ hits on Google Scholar; ~1.4M hits on JSTOR; can even be found on webpages and in books close to the neologism “latinx” as was the case in her paper). But where is the evidence that the professor wrote “this is not your word” specifically because of racism as opposed to sexism or agism or who knows what else? I’m not saying racism doesn’t exist on campuses – I know that it does. I just don’t see the evidence in that particular example.
As for sensitivity training, something of the sort is already in the works as reported by Inside Higher Ed, the Boston Globe, and others: “The most immediate action we are working to organize is a microaggression training session for each academic department in the university. I have asked the Center for Teaching and Scholarly Excellence to work with the deans of each of our three schools to set up these sessions department by department. The training sessions will be required for all faculty at the institution over the course of this academic year, with planning and scheduling to begin immediately. Staff members will also be trained in the near future. While these sessions will not make us perfect, it is my hope that through training and open dialogue we will further foster a climate that is safe, supportive and welcoming to all.”
That’s pretty remarkable. Most students who are subjected to unambiguous acts of racism, sexism, etc. – even violence – do not get that kind of response.
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So I took a read through some of Ms. Martinez’s blog posts and stumbled upon one titled, “A Declaration of Self Love,” which can be found in the left top menu of her posts. Interestingly, this was written:
“I am no longer a finished product of what I’ve been through, I am a project continuously craving care, love, and attention. Today, I am proudly high maintenance. I must treat my body with the ultimate fragility. I understand I am the only constant character in my life. I will contribute only to my self preservation. Tonight, in my sweat pants and coiled hair I am nothing less than a Queen.
I deserve to be heard. I deserve to be loved. I deserve to be royalty.”
I think her skewed reaction to what she perceived to be racial bias when accused of plagiarism feeds into the apparent mentality this young woman embraces. I’m not sure much more has to be said with regard to why she reacted as she did. I’m more curious how this blew up in the media, becoming a presumptive spin on an inconclusive sequence of paper grading and interaction with her professor over the writing style of her paper. I would go as far to conclude in my own opinion, without any more evidence than an inkling and logic, that she contacted the media to get this story out there.
Also, this most recent blog post wreaks of academic indoctrination presenting a writing style that is learned an simulated by university students. Heck, I used to write that way. Even more interesting is how a review of her other blog posts. The writing in those posts is filled with grammatical errors in the form of run-on sentences, misuses of commas and spelling usage errors.
As it is, this story is one-sided and we cannot jump to such an extreme conclusion that she was called out for her writing based on her race, given what we can gather from other examples of her writing. It seems more likely that she used an example one word from one passage and presented in a provocative manner to try to force a spun conclusion that the professor implied, “this word couldn’t possibly be used by you, being that you are a hispanic woman.” At least, that’s the obvious gist of what’s being presented.
The story just doesn’t add up because “hence” isn’t that uncommon of a word to use in academics. The broader picture, that being the entirety of what she wrote, is being hidden from us because there’s likely a connection between other comments and passages that led (it’s led, not lead as in one of her blog posts) the professor to write what she did in that particular phrase. Now that we have a better understanding of how feels personally about herself and how she expects others to feel about her “I deserve to be heard. I deserve to be loved. I deserve to be royalty.” it’s not hard to conclude this was a self-serving manipulative spin on a slight she felt for attentions sake.
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I’m afraid you are about to experience the cold, hard hammer of internet truth for playing along with the “”journalists” covering your story. What started out as a journal about your feelings has grown into a vile monster of “fact” through misrepresentation by poor journalism, and the brunt of punishment will fall squarely on your shoulders.
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You might want to start thinking about new names, because you may have to change yours in order to escape the vile ridicule of internet trolls. Oh, and close all your social media for now, so it doesn’t get worse. And don’t read any of it, either.
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The language comment, I suspect based on my years in undergraduate and graduate programs, had absolutely nothing to do with race. It had everything to do with how you write: tests, journal entries, research papers, etc. – as well as how you speak in class (i.e. are your papers filled with a polysyllabic vocabulary and yet you only engage in his class with a monosyllabic one). In one creative writing class I heavily referenced a thesuarus whilst attempting to meet the needs of the assignment. My professor called me out on it. ‘Gastrointestinal’ was not only inappropriate in its usage (it was excessive), it was also – not my language.
Obviously our individual language (our own personal means of written and verbal expression) can and should evolve with time just as we as individuals can and should do the same. When the changes are abrupt and seemingly unfounded, any conscientious professor will raise a red flag. To expect anything less is, frankly, ignorant.
