Aisse Tounkara
Professor Hall
10/10/2019
Unit One
Money Please
As a young child I always knew I’d be attending college right after Highschool. With education it will allow me to stay away from a lot of the violence that was going on in my neighborhood. Education allowed me to become very hopeful. One particular moment that I experienced changed my entire view on education forever. I remember it like it was just yesterday. It was junior year and it was time to start looking into colleges. I remember telling my counselor, I would like to attend St John’s University. She looked at me and stated “that school is expensive your family can’t really afford it”. In my head im like “bitch bye”. Why are you telling me this. But deep down I wondered hmmmm why is that. As a counselor, it’s your job not to discourage me, and keep me on the right path. Here I am having hope that my future would be so bright but I have someone who was supposed to be guiding me help me look for schools and encourage me to keep going in life say “your family can’t really afford that. No matter what that shouldn’t stand in the way of your education.
Financial barriers are a big issue when it comes to college. Often people get into these really good schools and when the time comes they never end up going because of financial situations standing in their way. That’s a huge issue. A couple months ago I was honored to be apart of Michelle Obama’s Reach Higher Initiative program. Out of 200 students only 10 highschool seniors were selected to be apart of this Conference at Howard University in Washington D.C. This conference was mainly for first generation college students and all the obstacles it took us to get to the place we’re at now. At the program in Washington D.C I met other amazing college graduates, and an author named Wes Moore. Wes Moore was telling us his story on education and what education meant to him. It taught me to never give up, to keep beating the odds, and strive against everything. One thing in particular that stuck with me was when Mrs Obama was a highschool student, her counselor said to her, “Your reaching too high, You should look into other schools because you are not Princeton material”. From there on forward she knew she could do anything she wanted to achieve despite what people would say. Being apart of this reach higher summit changed my life for the better. I would’ve never expected going to Washington D.C and meeting with the First Lady who paved the way for people with education, especially for minorities. She was just like me when she was my age but did not stop her. After this talk with Michelle Obama I realized I have more potential and said to myself ‘I can apply to St Johns for a transfer admission, get a scholarship, and do whatever it is that allows me to succeed.
As you maneuver on in life people will always try to discourage you with their negative comments. They will always put their fears onto you. But you have to rise above that and not let no counselor stand in your way, no financial barriers, not anybody. If you allow people to project their fears onto you, you won’t live. I’ve had jobs throughout highschool that didn’t mean very much but I said to myself “education is going to be essential for my success, my future, and the people who love me. I can’t go the rest of my life living paycheck to paycheck. So that allowed me to put my education first before anything. As the years went by, I realized that education was important to me and that it always will be. I’ve struggled a lot and I’ve seen the struggle right in front of me. I did not allow that moment with my counselor define who I was, who I am, or who I will become. I knew I would redefine success by pursuing higher education. Attending law school was something I knew I’d be interested in pursuing as I was young.
Even as a youngin I did college programs, started networking with people, enrolled in internships, and did everything possible to be successful in life. I also remember entering City Tech the first day of July to discuss my financial aid. The lady at the financial aid desk would send me back every day for a whole month. “Your missing this, your missing that”. This kept going on until the second week of the fall semester. She said to me “If your financial aid is not processed you will be forced to drop your classes, or pay out of pocket for your tuition”. I reached a breaking point because I was so overwhelmed. I had to endure so much just because I wanted to pursue higher education. I managed to save enough money for textbooks, and transportation fees until my financial aid was processed. In highschool I learned that financial barriers were a major problem in why most of the people in my community never reached college, or had no other choice but to drop out of college. I Aisse Tounkara was never going to let financial situation get in the way of what’s dearest to me. I’m sending a message for people to understand that financial barriers are a major problem when it comes to pursuing higher education. Financial barriers suck. It should be addressed more often. It makes you not want to attend college because it’s a lot to deal with. But you have to have patience. Now imagine a young girl from the Bronx who did not let financial situations stop her from dreaming, and achieving.
Aisse Tounkara
11/08/2019
Professor Hall
Unit Two
When Is This Going To Stop
Everytime you turn on your TV you see something on the news with involving police officer who shot and killed a African American because they felt threatened by their presence, or they felt like they were a threat to someone else. Over the years Policing has evolved but the same ideas remain. Police still treat black communities different from the white communities when it comes to a lot of different aspects. How do Preconceived notions of African Americans lead towards Police Brutality ?
In this first article “ Policing in black and white neighborhoods” written by the American Psychological Association it talks a lot about implicit bias and how that leads to preconceived notions. Implicit bias is when we have attitudes towards certain groups of people or associate stereotypes with them without conscious knowledge. A lot of Police Officers have implicit bias. Police officers are often told to police differently in these low income neighborhoods compared to the other neighborhoods. It states what Police Officers see when they encounter an African American person and vice versa. It’s crazy that this is the norm because this leads to terrible encounters which always ends up deadly. Police officers just see race and bam they already have these ideas. Over the past years we have seen a vast majority of African Americans unarmed men mostly, and women lose their lives in the hands of police. “When the time comes for justice to be served the excuse is always they felt threatened “ and this article says that an officer is more likely to shoot an unarmed black person first rather a white man who is armed. This has to due with the fact that a black person will always be seen as a threat. This is because the media and society portrays black males as threatening, and dangerous.
