For those of you who haven't seen this, here is an open letter that a student wrote and posted to her Facebook account in order to publicly shame her professor. This letter is now making the rounds of Facebook through sharing. Please read it over and then continue.
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"Open letter to my professor.
Today marked one of the most upsetting academic experiences of my college career. I WAS enrolled in an anthropology and China course at Amherst College. The professor, who is not emotionally intelligent nor does she pick up on social cues well, "talked" about the One Child Policy.
Dear Professor: First of all, please do not talk to us like we are children. Second of all, please do not tell an entire class while laughing and cracking jokes that "people in China flush girls down the river and abandon them because no one wants a girl." Where do I even begin, Professor? Should I tell you that there are such things as "social pressures and government policies" that force women/families to make critical decisions that they don't necessarily want to make? Have you ever read your colleague's book "Wanting a Daughter, Needing a Son"? Did you consider not laughing and making fun of this sensitive topic? Did you also know that I was one of those "unwanted females who every parent aborted" whom you so kindly speak of? Yes, you did know. How did you know? Because I told you on the first day of class while we all introduced ourselves and you asked us (the students) why we were taking the course. Oh, maybe you didn't hear me because you weren't paying attention? Why weren't you paying attention? Ah, you must have been staring admiringly into the eyes of your favorite Amherst student. Why did you continue to ignore my raised hand for at least 2 minutes, which a long time in classroom time? Judging from your actions, you must've wanted to ignore/silence me because you proceeded to call on the next Amherst student who raised his hand while totally disregarding my blood-drained arm that was still fighting to stay raised the entire time. Lastly, Professor, if you are going to pull this kind of sh#@ in front of a Chinese adoptee, you should know who that Chinese adoptee is. And if you're going to mess with a MoHo (Mount Holyoke student), you should know that she isn't running back to her dorm room to cry about it, she's going somewhere else - it's called the Dean's office.
Signed, An Unwanted Female
P.S. I am not one to shame people in public, but sometimes, an unwanted girl's gotta do what an unwanted girl's gotta do, right?
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Some of you may be saying "bravo!" and "go, girl!"
Some of you may be saying, "holy shit was THAT inappropriate."
Wherever your response is in that range, let's examine this public piece of writing for what it really is: public shaming of a professor for the sole purpose of retaliation, vengeance, and humiliation.
On every college campus in America there exist two grievance committees - one for students to submit grievances about faculty or staff and one for faculty and staff to submit grievances about each other and the system. There also exists on most, if not all, campuses a version of a Social Equity office that handles complaints about harassment, intimidation, and other discriminatory behavior. There are also department chairs and then deans, who often field such complaints before making any recommendations to the complainants about next steps. Finally, on most campuses, the procedure for making a grievance or complaint is private and held as a confidential process so as not to unduly embarrass any party, or create the potential for retaliation or change of status (ie, being kicked out of school, or being fired) particularly when all of the evidence has not been gathered or examined and all parties have not had their 'day in court' with the necessary committee or office.
In other words, there is a process in place to handle potentially problematic situations that were readily available to this student, whose feelings were hurt. Let's consider the facts that she offers us:
1. There is an Anthropology and China course at Amherst College
2. A professor teaches it
3. The student is angry about how she was treated
4. The student is a Chinese adoptee
5. An Amherst professor wrote a book on the subject titled Wanting a Daughter, Needing a Son
The rest of this student's very angry missive is pure opinion. Might this professor truly be out to offend this particular student? Yes, it's possible. Might the class have introduced themselves on the first day and the professor doesn't actually remember this one girl's background? Yes, it's possible.
Is it possible that this professor talked in a joking manner about something very serious, possibly crossing the line into "inappropriate"? Yes, it's possible. Is it also possible that the professor was laughing out of disbelief, rather than support of such a policy? Also possible.
Is it possible that this student is a "constant contributor" to discussions and the professor was trying to call on other students? Yes. Is it also possible that the professor just didn't see this girl's hand in the sea of hands? Yes. Is it also possible that the professor has favorites and unfairly treats certain students better than others? Absolutely possible.
Are there misogynistic, bigoted, racist professors who bring those attitudes into their teachings and classroom environments? Of course. Do intolerant, needy, and spiteful young people get offended at the slightest whiff of something they disagree with or don't like? Absolutely possible. Are these two groups of people the majority on college campuses? Absolutely not. But this letter adds to the constant drumbeat of disgust and hatred that students and the general public feel toward professors already - this merely adds fuel to an already existing bonfire. Who benefits from this?
Clearly, the student who wrote this "open letter" got what she wanted. So many of the comments on her post (and the shares of her post - at least that I've seen) are of the encouraging, congratulatory, and laudatory type that it makes my skin crawl.
No doubt, right now, on Amherst's campus, administrators are meeting to discuss what to do about this. They will likely call the professor, whose identity is easily discovered by a simple Google search, into a conference room to ask about this incident. Hopefully, the professor will be give a fair chance to respond. And if the prof is found wanting, then changes should be made - perhaps additional training in tolerance or pedagogy - but this person does not, I repeat, DOES NOT deserve to be fired on the strength of one wounded girl's opinion.
Furthermore, this student will likely also be called to account for her rash and unnecessary public shaming of her professor. My hope is that she also receives some consequence - even a warning that this sort of retaliatory discourse is unacceptable and inappropriate for an Amherst student.
The grievance processes and committees exist for exactly this sort of situation. In this case, that is where the student should have turned. She was wrong to turn to Facebook because this sets a dangerous and chilling precedent.
Is this the model that we want our students, our children, our peers to follow when they feel aggrieved? It is one thing to speak up, which should be applauded. It is quite another thing to speak up rashly and out of anger in the wrong forum. We should be setting a better example for young people and helping them to understand the difference between appropriate and inappropriate mediums for personal grievances, especially when someone's identity and job might be on the line.
