Donld Trump's wife Melania made a splash at this year’s Republican National Convention with a captivating and strangely familiar speech. After the internet caught wind that some of her remarks were lifted from First Lady Michelle Obama’s 2008 Democratic National Convention address, the world had a field day, but there's still some debate about whether or not Melania's actions constitute plagiarism.
According to Twitter spokesperson Nick Pacilio, Melania was the most talked about RNC speaker on Monday, outpacing both Rudy Giuliani and Scott Baio.
Actor and noted woke bae Jesse Williams created the cheeky hashtag #FamousMelaniaTrumpQuotes and jokingly attributed Sojourner Truth’s “Ain’t I A Woman” speech to Melania, inspiring a bevy of memes.
In response to the accusations, Melania issued the following statement:
Statement on Melania Trump Speech pic.twitter.com/80KgS0jxXz
Many conservatives rushed to defend Melania, especially those in her husband’s camp. On Tuesday, Trump spokesperson Katrina Pierson said, “This concept that Michelle Obama invented the English language is absurd.” Trump’s campaign manager Paul Manafort also called the accusations “absurd” and even tried to blame the controversy on Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. “This is once again an example of when a woman threatens Hillary Clinton, how she seeks out to demean her and take her down,” he said. There are currently no mentions of Melania’s speech on Clinton’s social accounts.
When asked if Melania’s remarks constituted plagiarism, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie responded: "Not when 93 percent of the speech is completely different than Michelle Obama’s speech."
Since there's still some confusion about what plagiarism is and how it works, Complex decided to ask those who deal with plagiarism and its consequences almost every day: teachers.
We asked teachers from all over the country what they’d do if Melania Trump was their student and turned in last night’s speech as a paper. Here’s what they had to say:
Carrie Murphy, adjunct composition and literature instructor in Albuquerque, New Mexico:
In today's climate (when instructors are expected to give students the benefit of the doubt for cases like this), I'm not sure I'd be able to "fail" Melania, but I'd certainly raise some serious red flags for similarity. If she were my student, I'd have to sit down with her and explain why/how the two speeches were similar and why this is an ethical issue. I'd either given her a zero for the paper or give her a chance to explain herself and revise, with some points taken off.
Justin Tindall, former 4th grade bilingual teacher in San Antonio, Texas, imagined how he'd speak to Melania if she were his student:
Teacher: Girl, we need to talk. You have some nerve walking in here and trying to pull something like this.
Melania: ...
Teacher: You're gonna play me like that, huh? You're gonna just stand there and pretend that you didn't just plagiarize an entire paragraph from Michelle's speech? What did she ever do to you?!
Melania: ...
Teacher: Okay, I see how this is gonna go. Well honey, here's an automatic grade deduction for plagiarizing. Here's another one for stealing your own classmate's work. One more for refusing to 'fess up. And hey, here's another for having the audacity to think I wouldn't notice. Looks like you just got an F.
Melania: ...
Teacher: Girl, go sit down before I lose it. You're lucky I don't Rick-roll you back to 3rd grade!
Nupur Shridhar, robotics/design teacher in Providence, Rhode Island:
It's an effective example of reverse engineering, like how all cars are going to come out pretty much looking like other cars. But she's not going to like the grade, because more fundamentally, the point is to convince us that you can think for yourself.
Julie Schumacher, former middle school history, civics, and journalism teacher in Chicago, Illinois and Los Angeles, California:
If she were enrolled in any of my classes, and I imagine most any teacher of research and writing at any grade level, she’d be more than aware and repeatedly reminded of the importance of unceasing originality and the responsibility of citing sources. But beyond plagiarizing, she’s also taking credit for someone else’s work in saying she got little help at first and now blaming the writing on her team. It can’t be both. In either scenario, she’s at fault. And she’s been less than truthful, before this incident, by claiming a degree she does not have. One mistake a good teacher can make a learning experience. Heck, maybe even two mistakes. These three together signal a pattern of academic dishonesty that wouldn’t go over well in my classroom, whether from a seventh grader or a grown up. Especially a grown-up.
