Read the published article here.
Watch the YouTube Video here.
Background information to the original article and assignment:
Details included: time/date of submission, grade received, how it was graded, where the article was originally written, description of assignment, brief summary of what was included in article
This article was originally written on April 13th, 2020. This article was submitted at 12:00pm on April 13, 2020 to my Art in Urban Contexts GE course. (Below is screenshots of article that was published, the date differs than the one mentioned because the blog post was started in March but was officially submitted on April 13th). The grade received on this assignment was 100/100. This grade was on a pass/fail schedule. If you did not submit an article/blog post you would get a 0, if you submitted an article/blog post you would get 100. The purpose of this assignment was to choose a movement that resonates with us and write an article on it. Within the article we would have to include a history section, a statistics section, and a relevance to the author section. I wrote the article on the Pro-Life Movement. This article's focus was explaining the misinformation provided to individuals on the Pro-Abortion side. This article was not a debate over when a baby is considered a baby. This was not an article about whether or not abortion is murder. This article was an informative article providing information on the laws and "rights" in regards to abortion and privacy, the ill-intent of Margaret Sanger, and the relevance to the author (me). Included in this article are quotations from Planned Parenthood, it's founder Margaret Sanger, numbers from the CDC, and much more.
The professor of the Art in Urban Contexts course was to read our draft of the article and approve it for posting in our "Art Blog". To gain approval on the article we had to leave the article as a draft on the "Art Blogger" with all of the requirements for the article and submit a reflection on the assignment on the course's Canvas page (this a website where students can submit assignments online, talk with professors, etc). The reflection asked about what we thought about the project. The reflection assignment was just a way to tell the professor to check out the article written to gain approval to post it. Once the professor reads the article and sees it meets the criteria she then goes to the reflection assignment and comments her approval. This reflection assignment is turned and posted on a forum on the Canvas website. When students submit posts on the forum, every student in the course can see what was written by the student and the professor. This reflection post and approval response is totally public to all students in the course.
The Professor's Response:
On Tuesday morning, April 14th, 2020 the professor of the course left the approval comment on my reflection post. In the reflection post we talk about how we felt about the assignment. The reflection post contained little to no information of what was written in the article. The professor of the course wrote this comment in response to my article:
Name and Profile Photo Hidden to protect identity.
This was the comment that was received on the article. After receiving this comment, I was very confused because the comment did not correlate with what was said in the article. I am used to receiving push back from professors when I write papers, but this one was different. The professor, from prior knowledge, knew I was Catholic. She used this information to prove a point. In the article, I never mention that I am Catholic. I never mention the Catholic Church nor my affiliation with it. The professor goes on to argue when a baby is a baby. As mentioned before, and as you will read below in my article, the article does not mention at any point when life begins. This article was less of a Pro-life article and more of a historical/informative article about the history of Planned Parenthood and the amendments used to make abortion "legal".
Normally I do not mind when professors comment/argue with my opinions. But this professor was out of line mentioning my faith and the "shortcomings" of it. I would have also not have minded this comment if she had commented like this on every article of each student. Instead her comments to other students included praise and no push-back from her. I was going to include what she wrote to other students in the form of screen-shots but I recognize that would be over-stepping to an extent.
My Response to my Professor's Response:
(at the moment this is published, I have yet to send out the email/response. But this is what I want to send out).
