
Academia, Love Me Back - gluxon
https://vivatiffany.wordpress.com/2016/10/27/academia-love-me-back/
======
simeonf
Interestingly this happened to me and to my younger brother.

There was no racial component to it although we do belong to a religious
minority, come from low-income backgrounds and were homeschooled. I personally
felt some prejudice at various times on account of these characteristics.

In my case I was a 16 year old high school dropout taking a history class at a
Junior College. My prof had a lengthy conversation basically trying to get me
to admit my parents wrote an essay for me and eventually gave up, although
clearly unconvinced.

In my brothers case a few years later (different college, different prof) I
believe he was given a zero on a test and had to file a grievance to be able
to redo the work or retake the test. This is circa 2000 so my memory is a bit
fuzzy.

In both our cases there was no evidence - just the perceived mismatch between
our presentation and ability prompted the accusations. (We were bookworms and
in a family of bookworms despite being poor and lower class.)

My only comment and the only relevance to the linked story is I remember how
OUTRAGED I felt at the accusation. It wasn't even the accusation of cheating -
that I would be dishonest. It was the condescension, the implied "obviously
you are not good enough to have produced this" attitude that hurt the most. In
my case the professor was obviously trying to give me a break and be friendly
but I remember how hurt I was and in my brother's case... I don't think he
would ever speak to the prof again.

Being judged incapable of producing your own work BURNS.

~~~
tome
> My prof had a lengthy conversation basically trying to get me to admit my
> parents wrote an essay for me and eventually gave up, although clearly
> unconvinced.

Couldn't she have spent the time talking to you about history and confirming
your analytical and literacy skills were up to the required standard?

------
IsaacL
We (as outsider observers) lack the evidence to judge this story objectively.
It sucks to be unfairly accused of plagiarism (it happened to me once in high
school).

However, we don't know why the professor came to the conclusion that she
plagiarised. Maybe they jumped to conclusions on limited evidence, or maybe
this paper was written with vocabulary and sentence structure which was
inconsistent with the student's earlier work. Either way, it's incredibly
unlikely that an academic professor of sociology would be a closet racist.

tl;dr It's unfair to be accused of plagiarism for submitting a paper which
sounds "too intelligent", but it's also unfair to be accused of racism for
attempting to enforce academic standards.

Unfortunately, this a story which is going to press the internet's hot
buttons.

~~~
Pharylon
Maybe not an active KKK-rally attending racist, but a soft racist? There's a
reason why two identical resumes for post-graduate work get rated differently
when the names are "Chad" vs "Shaniqua".

The fact is, when you really get down to it, most people are subconsciously
racist. Not a joke - most people. There have been studies on it and
everything.

~~~
IsaacL
"The fact is, when you really get down to it, most people are subconsciously
racist. Not a joke - most people."

If this is true, why the moral outrage towards the professor?

~~~
jacoblambda
Because everyone has some amount of racism whether they realise it or not but
it still is not acceptable to display that racism. Sure having some racist
thoughts isn't great but just like with almost every other unacceptable topic,
everybody thinks about it sometime. It is only a problem when it becomes
verbal/affecting others. That is why people are upset with him.

------
CalChris
I side with the student. This is beyond a jerk move.

To be clear, the _beyond a jerk move_ part is doing this in front of the class
with such flimsy evidence. I have see this before. It happened to a black
woman friend. In this case the professor's flimsy evidence was a shift in tone
which happens in editing all the time.

That said, _hence_ is an adverb and not a conjunction. Hence there is no comma
after hence. BTW, this punctuation mistake argues strongly _against_
plagiarism.

~~~
hooloovoo_zoo
This is not a uniformly accepted rule. Commas are common after adverbs such as
therefore, nevertheless, and hence. There is no mistake here.

~~~
CalChris
You might be right. She may have used _hence_ in the conjunctive adverb sense.

Having looked it up a bit, it still goes both ways. The argument against the
comma is that if _hence_ is a transitional word then you would omit the comma.
If you feel the need for a pause then you would insert it.

So it's a fielder's choice and not a mistake.