That he called you out on it in front of class, in my mind, is inappropriate. I am a firm believer of praising in public whilst criticizing in private. You should have been afforded an opportunity to explain yourself during office hours before being tried in front of your peers.
What is most unfortunate is your immediate default to racism. Crying wolf when there is no such creature at hand only deadens the ear at the most crucial of times. Racism does exist, just not in this instance.
Mend fences. Meet with him. Write a follow up entry and if you erred (as I believe you have) – own it. Period. You will gain so much in doing so.
Peace.
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Daffyd, you should examine your own prejudices before challenging others. The gender of the professor was not once alluded to in the piece, yet you assumed the professor was a “he.” Racism and sexism exist. Do not condemn recognising the prejudices that affect us, when you are so blind to committing them yourself.
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oh shut up you tiresome fuckhead.
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Seems like you read through the reply for political correctness, which I’m sure you learned in your studies that should be written more properly as he/she. But, that misses the point entirely.
I’m not going to disagree that it’s inappropriate for her to be called out in front of her class, if that’s what actually happened. I’d be more interested in getting a fair picture of what happened through testimonial from other students and a response by the professor.
Her claim just misses the point because “hence” isn’t that uncommonly used in academics, so it has more to do with how she wrote the rest of the paper. That passage and remark was picked out to be provocative and self-serving. Please take a read of her blog entry, top left menu, Declaration of Self Love. Take in everything I said and see if you come to a different conclusion.
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Oh brother. The word “he” can be used generically when the sex of the subject is unknown. If you were truly educated, you’d know that. If you don’t believe me, look it up.
If you’re going to call someone out, it’s wise to know what you’re talking about. You proved his point. You found sexism/racism where there was none. Emotional hypersensitivity has all but completely displaced genuine critical thinking. It’s a former of bullying and control, and it’s very dangerous because it masquerades as fighting for social justice, but quashes true intellectual discourse, which, in turn, has the opposite of the desired effect. True equality is not possible without true freedom of thought. Otherwise the change is merely superficial.
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Biiiiig difference between using a Thesaurus and plagiarism.
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Tiffany Martinez, who is in college in spite of writing like a mediocre junior-high student, shouldn’t be characterizing herself as ‘marginalized’. She needs to check her privilege – she’s a pretty woman who gets all the advantages that accrue to the good-looking AND gets to claim to be victimized and thus get scholarships and college admission based on her ethnicity.
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What is wrong with you people? I mean seriously. She was caught plagiarizing & turns it into a race issue. There is a reason the entire paragraph is left out. It’s just part of the spin that happens everywhere today. If she hadn’t plagiarized, surely this girl would have been smart enough to provide the whole paper for analysis. How do u know the professor didn’t see those same words in 6 other papers & tried to impress on those who were plagiarizing to stop. School is about learning – not copying other’s work. I doubt you see much more on this as I anticipate it will go nowhere. She played the card though. HENCE, if the teacher can prove she plagiarized then she should be suspended by the school for a period of time with an F on the paper. Just do the right thing people. Just quit spinning half truths on the internet. She doesn’t even deny plagiarizing.
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Damm girl, you got all the insensitive nuts making comments here. I go through similar stuff at work. Have a nice job, make k $ but work with people that make lots of $. I speak to them about stocks and options and they believe I don’t know what I am talking. I laugh inside because what I make on the side 4 times what I make at work… Ha ha ha! you know how good you are, laugh at them on the inside!
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He personally addressed that to you as a plagiarist. You interpreted at a slight against your race. Stay in college. It’s the perfect place for you.
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Some of you writing here have not even seen college. So stop being stupid and educate yourselves America. Just because you don’t speak English doesn’t mean you are dumb. FYI, I speak English, Swahili, Russian, and Arabic. I think I am smarter than you Ms.
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Pretty little Tina Martinez, supposedly ‘marginalized’ because of her name but getting nothing based on her stunning good looks even though volumes of research show the advantages conferred upon the good-looking, was born in America. She therefore should be able to write and speak English well. Since she writes the way a C-student who is white and in 9th grade writes, that last name and her claiming to be marginalized due to her last name (but not privileged due to her looks!) must have gotten her into college.
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I use the word ‘hence’ quite often – I think even my sons do who are 9 and 12. We are English and I can’t begin to imagine the racism that occurs where you are. We celebrate achievement from any background. Please carry on achieving and well done so far. Education in all of it’s guises is so important for the advancement of society (including the education of ignorant narrow minds)
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You understand that the professor is claiming her to be a plagiarist, not that Hispanics can’t use that word. Right?
