APPROPRIATE OR NOT?

1,245 Views | 14 Replies | Last: 2 yr ago by bearister
SoCalie
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I'd really appreciate some feedback on this.

My niece turned in a paper in her college class. The professor returned the paper with the grade, and only a couple of comments, one of which was, "Full name please. You should know the accent in your own name." (Her last name is Hernandez) Next to the comment was, "-2" --> he took 2 points off for this transgression - so her grade was an 89 instead of a 91.

Initially, she was upset by the professor's comment - but, even more so that he took points off for her "failure" to use an accent on her last name, something she has never done in her life.

As she has had time to think about it, she is now more upset that the professor thought it was ok to tell her how to spell her name/that an accent was missing. She would like to let the professor know that this is something that is offensive to her, and is inappropriate to comment on. She isn't particularly worried about how communicating her feelings to her professor may impact her grade in the class.

What are your thoughts? I'm interested in your unbiased/uninvolved opinions.

Thanks in advance
B.A. Bearacus
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Was this by chance a Spanish class? I only ask because that's the only class I could even remotely (and it's a stretch) see a professor trying to make the case that it was worth a demerit. Not cool of the teacher, but sometimes foreign language classes can have special requirements (like no English spoken). Any other class, there would be absolutely no excuse for such pettiness.

https://www.genealogy.com/forum/surnames/topics/hernandez/491/
bearister
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After she completes the class and gets her final grade, retain a lawyer to pen a letter to everyone in the chain of command. That mother f'er needs to go down. The school will officially be on notice that they have a problem on their hands, and if they sweep it under the carpet, next time he steps out of line, they will have a major problem on their hands under doctrine of ratification.
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OdontoBear66
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Behavior unbecoming a professor. Matter of fact, childish.
helltopay1
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She spelled her name Hernandez. What accent are we talking about??
Anarchistbear
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Not appropriate and discriminatory. American names are an amalgamations of mispronunciations, misspelling and dumb mistakes by customs. But they are now American names and we choose how they are spelled, written and pronounced. What he/she is doing is discriminating against your niece because she has a Hispanic name. The Professor would never do that to an Anglo Saxon name- pointing out some old English or Germanic correctness. . So he is not only profiling her but punishing her out of some anal woke superiority complex. He/ she should be called out and disciplined not directly but formally through superiors.
SoCalie
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No, it is a "Race and Globalization" class. She's a Chem major but is taking this class to fulfill a Humanities requirement.
SoCalie
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I think he's referring to the "A"? As in...HernAndez. But, she has never heard of that or added an accent in her entire life. The way he said/wrote it is pretty rude, too.

"Full name please. You should know the accents in your own name."

I'm not sure why he said, "accentS". Her first name is Alexandra. So, maybe he is insinuating that she should have an accent in her first name, as well? And, it's AleXandra, not AleJandra. So, I'm not sure what he's talking about.

SoCalie
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I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic?

This was literally the first communication the professor has had with her, as class just recently started. The professor's last name is Garcia (he writes it without an accent on the , by the way).

I just think it's a weird, inappropriate comment to make on a paper. And, now she thinks he thinks she is some sort of self-loathing Latina - that she hates/is embarrassed by her heritage. It's a small class and now she feels awkward going to the next class.
sycasey
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100% inappropriate. It's not the professor's place to tell a student how to spell her own name.
okaydo
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SoCalie said:

I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic?

This was literally the first communication the professor has had with her, as class just recently started. The professor's last name is Garcia (he writes it without an accent on the , by the way).

I just think it's a weird, inappropriate comment to make on a paper. And, now she thinks he thinks she is some sort of self-loathing Latina - that she hates/is embarrassed by her heritage. It's a small class and now she feels awkward going to the next class.

A good person to weigh in on this is this guy, a culture reporter for the Los Angeles Times and author of this book who went through some bleep when he was the Daily Cal's editor in chief two decades ago. He can be contacted here.




oski003
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Considering the title of the class, perhaps the professor considers this a teaching moment about the origins of her name? If she were to have an open-minded discussion with her professor, the professor should give her those two points back. Otherwise, that to me is being a jerk, assuming there was no prior lecture on the anglicization of surnames. It is the professor's prerogative to ask her to use an accent unless she can defend why she shouldn't have to.
Big C
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High school teacher here (emeritus). This guy sounds like some of the tin-pot, nit-picky, petty high school teachers I have had the displeasure of working with (fortunately, there are not too many). The name thing is ridiculous, as has been discussed. The "-2" is unbelievable. Wait, this is a college instructor?!?

Two ways to go here...

+ follow up on it, to some extent

+ laugh and move on

Either one's fine, but I would tend to go with the latter, as life is too short to waste it on this sort of silly bs. But speaking of accent marks, is it possible to use them here in BI?
sycasey
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Big C said:

But speaking of accent marks, is it possible to use them here in BI?

Nope, they get erased.
SoCalie
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Thank you
bearister
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Fine, then don't see a lawyer.
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