Why I didn’t write a personal contract

I decided not to write a personal contract in the beginning of the semester because I knew that I would not keep to the task of writing in my journal once a week. Perhaps I should have come up with a different contract for something more attainable for my lifestyle and work ethic. Despite the fact that Law & Society made me think critically each time I attended, I did not write my thoughts down. I need to learn to challenge myself.

Why don’t I write a journal once a week?

Maybe it has to do with carrots and sticks, or the lack thereof in this ongoing assignment. Since the journal was not due every week, but rather once or twice per semester, there was not much opportunity for reward or punishment. Every other professor I have had uses the carrot and stick method, wherein they ask for an assignment due at a certain time, and then gives us a grade depending on how good they think it is. The tough part about this assignment is that the responsibility is all my own. First, I have to promise to MYSELF, not the professor, that I will write in this journal once a week. Second, the subject matter in these journals consists of my own thoughts and reflections, which cannot exactly be “graded” by a professor.

I have found that the lack of carrots and sticks in this assignment has its pros and cons for me.  A pro is that I was able to freely express my thoughts without the pressure of a grade lurking in the back of my mind. I find this to be the most important aspect of the journal and this method should be practiced more often. As Osho states in “Freedom,” “if individuals have freedom, are psychologically free, are spiritually free, then naturally the collective will be spiritually free” (xiii). This assignment gave me the freedom that Osho talks about in the previous quotation. If carrots and sticks were removed from society as a whole, imagine the freedom that each and every one of us could have.

The only con that I find with the carrot and stick-free method is due to my own personal faults. I did not push myself to write in this journal frequently enough. Although I retained a lot of information and gained critical thinking skills throughout the semester, reflecting on what I learned each week would have been an even more effective method of learning. In conclusion, I will “contract” myself to reflect on what I learn later in life in order to become a better thinker and learner.

Walmart

"Undergraduate students overwhelmingly described sexism as a less serious problem than racism. Despite the fact that those same students were more likely to have experienced, observed, or heard about acts of sexism than of racism on their campuses, and despite the fact that the sex-based ones were far more likely than the race-based ones to involved physical acts including violence, from men grabbing and groping women to raping them, the majority of our participants said that they find racism more upsetting and consider it more of a problem that needs to be dealt with than sexism. Sexism, some even suggested, is only natural" (Flanders).

The previous quote was taken from the article "Walmart: Too Big to Sue?" from CommonDreams.org. I find this quote interesting because before reading it, I would have agreed with the fact that racism is more of a problem than sexism. To me, this seems like a societal problem that must be dealt with. The fact that people find racism more of a problem might suggest that we are not doing a good enough job spreading awareness of sexism. Furthermore, this means that our society does not recognize what can be considered sexism. There are multiple instances in every day life where sexism can be detected. For instance, survey the number of professors or administrators on campus: is there a majority of men or women? In most cases, it will be men. This is due to the patriarchal hierarchy that our society relies on. Not only is sexism not being handled correctly on campuses, but it is clear that is not being handled on a corporate level, as Walmart clearly displays. For example, the following quote from the same article is one example of how Walmart is discriminating against women. "Wal-Mart paid women less in nearly every job category, even though women had, on average, better performance evaluations and more seniority."

Racism & the law

"'...crimes committed by blacks are the products of their colonial relationship to the greater society, which, in turn, 'is based on racial inequality and perpetuated by the political state.' Staples maintains that blacks are not protected by American law, that police brutality is a fact of daily experience in black America, and that the cultural values of white supremacy place little significance on the lives of blacks in U.S. society" (Baker & Davin, 67). The previous quote explains that blacks are undermined by whites and that blacks commit crimes as a result of their poor relationship with the law created by white men and the blacks are very often subjected to police brutality. The Troy Davis case is another example of how blacks are undermined in our society. Just as the previous quote explains the relationship blacks have with the law, the following quote gives an example: "Jeffrey Sapp... signed a police statement declaring that dazvis had told him that he had shot MacPahil. Now, at the evidentiary hearing, he said he'd done so under duress. 'There were police in front of me, behind me,' Sapp testified. 'I was so scared, I would say anything they wanted. 'Just say Troy told you! Just say Troy told you!''" (Marlowe). The Troy Davis case evidently displays blacks being undermined by the law. However, not only is the victim, Troy Davis, being subjected to unfair treatment and sentencing, but witnesses and friends of Troy Davis are being treated poorly as well. It could even be said that racism under the white man's law "does not discriminate", as it is found in all facets of the law.