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My comment on racism is what I have seen in these comments rather than anything else
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You’re a moron. The reason you ‘can’t imagine the racism that occurs where she is’ is because it doesn’t occur. Tiffany Martinez, the exceptionally pretty woman who is in college in spite of writing like the average white ninth grader and fancies herself a scholar after getting a fellowship based on the color of her skin, has not in any way shown that she was a victim of racism. most tellingly, she hasn’t posted the whole paper, or even a whole paragraph, so that the public can check to see if her words are stolen. Furthermore, she is engaged in the stunningly stupid ‘logic’ that says ‘This happened to me, I’m a minority, therefore it happened because I’m a minority’.
Also, genius, it doesn’t matter that you use the word ‘hence’ quite often, unless it matters that 5 times as many posters say they never use the word ‘hence’. This professor has seen pretty little Tiffany Martinez’s writing enough in previous work to know how poorly she writes and what her style is. She wasn’t being chastised for using ‘hence’; the word was cited as a tell that she isn’t using her own words.
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Hey, stupid, Americans don’t use “hence.” Not ever. Not white Americans, not Hispanic Americans, not Asian Americans. So don’t try to “imagine the racism” because this isn’t racism.
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If I were you Ms. Martinez I would be worrying how you intend to find a job with your sociology degree and support yourself. If you are like many of my friends with liberal arts degrees, you should practice phrases like “soup or salad” and “what can I get you.” Most people with your degree support themselves at jobs like waitressing, bartending and sales positions. Besides after next week President Trump will be deporting you anyways (yes I am kidding so don’t cut your wrists). I then read this in your blog and am amazed, just amazed:
“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.”
I don’t understand why you crave validation. Why is that number one above all else?? Why cant you just move on and move forward. Something is seriously wrong with you to be so emotionally fragile. Do others see you as you say “weak, unintelligent, and incapable” or is that how you see yourself and that’s what you project on others?? What ever the reason I actually feel sorry for you. What kind of life will you have if every little set back brings you to tears. Who wants to be with an emotional cripple?? Nobody I know.
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Wow!! So you’re one of Trump’s deplirables??? So full of negative energy in you. No ubderstandment if what’s it like to be another person’s shoes. One final thing, sociologists do go on to graduate school and have professions in many fields that pay well.
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I’m laughing at your hypocrisy as you denigrate to name calling because you disagree with someone’s opinion. Maybe you need to take a look in the mirror, Ana.
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Institutional racism is not a “little set back.” Unfortunately it continues to exist because people like you do not see it as the important issue that it truly is. People like you, who seem to get satisfaction out of making others feel bad, make me want to vomit.
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Actually people like you and the person that wrote this blog who put racism into problems where it doesn’t exist is a much bigger problem.
There are actual cases of racism in the world and accusations like this just water down the whole argument. This is a clear cut case of playing the ‘race card’.
Why did she assume it was because she was a Latina and not because she was a plagiarist. Don’t you SJWs hate when people assume things?
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‘Not a liberal’, I wouldn’t worry that TM is craving validation. it is more likely that she needs no more validation than the average well adjusted person. Her post demonstrates that she is quite emotionally strong and is moving forward. I think she copes well with all the people who see her as “weak, unintelligent, and incapable”, probably just as well as you do. And bar tending etc is a legitimate occupation unworthy of your snobby dismissal. Education isn’t just about securing a high paying job.
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No for many its being under crushing debt because there are few jobs available in your degree field or the degree doesn’t pay. Most people don’t find this out until after graduation and its too late. An emotionally strong person wouldn’t need to run to the internet for validation.
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Like I said before you are all talk.
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Teacher accused my of plagiarism so I accuse him of being a racist – and heck no I didn’t go talk to him about it. I wanted to make sure the world knew what a racist they are and make sure everyone bad mouths that person. oh and I want my 15 min of fame.
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Here, here, Andy. It’s like when someone goes around being an asshole and others don’t like them and they are quick to say, “Oh, you don’t like me because I’m [insert minority]”.
No, dumbass, I don’t like you because your an asshole. It has nothing to do with your race, it has to do with your actions.
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SERIOUSLY?!?!?!
What’s the matter, did the mean ole professor hurt your feelings and sensibility? Guess what? TOUCH!!! Life is hard and most times beats you down. People are going to say and do things that maybe you don’t agree with but that doesn’t make it “racist.”
You on the other hand….YOU ARE A RACIST!!! So quick to say you were discriminated against. It’s a fuking paper…who cares! You think that’s the worst thing in the world that’s going to happen to you? Think again missy. Oh no, the professor made me feel bad in front of people booohooooooo.
