As an
undergraduate student in the 70s at what was then Claremont Men’s College
(CMC), now Claremont McKenna College, I was an active student. I majored in psychology, ran track,
participated in other intramural sports, was active with the Black Student’s
Union (BSU) and worked with the local Upward Bound program tutoring high school
students. In general I enjoyed my years
at CMC in spite of the many challenges faced.
There were a relatively small number of Black students at the Claremont
Colleges and most of us got to know each other.
Black Studies
courses were offered through the Claremont University Center (CUC) but the
professors that taught the courses were hired as adjunct faculty and were not
eligible for tenure. Even though Black
Studies courses were offered, a major in Black Studies was not an option. Nevertheless, I took as many Black Studies
courses as I could, including courses in literature, psychology, history,
sociology and political science. While
enrolled in a Black Psychology course I attempted to have a discussion with one
of my white psychology professors about Black Psychology.
Her response was confusion. From
her perspective there could be only one human psychology. I attempted to explain how differing cultural
values, language, beliefs and attitudes resulted in differing patterns of thinking
and behavior and to understand these differences it was necessary to study them
as a unique subject. She didn’t buy
it.
During that semester I turned in a paper, to this same professor, that I had worked on really
hard. She graded it with a “C.” Her reaction when I discussed what I thought
was a poor grade was to tell me “a “C” is not a bad grade.” I knew that for her a “C” would have been the
same as an “F.” The unspoken message was
that “a “C” is not a bad grade for a Black student.” She refused to reconsider the grade and I
walked away feeling defeated.
In another
incident while protesting plans by CUC to discontinue the Black and Chicano
Admissions Office, at a meeting involving the Provost and other high ranking
professors, one of the professors stated in response to our demands that “Black
and Chicano Admissions had outlived its usefulness.” One of my most memorable experiences that resulted from being a Black student on a predominantly White campus was being stopped and questioned by campus security one evening while on the way to the library at Harvey Mudd College (one of the five campuses of the Claremont Colleges). These and other incidents would be described
now as “microaggressions” (Sue, Capodilupo, and Holder,
2008). What I didn’t realize at the time
is that they would become the basis of what I am calling Cultural PTSD in Academics.
I only became
aware of the damage that had been done when a new incident triggered a flood of
memories and emotions from those days.
Currently, I am a doctoral student at the University of the
Rockies. I am pursuing a PsyD with a
specialty in International Leadership. I
am in my 16th out 17 courses and have maintained a 4.0 GPA. I will very soon begin work on my
dissertation. The triggering incident
took place recently in my current class, Globalization & Diversity in Cultures. I had been looking forward to this
class for quite some time. I had been
impressed in general since returning to school and discovering that there is
much more openness regarding discussing diversity issues in the classroom. I have really enjoyed taking all the courses,
reading and learning about globalization, African Economic Development,
diplomacy and more. And then I started
this course.
First of all, the
course guide for this course is a little out of date and targeted toward
students that are at a basic entry level when it comes to diversity in
cultures. I have been involved in
studying one aspect of this topic or another since 1980. I have travelled internationally and live in Hilo,
Hawaii. There are people and cultures present here in Hawaii from places most people on the mainland US
have never heard of. I entered the class
knowing that I am already at high level of expertise on the subject. I expected, as had been the case in nearly
all of my previous classes, that the professor would be flexible enough to
acknowledge the level of expertise of the students and make adjustments
accordingly. The only other student in
the class is a man of Latino origins in his mid-40s who is bi-lingual and with
extensive international business experience.
We are not novices. Yet, the
professor seemed reluctant to acknowledge that we are very advanced students.
Then it happened,
after getting a lower than expected grade on my first paper, I worked hard to
incorporate her suggestions to get a better grade on the second paper. I got a worse grade. She wrote in her
comments:
I
am very concerned about the lack of application of citation to proprietary
information, in one section in particular as highlighted. Remember, your reader can only review what is
written, not what is intended. However
unintentional, your writing must be protected from plagiarism, which means the
ability to pass off information that is not ours as our own. Your writing
includes many paragraphs with proprietary information yet there is no attempt
at citation. I know this is not what you
may have intended, however that is what is presented. Remember, to protect ALL proprietary
information EVERY time. It is possible
that EVERY sentence may have a citation, or multiple citations to support the
evidence offered.
Remember,
U of R has a zero tolerance policy and our classes are audited. I prefer to work with the student then submit
to the Ethics Review Board.
I
have never in my life had my name associated with the word plagiarism. I reviewed how I used in-text citations in
the paper. I reviewed the requirements
from the APA manual. The APA manual does
not include how frequently in a paragraph an in-text citation must be
present. I have never had a professor
that interpreted the APA standard as meaning every sentence in a paragraph should
include a citation.
I
did speak with her and she stuck to her guns. I believe at most she could have criticized
my paper as including a technical error in the frequency of my in-text
citations. When I re-read my paper it
was abundantly clear where the information came from that I was
paraphrasing. There is no way that
anyone would think that I had engaged in plagiarism unintentionally or
otherwise. Credit was given to the
appropriate writers.
I
had to go through a process of becoming grounded before speaking to her
directly so that I would not lose my cool.
I knew I had to present myself as very confident and knowledgeable
(which I am). What I did not know until
later was how profoundly impacted I was from this incident. The following day after speaking with her I
literally became sick to my stomach and could not work. Today is two days since I spoke with her and
I am still feeling shaky. I feel
violated and demeaned. The memories of
all the microaggressions from undergraduate school at CMC have come flooding
back. Needless to say I am very
disappointed. The class I thought would
be one of the most enjoyable classes has become my worse class. I have reported the incident to my Academic
Adviser and sent her a copy of the paper with the comments. For now I will continue in the class and
continue to do my normal high quality of work.
I hope that the professor heard some of what I said during our phone
conversation because my patience only goes so far. It will be me taking her the Ethics
Review Board and not the other way around. What she did, unintentional or not,
was abusive. I will not tolerate any
further abuse.
Reference
Sue,
D. W., Capodilupo, C. M. and Holder, A. M. B. (2008). Racial microaggressions in the life
experience of black americans. Professional Psychology: Research and
Practice, 39(3), 329–336. doi:
10.1037/0735-7028.39.3.329
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