------
learned
This is a truly well-written piece, and it accomplished everything it set out
to describe without a diatribe or personal attack on the anonymous professor.

Considering how viciously accusations and personal vendettas can be carried
out online, I think it's a great mark of character that she refrained from
such tactics and explained the injustice she felt in a levelheaded way.

------
otoburb
It somehow feels that we are missing the other side of this emotionally
charged post. I just used the word "hence" in a previous HN comment, but
realize that I rarely use this word in verbal conversation.

However, this doesn't excuse the alleged behaviour of the professor in the
article. When making a plagiarism accusation, is it common to call this out
openly without attempting to address 1-1 first in academic settings?

~~~
CJefferson
I've never heard of such a thing, but perhaps that's because I am in a UK
university. We have a formal procedure for dealing with such things, which
certainly doesn't involve public humiliation. It also provides students the
chance to defend themselves, which is obviously missing here.

~~~
justin66
There's a formal process at this girl's school as well, I'm sure.

------
todd8
I've always been, and to this day continue to be, a poor speller. Hence my
prepared writing is always a bit more erudite than my casual spoken
communication or even my in class exam answers. I simply don't trust that I'm
spelling a word like "erudite" properly without the help of spell-check. Is it
really so odd that someone would use a phrase in academic writing unusual in
their other forms of discourse?

Its a terrible thing to be falsely accused. Especially so when it is by a
person in authority and in front of others and when the accuser has the power
to issue a grade. I hope that this article helps professors deal more
sensitively with their concerns over plagiarism in the internet age.

------
gravypod
I've had professors do this to me. I don't understand what's wrong with this.
This is a common thing I even do when grading programming assignments. When I
notice a stylistic choice that is outside of the norm for the students I can
usually tell exactly who the work came from. Every semester I catch at least
one group of cheaters (This semester I caught two!) and they admit to it after
I confront them with it.

"Hence" is fairly common in modern English, but is it common in the writings
of this student?

One such example of this is that one of my students used a "while not in" loop
which they had never done before. I looked at it puzzled for a second and then
went "wait a minute, one of my other students used this in every lab since we
introduced the while statement". I pull up the code, compare it, and BAM! I've
got a match.

Just because something is possible/correct in a language and that the person
wiring the piece has every bit of ability to use the complex structure at had
it doesn't mean they would normally do so. Sure it's not accurate, and sure
you may not be right with every call (hasn't happened to me yet but other TAs
have called people out and have turned out to be wrong), but it's something
that I'd call a "clue" that something is different.

Either the student put more time into the work and found a better/alternate
way of approaching the problem, the student asked a friend to help with
describing the structure (or in this case what wording to use), or in the only
case that presents malice: they copied it.

The only way you can find out is by going to the student and confidently
saying something to the effect of "I know you've engaged in some questionalbe
academic behavior, this is your time to explain yourself before I contact my
boss and have them run a more though investigation". Cheaters usually crack
instantly. (pro-tip for anyone on the outside who _is_ cheating: just lie to
us, we're probably not going to follow up unless it's extremely obvious if
you've got a 1/4 way decent explanation).

I see nothing wrong with this. Just talk to the professors boss and they'll
sort it out. This is especially true for cases where you actually did write
the work.

Also, I highly doubt anyone questions the intellect of the writer. They are
obviously a gifted person.

~~~
random567
part of the problem is public shaming

    
    
        > 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.”
    

While it's reasonable to ask someone if they've plagiarized, asking that
person about it in public in front of their classmates is mean-spirited.

~~~
rocqua
There is also something about the extreme emphasis on 'this is _not_ your
word'. Much like the public shaming, it suggests the professor is not just
displeased, but viscerally outraged.

~~~
gravypod
You may not know this but it is an offensive thing to see a student fail or
cheat to get out of failure. It's not right to get mad about it but that
doesn't change the fact that it does happen.

I try not to get mad and I try to be as objective as possible but after I know
for sure it is very disappointing. It's a reflection of my abilities I feel.

------
CJefferson
This is crazy. If the story is true as written, the academic in question needs
to be fired. I would expect nothing less at my own University.

I find the story hard to believe only because it is so terrible -- and that an
academic would be stupid enough to accuse a student of plagiarism without
concrete evidence (in particular, the text from which they plagiarised).
However, even if the academic in question had such evidence, they still should
give the student the chance to defend themselves.