Go tie a rope around a tree and hang yourself if you can’t handle it otherwise shut the fuck up!
It’s not racist, he’s simply calling you out because you cheated and got caught. now that you’re busted and your feelings are hurt you want to play the race card.
Here’s an idea, put your big girl panties on and SHUT THE FUCK UP!
Fucking loser. Fucking butthurt millennial who thinks the world should give her everything and not have to work for it.
Go Cleveland Indians, Cubs Suck!
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TOUGH!
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I’m sorry, but whoever left this reply has something seriously wrong in the head. They do not live with discrimination everyday. Please forgive them whoever they are. And as for you, the one who replied… What the hell are you doing here losing time by complaining on a complain? The way you try to defend your post its like you had something personal on the girl. Telling someone to shut the fuck up isn’t going to convince anybody of you being a person fit for even a small internet dialogue.. I hope the rest sees it that way. Try to see what things you have wrong inside yourself if that’s your response to what you read.
Answering- a Mphil Cambridge University Student.
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It sounds like YOU are the “butthurt millenial”. For one, the Cubs have come back to even the World Series; depending on the outcome of Game 7, it looks like LeBron may have jinxed his local MLB team with that “3-1 Lead” tombstone while celebrating the Cavs’ title. (Hopefully Chief Wahoo and the MLB team’s nickname will gain tombstones in the next year or two before that team breaks its World Series title drought.) For another, the professor made a very scurrilous allegation — plagiarism — with apparently even LESS proof than, say, Donald Trump’s accusers (who at least have their personal testimony PLUS the Access Hollywood tape, not to mention some of them have third-party corroboration). I don’t know if they (the pronoun Ms. Martinez used for her professor, probably to protect the professor from being shamed online like you’re doing to her) marked up other words or passages to demonstrate their claim, but their single-word example — “hence” — is far too ordinary of a word to justify such a claim. (Ordinary English words cannot possibly be plagiarism; otherwise we’re all guilty. Even “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” was apparently invented elsewhere in the 1930’s or 1940’s before the Sherman Brothers used it in the movie version of Mary Poppins.) Though I must defer final judgment till seeing the complete paper, my initial conclusion is the same as Ms. Martinez’s: They made a snap judgment based solely on their personal belief that Ms. Martinez was incapable of writing that paper on her own — exactly her point! (And I’m certainly no millenial; I was born in 1964 — on the line between the Baby Boom and Gen X, to parents squarely in the Greatest Generation.)
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I should also add that Ms. Martinez’s surname alone wouldn’t be as dead a giveaway of her Hispanic heritage where I live (Arkansas) as it apparently is in Boston. We’re right next to Texas; there many of the most basic Spanish surnames (like Gonzalez/Gonzales or, yes, Martinez) originated with Tejano families who sided with the Texians against Santa Anna in the Texas Revolution and later intermarried with them, so that numerous modern-day Texans have Spanish surnames but are ethnically white. Her first name (Tiffany) is definitely not Hispanic, so here her name might identify her as a white Texan to those who don’t know her true ethnicity.
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The professor’s comment “this is not your word” is obviously inappropriate, though assuming that the professor wrote it out of racist assumptions is itself an assumption. Unless there’s evidence of the professor’s racism, it could as easily be a professor’s assumption about the words that a young person would write – an agist bias rather than a racist one, no?
For all the ugliness of some of the comments, consider yourself lucky for all the support and media coverage. Many students, even white male students, never get that when they call attention to injustices.
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you’re an idiot
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If you are such a great writer-why does your story sound like copypasta from a million other marxists. It’s so yawnish it unbelievable. Oh muh navigations of inner rayzisms. I care not. Yes Petunia life is hard.
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Ms Martinez, Ignore the ugly comments…must walk in your shoes to understand. Move on knowing this stuff happens all the time. Don’t let it destroy you or you ambition. wish you the best
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I’m a 43 year Latino who has used this word sparingly throughout my lifetime. I am confused and kind of irritated at you for assuming that this professor is racist. It smells fishy that someone of your age would use this word. Nobody uses this word anymore and if they do, it’s during conversation. If you did plagiarize, own up to it and apologize BUT don’t use the “race card” to deflect from getting busted by your professor.
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It’s not fishy at all. She’s a smart and articulate young woman. Give her some credit. Keep your head up and go for that PhD!!
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Just because you feel the word is not used anymore does not mean it can’t be used in this
context. Some people don’t want to realize that people in power or authoritative positions are not racist.
Some people over look the small things but she is very smart not too.