Hello Professor,
Thank you for taking the time to read my article and commenting on it. Based off your comment, it seems to me that you may have misunderstood or misread what my article contained. In your comment you mention that because a member of an organization has ill- intent does not make the organization as a whole have ill-intent. I am 100% behind you on that. Trust me, I know what it is like to be pushed into a generalized category based on one person’s actions. I would never fall guilty of using that fallacy in my arguments. I mentioned the ill-intent of Margaret Sanger because she is the founder of the Planned Parenthood organization. The sole purpose of this organization disguised as being a place for “women’s reproduction rights”, was to exterminate the communities she saw to be unfit. That was the purpose behind starting the organization. I never claimed that the organization still had those purposes or goals, I was educating my audience on the ill beginnings of the organization. My whole article, as mentioned in my article, was to educate my readers on the topic. I am providing them with information that is often covered up or hidden from them so that they can make their own opinions on the matter. Many people make opinions blindly. They follow what their parents, teachers, religious leaders say and never question it. I never have a belief solely based off what I have been told, I always research the topic before I make an opinion. And I was encouraging my readers to do so as well. Don’t take my word for it. I always tell people “don’t trust me, test me”. I encourage people to do the same with everything.
In your comment, you mentioned the Catholic Church to prove your point. I was taken aback by this. Never once in my article do I mention my faith as a Christian. Yet you thought it was appropriate to mention the “shortcomings” of a group I identify as to prove your point. That was very inappropriate. If I had mentioned in the article that I was Catholic, then that would be another thing, you would have had “justification” behind your comment. (I put justification in parenthesis because even then you would be over stepping). First of all, I have no problem having a discussion with anyone about the history of the Catholic Church and “shortcomings” you mentioned. But there is a place and a time for that, and this was not that time. It was inappropriate for you to mention. If I had been of any other religion group other than Christianity, would you have done the same? Mind you, I didn’t even mention I was Catholic in my article. You mentioned this based off prior knowledge of me. Information about myself that I shared with the class and you because I felt safe. But now I’m aware that in this classroom environment I have to be a little more cautious when I talk about my personal life because it may get attacked in a conversation that does not even have to do with the topic. Another thing I would like to mention or ask, where are you getting your information from on the Catholic Church to make those statements? In my article when I mentioned the ill-intent and history of Margaret Sanger I backed up my argument with factual information. I was proving my point with facts, whereas you have made a blanket statement without providing any factual information. I understand that this is a forum comment and it would not make sense for you to do a literature review on the Catholic Church in your comment. But it also did not make sense for you to mention it in the first place. In my article, I mentioned many qualities about myself for example that I am Mexican, 2nd generation, a woman, etc. Those were qualities and facts about myself I shared within my article that you could have used as an example to prove your point. Yet, you decided to go for my religion to prove your point. That was 100% inappropriate, but I get it. You were probably heated or upset by my article and the information it contained. But in the future, be a little more careful when commenting on someone or their faith when it is not appropriate.
The next paragraph of your comment you attempted to “correct” me on the definition of a baby. In my article I never mention when I believed for the baby to be a baby in the womb. I never talked about at what point its considered cells, what point it has a heart beat, what point it can feel pain, etc. Why? Because that was not the basis of my article. My article was highlighting on the misinformation or lack of information provided to people who are advocates for abortion. I feel as though you did not read my article when I read your second paragraph because you were addressing something that was not even stated.
You said “aside from spiritual beliefs” when “correcting” me. As though I had made my opinion based off spiritual beliefs. Once again, you are mentioning my faith to undermine my opinion. Never once in my article did I mention faith as being the basis for my opinion, and you want to know why? It’s because it isn’t. I am not an advocate for the unborn because of my faith, I am an advocate for the unborn because of belief in facts and in science.
We can discuss whether or not it is a baby at another time. But arguing about whats a baby and what isn’t in a comment on an article that didn’t even mention it seems a little inappropriate and strange. Professor, I would also like to remind you that this class is an art class. Not a science class, not a persuasion class, not a political science class, but art. To attempt to start an argument/discussion with me on those topics in the comment section of the class forum is not the proper thing to do. You left comments praising all the other students in the class for their hard work on the articles. Yet you only responded to mine in an argumentive way. (Reminding you, arguing on things that were NOT even mentioned in the article).
If you want to have the abortion conversation at any point in the future, I will be happy to. But this was not the time and the place for it.
Thank you,
Vanessa