Free Writing Progress on Data

Looking on the data to be analyzed right now would not show much work or effort but this weekend will be the time the survey questions go up on blackboard, my questionnaire is sent to Chief of Police Ronald Swan and I will begin searching for media reports on police brutality. The questionnaire and survey will be easier to accomplish than the media analysis, so naturally, media analysis will take more time and effort. I expect to be done collecting all this data within 10 days.

Job Description Reflection

The job I found on monster.com was a security guard position in Aurora, IL, about 5 miles from my hometown. A position as a security guard would satisfy my career goals because I would learn a great deal about interaction with people (customers) and threats (criminals), two aspects that police officers face almost constantly on the job. The fact that this job is almost completely, albeit informally, consistent with a law enforcement position also doesn't hurt. I believe that having a security guard position will help me experience and learn some of the aspects of law enforcement that I normally would not get with food service or other miscellaneous jobs and even may guide me to other areas of the criminal justice system that would best suit my future career goals.

What can i do with a major in...?

Since I was about 10 years old, I've looked up to police officers as my own heroes that go unnoticed. I used to have intense, high speed chases with my matchbox cars and I was always the officer chasing down the bad guy. I have always had a respect for those on the force because my family is, for the most part, a police family. As a criminal justice major, there are many career opportunities that follow but my intention is to keep the police family going.

Free Writing Questions 10/26

Sally French thinks this is problematic because saying that blind people want to be treated normally is saying that people without disabilities are all normal and striving to do their best in the workplace. In other words, she says that everybody in the workplace is trying to do their best and accomplish all that they can, not just disabled people.

Almost every paragraph is Sally French writing about how cynical she is toward the treatment of disabled people such as herself. She is very judgmental about the poor treatment and even the positive treatment that many misinformed non-disabled people try to give the handicapped.

Shapiro is saying that minorities are half as likely to be labeled with a learning disability as caucasians but when they are labeled, there double the likelihood of being put into special education. His reasoning is best explained by the average IQ levels of inner city kids with learning disabilities and white suburban kids with learning disabilities. Inner city kids had an IQ of 81 while white suburban kids had 103. The reason for this is the varying ways that schools "diagnose" a learning disability from state to state.


The ADA and IDEA changed the view of adults and children with disabilities from a medical problem to an issue of civil rights. This like any other civil rights movements leads to backlash and the Department of Justice has also stepped in to give rights to it's disabled citizens.

Shitty First Drafts

The author makes a point that the first draft is only a forum to put down ideas and basic structure to the paper. It is not meant to be a great or even good paper, she even goes so far as to say that no one really writes a good first draft. The first draft is then a post to form a more structured and better second draft and so on. She also talks about her confidence issues with every review she writes.

Homophobia Articles

Consequences of anti-gay prejudice include victimization and violence towards homosexuals or people assumed to be. Another consequence is forcing homosexuals to struggle within themselves because it's too difficult and emotionally draining in today's society to come out of the closet.

Secondary victimization is a result of violence towards a homosexual that ends up causing more violence because attention is drawn from the first hate crime.

Burn said that equal rights do not exist and that basic rights are not protected in areas such as employment and housing for gays.

Lim-Him was called a racist remark in a gay bar and realized that the white gay man could not understand the oppression that both gay men shared.

Interview Analysis

The interview found some important information about the Criminal Justice field. I asked questions about the motivation to be a police officer or in this case, a Drug Enforcement Agency officer and thoughts on graduation. He believes that 20-25% of students take a break after graduation before they start their careers in whatever field they choose. He is a criminal justice major and wants to be a DEA agent because it's a step above patrol officers and includes a lot of investigation rather than law enforcement. He also would like to intern at a police department because he believes "it is a hands-on learning experience for the basic systems of law enforcement." I also asked him whether he thinks his career choice is more beneficial to society than most other career choices and he agreed because the role of the DEA is to keep drugs off the streets and out of the hands of criminals and children alike.

Finding your Voice

I would define 'voice' in writing as the struggle and eventual success of putting down what's below the surface of your public mind into words. In other words, it is to go beyond what people want to hear from you and to say what you REALLY want to say. I think Lamott's quote "We write to expose the unexposed" in a way is related to my definition of voice in that it tells us we should say what other people don't say.

Asian Lesbian Struggles

A visible minority is one who could never pass as being part of the majority or in this case, "white." An invisible minority is one who is part of the minority in society but doesn't run the risk of being discriminated against. Sticking to your own kind means staying with that minority and not having the values and accents of the majority. In other words, it means not conforming to the majority race. The author is going through the struggle of identifying and embracing her own culture even though she regards herself as a sinophobic. She overcame her struggle through meeting other people from her group, such as colored lesbians. I don't tone down many aspects of myself more than normal. One thing I do is to avoid telling people that I am from Naperville, a rich, rich suburb of Chicago because most people assume that I am spoiled and look down on me for it. It's a confusing and selfish habit...

Perpetuating Sexism

I don't think that I necessarily act sexist because I believe myself to be relatively neutral about women in that I don't judge them because they are not wearing make-up or acting accordingly to how women should act. I think sexist when I see sorority girls all formally dressed up and screaming at each other because i believe that is what's degrading to women in general.