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Fuck this bitch, man. If you were standing in front me I’d slap the stupid right out of you.
Fucking entitlement millennial bullshit is all it is.
This bitch can’t stand the fact that she got caught so she wants to play the race card.
FUCK YOU AND YOUR RACE CARD BULLSHIT!!!
Like I said, if you were standing in front of me and said shit like that I’d knock you into next week so you could look back and go “damn, I was a fucking moron.”
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Having used the word hence several times today, long before I read the news article that brought me to to Tiffany’s blog, I emphatically repudiate your baseless assertion that “nobody uses this word anymore.”
Tiffany: all I can say is to keep up the good work: Academia will not change until we have new professors like you!
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My daughter is 11 and she knows/uses “hence.”
Readers use all kinds of words that the illiterate, world has forgotten.
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Ricardo Padilla, I use the word “hence”. Maybe not so much in a day to day basis in conversation. But I do use it in writing quite frequently. Is not as if it is some strange, mysterious word. But perhaps you are your just used to the limited vocabulary used in your world. But that doesn’t mean that people with a certain level of education don’t know or use the word.
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*you’re
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I read about this the other day and didn’t post, but now I decided I will. One of the first things every English professor told me was that “I will know if you plagiarize your work. If your writing style suddenly changes mid semester, or you somehow magically go from a ho-hum writer to Pulitzer work, it will be obvious. Maybe not to you or your peers, but I will know”. Another (My English 100 professor actually) said “Not properly citing your research is the same as stealing it, actually worse, it’s plagiarism. By this I mean if you use more than three or four words verbatim, it had better be properly cited, and I’m not talking just a foot note”. Before I go on, let me share with you a bit of my background. I grew up white, solidly middle class, and in a rural/suburban area back east. I did okay in school, but I wasn’t one for “book learnin'”, so I dropped out, joined the military and spent a few years overseas. But the structure wasn’t for me (they too expect you to apply yourself and advance up through the ranks). After doing this, that, and the other thing, I fell into cooking, where I remained for some 20 years. 27 years after dropping out of high school, I decided to give education another go. And man was it a shock. Sitting in class, learning things that I was probably taught several decades ago with kids whose parents were my age (or even younger), being taught by someone 10 years or more my junior. I share this because I too maybe felt some of the things you feel in school. For me it was “What is that old dude doing here…”, or “He’s too old to learn…”, to one professor actually telling me during office hours “Academics aren’t for everybody, maybe that’s something you should think about going forward.” (afterwords I realized that she didn’t say “next semester”). But one thing I do recall from my first semester and English 99 was that I too began a sentence with the word “Hence”, and in red pen i twas circled and only said “WRONG!!!”. After class the teacher curtly instructed me to read the sentence out loud (and yes, other students were still there waiting for feedback as well). After doing as instructed, the teacher said, “Now, how did that sound to you? How did you feel saying that out loud? Normal? Of course not. Unless you grew up speaking the Kings English. Now rewrite it using your own words”. As I was walking out she said “Oh, and another thing “Hence” (tersely) is a conjunction. Never start a sentence with a conjunction”. And I felt like a turd after that. But I relay this as a form of “I know where you’re coming from, but I think you’re headed in the wrong direction”. Look at your paper from an academic standpoint. If I, as freshman in English 99 (this would be remedial English for the non academic readers) am chastised for using hence to start a sentence, surely more is expected of you, not only as someone who is moving on to graduate studies, but who wishes to pursue a career in academia. And while I don’t know of your interactions with this particular instructor this semester, maybe from an academic standpoint run your paper through plagscan or another online checker to see if passages are similar to other writings. And if I can throw anything at you to offset some of the negativity some have posted, it would be that maybe your professor knows you and your work better than you are giving them credit for. Maybe this work wasn’t up to the standard you set in your previous works.
Follow up: I also note that until you posted this, and unless he (my inference of gender) shared this paper with the class, no one but you and he knew what was written on your paper, and I am confused about the “As I stood in the front of the class while a professor challenged my intelligence…..”, as you state he “….handed me back a paper (a literature review)…”. Was the professor returning papers at the head of the class and giving a verbal critique at the same time for each student? If so, that’s a dick move (again, my inference of gender, and while I posses the vocabulary, “dick move” seem appropriate in this context). I hope you also took this up with the professor and asked for an explanation. Because until you do, you just may be making assumptions about someone making assumptions about you…..catch-22 (note for the troll turds, catch-22 is not capitalized because I’m referring to the situation, not the Joseph Heller book)
Anyway…….
Best wishes,
COB
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Excellent! Your writing has improved immensely.