These preconceived notions never end well. It states “ These serious judgements often manifest themselves into even worse scenarios”. Implicit bias can have detrimental factors. What this is saying is that it’s never going to be a positive interaction. When the researcher Kirsten Weir at the American Psychological Association asked Hillary Clinton “If Police were implicitly biased against black people” she herself knew that this was true and a problem. Her response was like the people in high power response trying to beat around the question of why. I learned the effects of implicit bias in the police and the extent that it leads too. This was a very useful article. Why ? because people who can shed light on this knows exactly what’s happening and why implicit bias in police is very terrible.
In this video “Confronting Implicit Bias” it talks about how police officers rely on stereotypes instead of things that African American men actually do. Social Psychologist Dr. Jennifer Eberhardt states “elected leaders and chiefs of police have increasingly focused on implicit bias, inherently unintentional yet more pervasive. Biases – especially racial ones – influence how people frame and interpret those around them, and they can exist despite people’s best intentions. In policing, the consequences of such biases can be dire. ” This video is addressing that an issue is there and that implicit bias in police leads to terrible outcomes. Implicit bias is a problem pretty much. If I’m a police officer and see a black person i’m going to automatically assume that they are a criminal and have these preconceived notions. That is the bias in them.
The Government officials know that implicit bias is a problem so the fact that they care enough to do something about it says a lot. This article says that a lot of Police Officers have implicit bias and they don’t even know that they do. They are taking necessary trainings to decrease the number of police killings in African Americans when it comes to this implicit bias idea. That’s what I learned a lot about in this research. While reading and analyzing the source I learned that systematic racism and implicit bias goes hand and hand. According to this article it states police departments are eager for solutions that will reduce racial disparities. “Police chiefs know what the stakes are,” he says. Policymakers, too, are keen to take action. In October, for instance, the New Jersey attorney general issued a directive requiring mandatory classes in racial bias for police officers in the state. Psychologists, meanwhile, have the skills to understand discrimination and point to evidence-based solutions. “This is an area that’s worth a lot of investment in research, and important for psychologists to think about,” Glaser says. This shows that the necessary actions are being done to decrease the number of killings because they know that implicit bias exists. The mayor is requiring that mandatory implicit bias training classes be taken.
In the blog “Race and the Police” written by the National Police Foundation it talks about other factors besides implicit bias that’s also a problem when it comes to Police Brutality. This source is a source that many people use when it comes to their research. People have relied on the National Police Foundation to get conclude research when it comes to policing, implicit bias, and etc. Clarence Edwards a former police officer who worked with the police force for many years states “Race continues to influence how people of African American descendants are treated by law enforcement.” according to the article. They are treated very unfairly by members of law enforcement. ( Race and the Police National Police Foundation) So a police officer is more likely to pull the trigger on an African American compared to a Non African American for the same crime”. This is because race will over power everything and implicit bias towards one would cloud that judgement. I feel as if race has gotten in the way of everything, and when a person only sees race it’s hard for them to see anything positive. Hence police officers and African American men.
I learned from this genre that race was another major issue when it came to Police Brutality. The whole idea behind preconceived notions and police is racism. If a police officer sees race before the law than the outcome of that is not going to be great. This source is a very reliable source and thorough research was done because it provided me with a lot of facts and research that the police foundation has done.
Structural racism is also another factor of Police Brutality. Structural racism is a system of racism in which cultural representations, and other norms work in various ways to perpetuate racial groups. This article does a good job explaining that. When a study was concluded by a group of researchers at the Boston University School of Public Health, they found that a lot of interesting stuff. According to the text “How Structural Racism is Linked to Higher Rates of Police Violence” a research was ran and data based was looked at from the Mapping Police Database. “They found that structural racism does positively correlate”. “They found that structural racism does positively correlate with higher levels of police killings of African Americans”. Research has been done in other states based on this information and it turns out to be true. A connection can be made between how structural racism and implicit bias leads to police brutality. From this source I learned that racism implicit bias is not just a main factor in police shootings with blacks it’s also state policies. That’s very interesting because I would’ve never known had I not done this research.
Overall, in this research I learned what implicit bias is, and what are the different kinds of causes of action that leads towards police brutality when dealing with African Americans. What I found interesting is that police officers police different in certain neighborhoods, and how implicit bias training will make a change for the better. We all have an implicit bias, even though we may not think that we do. Our biases makes us act a certain way and has an impact on our behavior. The questions that I have when it comes to this research is whether the implicit bias in police officers towards African Americans is going to change, or if it’s still going to remain the same. We have seen many case laws where implicit bias played a role in the killing of many unarmed African Americans. As society is evolving it should only be right for change to start happening. That change starts with more implicit bias training.