~~~
rocqua
There is a lot I feel like I can get done at my university. Outrage will do a
lot.

That said, I know of a few professors that could get away with this shit.
There are always a few professors that are thoroughly entrenched.

------
apathy
First rule: Institutions can never love you back.

[http://clincancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/5/9/2281](http://clincancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/5/9/2281)

Simone's Maxims are possibly the best piece of career advice anyone ever gave
me.

At least she's learning this early in the game. She's clever and tough and
will either go far or be smart enough to make much more money at a real job.

Her prof? Not so much.

~~~
Gatsky
That's a great link, thank you!

~~~
apathy
Please share it with everyone who might benefit.

Be the change you want to see in the world ;-)

(Ha ha only serious. Being an idealist made me cynical. Then it brought me
back again. In the end we only have each other, those who we live and love and
work with, in this world. It may as well be the best world we can make it.)

------
rhapsodic
It looks like the professor pulled a jerk move, jumping to conclusions based
on scant evidence. Yet the writer seems to conclude that happened because of
her ethnicity, without offering any evidence to support that. Maybe the
professor is just a presumptuous jerk who pulls that with students regardless
of their race, sex or ethnicity.

I'm not saying that's the case, because I have no evidence either way.

~~~
rflrob
Maybe the professor pulls that stuff on people without _conscious_ regard to
gender, socioeconomic status, or ethnicity, but in the context of longstanding
explicit and implicit discrimination, I'm not inclined to give him the benefit
of the doubt that all of his students are equally likely to get called out.
Ask your brown friends if they've ever been pulled out for a "random"
screening by the TSA.

------
lisper
Wow. Just, wow. "This is not your word"??? Even when I stretch my charitable
suspension of disbelief to its absolute limit I cannot come up with any
interpretation of that phrase that is even remotely defensible.

~~~
ht_th
Well, if taken out of context supplied by the author of the article, "This is
not your word" could be interpreted as an observation that there is a phrase
that does not fit the style of writing of the piece as a whole. That would
make it constructive criticism.

------
M_Grey
Never trust just one side of a story. Never.

------
bobthechef
Her post is largely vacuous and superficial. Why? Because it doesn't really
provide any evidence that would help the reader understand what really
happened. Most of it consists of descriptions of her feelings, uncorroborated
accusations, tired ideological slogans, a pervasive self-pity, and the
presumption of racism. Add to that the other interesting bits in the article
such as how she demands to be recognized as an "academic" even though she
isn't even a graduate student. What delusion! The topic of the essay also
suggests she's been indoctrinated with the ideology of resentment, one that
recently has taken on a frightening degree of irrationality on college
campuses in the US. Many of these people require psychological help and should
not be roaming around college campuses where they quickly find convenient
scapegoats for their issues and rationalize their choices.

Also, it's not like she's going against the grain here. Academia, especially
where the humanities are concerned, is overwhelmingly leftist in this country.
An accusation of racism in one of these departments is socially damning. If
she were a conservative Catholic arguing in defense of sexual morality during
a gender studies class at one of our glorified ivy league universities or
women's colleges, then I'd say she's got courage. However, this is not the
case. Her choice of language indicates that she is riding briskly and blandly
on the profitable coattails of the oppression gravy train. Whether it is
calculated or merely the result of intellectual error upon intellectual error
is another matter altogether.

Bottom line: these shows of support she's receiving are not only
inappropriate, but presumptuous. This idea that we must believe what people
say on their own authority, or based on their feelings (constrained by the
prevailing ethos, of course), with no evidence is a worrying trend in left-
leaning humanities departments.