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BOSTON —The acting president of Suffolk University said the university is working to organize micro-aggression training sessions for faculty in the wake of a Latina student’s viral blog post”
What has happened to academia?? A college campus today appears to be the last place you would find freedom of speech or tolerance or the ability to sit down and communicate to some understanding. Along with micro-aggressions there appears to be macro dictatorships and thought control going on. This is ridiculous. Where does this stop?? This reminds me of the Chinese cultural revolution of the 1960’s where people were sent for “re-education” (eg concentration camps) because they were not seen as “enthusiastic” enough for chairman mao or worse “anti revolutionary” in which case you could be shot. Neighbors denounced each other, even children sent parents to concentration camps because they saw Mao as their parent. I imagine now this professor will have a letter placed in their file with career altering consequences. The most ridiculous spectacle was I believe the youtube video of student activists screaming at a professor simply because his wife in an email made public questioned why the university had to dictate Halloween costumes (no I am not making this up) and students didn’t have the brains to come to the conclusion of what was appropriate and what was not. This person is what is wrong with academia. I am just glad there actually was freedom of thought in my day and there was tolerance for opposing views. Not today. Today its a dictatorship. You have been denounced and must be expunged.
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Someone from your generation would not use the word “hence” when speaking. Your language while writing a paper should have your “voice”. Don’t turn your professor’s feedback on your verbiage into an identity crisis. You are probably the one being biased and much too sensitive. I’m sure you are a strong, competent, intelligent woman. Keep going!
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I’m sorry but i couldn’t disagree with you more. I am 27 and my siblings, niblings and I all use hence as a frequent transitional/Segway word. I once had a friend accused of plagiarism because she used the word “sweets” instead of candy. Much of her English was British English because she was raised in Uganda although she was originally from Oregon. It is unfair to assume immediately that someone has “cut and pasted” based on one word.
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smh. It’s ‘segue’.
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Segway? LOL!
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It’s one thing to remark that a word is uncommonly used and suggest using a less pretentious, more natural word in its place. It’s another thing to use that uncommon word as evidence of plagiarism and denounce the student in front of the entire class — which is the professor did, if this story is an accurate account.
Besides, as a math major I use “hence” all the time in proofs, and occasionally that word seeps in to my non-mathematical arguments. Hence, there exist people in my generation who do indeed use that word.
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Just realized I did not specify… I meant specifically about the word hence. I believe everything else you said was spot on.
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Hence is in the dictionary; therefore; hence;….is available for anyone’s and any generational use. Go Girl (Ms. Martinez) It’s called free speech.
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This post should be read out loud, in front if that same class, preferably with someone recording the look on prof’s face when you finish reading and say “I OWN my words, and now you should start owning up to yours.” Hopefully one day you will feel safe enough not to have to walk around providing the “evidence” of your value.
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Did you ever think that he was saying, not your word as in, not the right word for what you are saying? Talk to him first before pointing fingers to something that never is
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“This is not your word” is a terrible way to convey that message, if that’s what the professor intended. She could talk to the professor, but keep in mind that the professor publicly ridiculed her for what he thought was plagiarism, so she is probably (justifiably) uneasy about talking to him about this.
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seriously John Doe? I’m all about entertaining different viewpoints and not taking everything so personally, but if you spent the time to read her whole blog, you would see that he commented out loud in front of all the students, never necessary. I was a professor for years and would never think to say anything about someone’s paper in front of the entire class. That is a completely private relationship between student and teacher. If they meant “this is not the right word for what you are saying” then they would’ve written “this is not the right word” not “this is not YOUR word” which is what was written.
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There is not a basic rule on how a teacher should react. You don’t put everyone in the same yard or pattern and start from here, if there is left any starting point alive after this. With my misogyny I dare to say that you think that way because you are a women and women are defensive even when they are in the offense, because this is nature. I humbly thank God that he gave me a great deal of misogyny.
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Comments such as the one marked on this paper implicitly reflect hidden prejudices or criticism. Your comment, as is the thought of many, is 100% flawed. It is not very difficult to write “not the right word for what you are saying” which is VERY different than “this is NOT your word.” Especially coming from an “accredited” academic.
Educational institutions are not immune -nor they will ever be- to hiring staff who are chauvinistic, extremists in their PERSONAL views and opinions, racist, prejudicial, etc. It is a bitter reality to learn of cases such as yours. It should not dissuade you from achieving your goals. A change to the longstanding stratification system is inevitable, it is natural, and those at the top are reacting to it in negative ways. Just look at our current presidential race. You Tiffany help motivate others. Don’t give up.
