Who is afraid of review?

I love reviews for too many reasons, and I will reserve them for another time. Review in one of the places I have worked is a semester-by-semester thing, and personally, I ask my students for anonymous reviews, which is the best form of review for me. What people say about you when they know you will not find out has mixed benefits. Review once got me depressed or worried, even when I learned that women who look like me have been widely documented to be unfairly targeted by it, yet it is still a form of appraisal here. I have read rate your professor's review of the best names in my field, yet no one has a perfect review.

Once there is a social or/hierarchical distance between people in my environment, people encourage and create mechanisms for the people or group below the ladder or hierarchy to be able to say something or challenge power imbalance. That does not mean that it is perfect, especially when other factors like the letter R (race) are implicated. Still, it is how society pays attention to unequal power and social relations. Especially if you are on the upper ladder, you must be sure you are not seen as exacting your position.

When Oprah Winfrey made a comment about beef that caused her to be sued years ago, she won the case for many reasons that some people attributed to the health movement. Except you are selling Amala, Ewedu, and Abula, in which having an attitude is part of the aesthetics and job description of being there with the caveat that your Amala must be really good. You have no reason to deal with high-handedness. As academics, if we are afraid of reviews, we won't even submit articles to journals, let alone attend conferences. You can be fierce in your conviction about the value and utility of your product, but you need to be humble in your approach.

I stopped wearing rubber shoes because of reviews. One anonymous note from my students years ago says I ruined my good fashion sense when I added my rubber slippers and shoes, which seem to be my skin tone and made it appear I was walking barefoot. First, I wear this because of the rainy season. Second, because I did not have a car then, the rubber slippers made it easy to use my Legge dis Benz ( trek)if I could not find a campus shuttle or cab, and my egbon, Jade, and other people were busy. So, what did I do in response to the review? I put at least two fancy shoes in my office for class.

One reviewer said the best part of my class was when I cracked jokes and lightened the class with celebrity gist. So when I teach on organ trafficking, please, which joke do I want to crack? Specific topics are not amenable to jokes, but still, part of planning for my class rhythm is thinking of funny events in the news that would not be offensive. My former BFF used to chide me that I indulged students too much that they came to learn not a night of a thousand laughs, but I also worried about the rate of students dropping out of school. I tried to play my little role in ensuring students stayed in school and graduated. I began to take this seriously more as I met more adults in Nigeria who said they dropped out of school because everything was too "serious" ( that academics have no joy).

I say all that to say we need to consider review differently. Even when reviews are malicious, you have to find a way to state what is undermined about you or your product without resulting in force and abuse of power. It is not easy, but when you trade in public goods, you have to work extra hard not to be seen as an exacting force.

One time, some students told the Director of the Academic Planning Unit (DAPU) headed by Prof. Daramola, one person I consider one of the best who has held that office at my former workplace then, that I used to come to class 30 minutes early so I could catch latecomers. So, DAPU invited me to ask why I went to class 30 minutes early. He was serious at the beginning of our meeting, which gave me a slight concern about why he couldn't see the ridiculousness of it. I explained my policy, and he said it was okay. My rule then was that you didn't come in once I was in class( if you know the labor I put into class prep, you will understand some of the many reasons for this rule. one of which was I set the tone for the class the first 10-15 minutes if you came later and start looking confused or distracting your peer to see their notes to catch up you disrupt my class.) If the class is exactly 8 am and you come at 8:01, you will not be allowed to enter. However, to avoid issues after my meeting with DAPU, I get somewhere around the class venue, sit in another class, and ask the class rep to call me at 8 am.

I am sick of the comments of several people who should know more about customer rights and relations. I hope that the tomato company knows when the international women's rights groups pick it up; the Nigerian national Cabal or whatever he believes in cannot save him. More so, his remark about the children's prison section would not be forgiven. People supporting the company and the high-handedness of alleged state agents involved in it should be ashamed of their education.

One thing that seems obvious from this tomato company issue is that we need national therapy. We have internalized abuse until it is now our default setting. Generally, I seldom return things to stores since coming to America, but when I do, I always feel uneasy because of where I come from. One store was so apologetic that I thought what I bought from them made me sick (nauseous) that I felt bad for even bringing it up, given how remorseful they were. My former chair, with whom I share the love of tennis/sports shoes, may have wondered why I was always "cautious" around him. How do I tell him that it was because of where I was coming from? The "fear of HOD is the beginning of wisdom from trouble." Eventually, we got past it, and Prof Vlad Dima was that chair that gave me a new admiration and respect for the Heads of Departments.

But wetin I know? Let me go and face my grind.

Posted on Facebook on  March 12, 2024

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