I've come across jerk teachers myself. I have been suspected of plagiarism
when my essays exceeded the average length for the class. I've had arrogant
teachers presume things in ways that defy common sense. Just because some
teacher is an ass (and for the purposes of this post I'll grant her that much)
doesn't mean there's any reason to invoke all of that baggage. Victimization
ideology is a pathological condition that's being propagated by leftist
academics that does severe harm to those concerned. It's used for political
gain in the Alinsky style and has the effect of entrenching poverty and
cultural pathologies. Sure, upper middle class white (or occasionally black,
etc) academics can generate this vile substance with no effect on them, but it
does have a real affect on those whom it concerns.

~~~
vladsotirov
I'm puzzled by your comment, especially the first few sentences. What did you
not understand from her blog post? What kind of evidence would help you
understand? What would you ask her to clarify, what would you like to know, if
you were told this story in person instead of as a blog post?

------
stirner
I am amazed that a professor would be so surprised by a student using the word
"hence". Most professors I've had would probably have taken off points for
using it over a simpler alternative like "therefore" or just a different
sentence structure that incorporated the two sentences without needing an
adverb to tie them together.

~~~
tnecniv
In every humanities class I've taken, the professor wouldn't grade us based on
word choice nitpicking.

------
Sideloader
She doesn't say what happened after she got the paper back but going by what
she wrote there is no evidence that the prof singled her out because of her
ethnicity.

If he or she just handed her the paper back with that scrawled on it that's a
dick move, absolutely, but she's reading a lot into "those aren't your words"
and doesn't provide any information that backs up her claim her prof is
racist.

I checked out her blog and the comment section is full of posters piling on
the prof for being "racist".bHow do they know this? Became a stranger on the
internet says so? The mob mentality that self-righteous liberals exhibit
doesn't help them much in the credibility and integrity department.

I

~~~
Sideloader
Whoops...please pardon the typos and stray letters

------
albertgao
And I remembered, when I was a freshman, in my Chinese writing class, my
teacher insulted me in front of the class like this, "good novel, but never
copy and paste", why? because he thought this kind of writing style can't be
accomplished by a freshman. I just simply answered, "Thanks. But I never
plagiarize" The teacher shocked for few seconds, then he apologize and said "I
will recommend to the publication". And my classmates all can't wait to see my
novel since the curiosity of human being. If I just accused them without
fighting back, things will went to another direction undoubtedly.

------
thaw13579
I think academia has a big problem related to diversity and what the author
described was deplorable behavior by the professor, but that said, I don't
think this specific example can be fairly used to generalize. Every academic
institute I've interacted with takes accusations of plagiarism seriously,
requiring formal procedures and evidence, and possibly expulsion. Maybe things
are different elsewhere, but I wouldn't attribute this awful treatment to
academia as a whole.

------
billy8988
It is comforting to know. the world is same! As a student from a government
run poorest rural village school in India, my college professors constantly
questioned how I was outperforming and even suggested that I might be using
the bribery system to get good grades in standardized final exams. TBH, I
actually enjoyed that experience.

------
tigroferoce
This is ridiculous. I'm not at all a native speaker, but after a few years in
academia, I learnt to use "hence," in that exact same way

------
achievingApathy
Maybe he just couldn't get over someone using an exclamation point in a paper.

From Strunk & White: "Exclamations. Do not attempt to emphasize simple
statements by using a mark of exclamation.

The exclamation mark is to be reserved for use after true exclamations or
commands."

~~~
GFK_of_xmaspast
Strunk&White is full of bad advice tho.

------
jimhefferon
What an admirable post!

------
revelation
That sounds too much like l'esprit d'escalier. We all encounter jerks and most
often there is not much more behind it than that some people are jerks.

------
albertgao
I just saw an interesting attitude when a people encountered a tough-time.
They didn't fight, instead, they accused, they accused every people dared to
question them, accused them as racist, as mean, as not polite, as any
possibility they could think of. Come on, this is how the society goes and
this is happens every time. And if you tends to have this kind of mindset.
Every time you face a challenge, you accuse someone else. To be honest, you
are just a lamentable loser. Life is hard and everyone will face their low
tide, fight back, not only accusing.