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Hello
I go to Regent University in Virginia Beach V.A., and I have experienced some very nasty comments from a Professor and the Dean. I was shocked when a Professor said he googled my information and researched my Linked-in account to see if I spelled my name correctly on my APA style paper. Racism is very real even in the halls of higher education. I understand when teachers make comments on papers or test that is part of the teaching process. However, when the comments are harsh and humiliating, a Professor can go overboard.
People will defend what they have never experienced. I am an adult student and military veteran, and I know when I am encountering racism or racist behavior. Just because it is a Professor or Dean does not mean they are not capable of bad behavior. The first class lowered my GPA, and during the second course I had to drop the class and now have a negative mark on my record. Is it fair to me that a Professor abuses his power and treats a student wrong? His behavior has affected my academic career why should I be condemned or suffer for his actions?
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Let me get this straight. You are a military vet and have been trained that life is always fair and in your favor??? What military did you serve in?? I know vets who had their legs and arm blown off in Iraq and Afghanistan and they don’t whine like you. Would you like to change places with them?? You are just pissed off you got a bad mark and want to blame somebody for your failure. Is that what you did in the military?? It could be the professor had good reason to fail you. But we wont hear that from you and your ego.
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Well Not a Liberal…if you have never been in the military than don’t talk about what you don’t know. You would never survive half of my military career. You are a talker not a doer. Talk is cheap. You hide behind true soldiers like me and talk, talk and more talk. Don’t thank me for my service …go out and join and do something worth wild….then and only then can talk to me about military life. ….You are a talking coward.
Secondly, I never said I failed ….Lol I’m a 3.7 GPA student and anything less is a joke like you.
I know racism first hand and people like you want to sweep it under the rug and say it does not exist anymore but reality check it is very a live and upfront.
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I’ve been reading this blog and all the comments and I just have to say that I’m completely shocked by how self-centred and shallow Americans are. All this despair and debate because you feel less beautiful with curly hair, because you listen to different music from others, because the entire world isn’t about you. Meanwhile, in Syria, entire cities are being destroyed and children are dying in chemical attacks. Sharbat Gula, the famous “Afghan girl” has been arrested in Pakistan for trying to seek asylum. The Calais “jungle” is being dismantled, leaving hundreds of refugee children homeless and without support. Even people at the lowest end of the SES spectrum in the USA are among the most privileged by the world’s standards. But you probably haven’t thought about any of these things, because they don’t impact you personally. I’m sorry your professor is a complete idiot and I’m sorry that the people commenting are so outraged by your views. But please, wake up, because there is a bigger world than your American bubble.
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I see most of the comments here criticizing the young lady for unfairly slandering the professor, who accused her of plagiarism for fair and justified reasons. While that scenario is theoretically possible, I think there’s enough evidence to cast doubt on that scenario.
First of all, “this is not your word”, and “this is not your language” seem like very weird ways to indicate your suspicions of plagiarism. But maybe that’s just me, so I’ll accept that. The real issue I have is that the professor points out “hence” as the problematic word. Whether you agree this piece or not, you have to admit that it is well-written and fairly sophisticated in style. Whoever wrote this piece surely has a simple connective like “hence” in their writing arsenal. So unless the stated author did not really write this piece, then “hence” is almost certainly a word she would use if the situation called for it, and the professor misjudged her writing for some reason. I don’t think there’s enough evidence presented to conclude what that reason is, but I do think that it’s reasonable to doubt that this is just a case of a student who plagiarized, got caught, and is now whining to the internet.
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Hello, I just posted after sitting on the sideline for a day, but I shared a similar story with this young woman that I had, as an adult student returning to school (and being a high school drop out at that). I will just copy and paste what I shared (no dig on her piece intended) as it seems relevant to what you post and it might ad clarity to the professors note and her word choice (and I too agree that not enough information is provided to make a judgment).This is part of what I posted, “But one thing I do recall from my first semester and English 99 was that I too began a sentence with the word “Hence”, and in red pen i twas circled and only said “WRONG!!!”. After class the teacher curtly instructed me to read the sentence out loud (and yes, other students were still there waiting for feedback as well). After doing as instructed, the teacher said, “Now, how did that sound to you? How did you feel saying that out loud? Normal? Of course not. Unless you grew up speaking the Kings English. Now rewrite it using your own words”. As I was walking out she said “Oh, and another thing “Hence” (tersely) is a conjunction. Never start a sentence with a conjunction”. And I felt like a turd after that.” (yes I saw the typo after I posted, I just don’t know how to fix it). So I think that is the point, however poorly worded, on the word hence.
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That’s a decent point. “Hence” is kind of archaic, and definitely has a pretentious air about it. A professor would in almost all cases be correct in criticizing its usage. However, I don’t believe that that’s what the professor intended to do. First of all, “This is not your word” is a weird way to criticize using a bad word; it makes personal a message that shouldn’t have to be (note that “WRONG!!!” is a nice, emphatic impersonal message that is more appropriate). To elaborate, why point out specifically that it’s not her word, if nobody should use it, thus it’s nobody’s word? It’s an unnecessary detail, and that detail alone kind of leads me to the conclusion that the professor in this story did not intend to deliver the same message as your teacher.
If this detail existed in a vacuum, then all I have at this point is speculation. But that detail doesn’t exist in a vacuum. We know that elsewhere in the essay, he also said “this is not your language,” the unnecessary usage of “your” one time could be considered a mistake, but twice? Seems pretty likely at this point that the professor intentionally directed his messages to this specific student. It also looks like the two messages are really just one larger message, since he used almost the exact same wording in both.
And if I’m correct about this, we already know what this larger message would be. We know that when he called her up to the front, it was to accuse her of plagiarism — not to criticize her usage of “hence” and propose that she use more natural language. So I stand by my original stance, since I believe there are crucial differences between your experience and that of the author of this blog.
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I just want to add my voice to drown out the racist and offensive comments being left here.
My African-American mother, who was a valedictorian at her school, a published author, and was a Certified Public Accountant for many years, went to get a loan to start her own accounting business. She wrote up a professional business plan, put it in a binder, and submitted it to the loan officer. The officer took one look at it, laughed, and said my mother didn’t write it. My mother continued to insist that she did write it, but the officer just kept laughing and threw it back onto the desk. She wouldn’t even look at it. Because of course, an African-American woman could never write a business plan on her own. So know this sort of thing happens all the time, where people put minorities into boxes and won’t even accept their attempts to rise above them.
It’s patently offensive that a professor would dismiss an entire work as plagiarism simply because you used the word “hence.” While I agree it’s not a common word, it’s not proof of plagiarism. Just an elevated style of writing.
I took the liberty of checking Suffolk Universities’ ethics policy, where it says: “A faculty member suspecting academic misconduct will contact the student using the Suffolk email address to schedule a meeting and will make all effort to do so within five business days of detecting the incident. During the meeting, the faculty member will present the documentation that led to suspected academic misconduct. If the faculty member reaches the conclusion that academic misconduct has occurred, he or she may impose limited sanctions that are meant to acknowledge the behavior in the context of providing remediation and addressing skill development.”
http://www.suffolk.edu/studenthandbook/61096.php
Clearly, your professor did not do this. It’s impossible to prove something in the negative. In this case, the professor is making you prove that you *didn’t* cheat, which isn’t possible. What are you supposed to do, submit the entire body of the world’s written work to prove you didn’t copy it?
I wish you well in your studies. Your hard work is an inspiration.
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Post the entire original document with professor’s mark-ups so we can review and perform our own text searches online. Your blog suggests the original critique to which you took offence may be on target.
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Another Whiny latino playing the fake race card when she doesnt agree with the truth!!!
You are whats wrong with the world,and also a horrible person!
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that’s a bit much don’t you think??
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Get over it! Nobody uses the word “hence” stop playing the race card you lazy brat
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Hope you get kicked out of school for plagiarism. Playing the race card to get out of trouble, what a douche bag you are!
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Why can’t we see the whole paper? With the whole paper, the teacher’s bias or intention can be proven via context. There is only one point of view and perspective here. Withot context, we only have part of the story… I only say this because I have had a similar situation happen to me in 2015 at the University of *********. When I confronted the teacher, I realized that I initially missunderstood her comments written on the graded paper. Naturally, one option was that I could have played the race card in this situation because i’m chicano and she is white; but why would I do that before talking to the teacher first? In another article published by BuzzFeed News on Oct. 28, 2016 @9:47am, it states “She has not spoken with the professor since the incident, but has brought it to the attention of the chair of Suffolk University’s sociology department, who has launched an investigation.” -If there is bias proven via context, then the teacher should be reprimanded and given sensitivity training, but not dismissed.. If dismissed, that individual will most likely reenter the workplace as a teacher at another school or institution, which doesn’t solve the issue on a macro level. If we are to dispel bias and inequality we must turn to education, knowledge and ethical reasoning, not tyranny or collectivism. If we are to rise about inequality, we must meet at the crossroads between individuality and public conscience.
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