Bretón, Marcos. “’Implicit Bias’ Replaces the ‘R’ Word. This Is How We Explain Cops Killing Black Men.” Sacbee, The Sacramento Bee, 8 Apr. 2018, www.sacbee.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/marcos-breton/article208230624.html
.Baker, Al. “Confronting Implicit Bias in the New York Police Department.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 15 July 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/07/15/nyregion/bias-training-police.html.
Weir Kirsten “Policing in Black and White Neighborhoods” American Psychological Association, 10 December 2016 cover-policing
Edwards Clarence “Race and the Police” National Police Foundation race-and-the-police
Jennifer Eberhardt “Confronting Implicit Bias” https://www.youtube.com
Aisse Tounkara`
TED TALK Speech
Unit 3
Implicit Bias towards African Americans in our Police What is It, What can we do to change it ?
Do you know how many people like you are killed by police every year ? Do you know that officers have an implicit bias towards you as soon as you blink their way ?. OK. Ladies and Gentleman you may be wondering why your sitting here today when you could be somewhere else but I’m here to tell you why. Hello Everyone. My Name is Aisse Tounkara, and I am here today to talk to you about something very important as well as to teach you something. Hopefully by the end of today your mindset will change, and you will learn a few things that you never knew about yourself. Todays TED TALK will be on implicit bias in the police. So let’s do a quick exercise here before I go deep into my speech. I’m going to say a few words and you guys will have to reflect on the association you make with those words and what you believe the broader society like police makes with those words. Criminals (PAUSE) Low Income Neighborhoods, (PAUSE) Jail (PAUSE).
Now let me tell you what implicit bias is. Implicit bias is the conscious attribution of particular qualities to a member of a certain social group, or a group of people. We all have an implicit bias in our own ways. Implicit biases are triggered through rapid and automatic mental associations that we as humans make between people, ideas, objects, and the attitudes and stereotypes that we hold about those people, ideas, and objects.
Implicit bias in police is something that is a major problem in today’s society. This is because most likely every police officer that you encounter has an implicit bias of some sort. It just happens. Over the years policing has evolved but the same ideas remain. Police officers have a very strong implicit bias towards African Americans. They make pre-judgements based on preconceived notions of African Americans and then the worst happens. I concluded a research and became an expert on implicit bias. In my research I found that Police officers are often told to police differently in these low income neighborhoods compared to the other neighborhoods. You can walk into a predominantly white neighborhood and see for yourself how the police are in that neighborhood and come into an African American neighborhood and see the difference. This is because the norm that has been created is that African Americans are criminals, and are dangerous. It’s crazy how the police mantra is “protect and serve” but when implicit bias is put into place it contradicts the whole idea. Studies have shown that “the tendency for police to shoot an unarmed African American suspects more than white ones is at 85%. It’s not just shootings it also stop and frisks, and consistent arrests that are made. Would you just take a look at that number. 85% That’s a very large number especially when African Americans only make up 13% of the population. Now look here, let’s take a look at Eric Garner, an African American male who was a victim of police officers implicit bias. On July 14th, 2014 Eric Garner died in an apparent chokehold after police officer Daniel Pantaleo slammed him on the ground in an attempt to arrest him. At that time they thought he was selling loose cigarettes at the time when he wasn’t. It raised concerns after his death leading to the citizens saying that his death was a form of an officers implicit bias towards him. Had that been someone else of Non African-American descent the approach would have been done very differently but since Garner was African American this ended the way that it did. Another example is when Ferguson Missouri, grand jury declined to indict a police officer who shot and killed Michael Brown despite evidence proving that he was innocent and that the police officers implicit bias led to his death. The officer led his implicit bias to cloud his judgement and get in the way of proper conduct. This event meant so much to people because it struck a nerve throughout the country. People were angry, aggravated, and were sick of it. This is a continuing cycle. Almost every African American that has been a victim of police violence was a victim because of police implicit bias. You get the big picture here right ?
Now let’s get into the bigger picture here. We talked about implicit bias, and how we all have an implicit bias of some kind. Police officers are now taking implicit bias training. Implicit bias training is when training programs are designed to expose people to their unconscious biases, provide the tools to get them to adjust patterns of thinking, and is aimed forward to eliminate discriminating behavior. This is what we call confronting implicit bias. In my research I found out that the New Jersey attorney general issued a directive requiring mandatory classes in racial bias for police officers in the state. The mayor is requiring that mandatory implicit bias training classes be taken. This implicit bias training is going to teach officers not to associate stereotypes and characteristics with racial groups, more directed towards Americans. You know what this is saying ? This is saying that they see the amount of harm being done in the African American communities to step up and take action. Implicit bias trainings are very beneficial nowadays because we have seen a significant decrease in police approach when it comes to African Americans, and how every encounter turns out. Approach meaning how the situations end up turning out. The implicit bias training tells police what their biases are and to be conscious about it. This ladies and gentleman is implicit bias training for you.
Aisse Tounkara
Professor Hall
11/21/2019
Genre How To (How To Make a Ted Talk)
For my Genre i’m choosing to do a TED Talk video. I feel like TED TALK Videos are very useful especially when it comes to this topic. Police Brutality and implicit bias. To make a TED Talk I would need to find an idea that I would like to discuss. I already have an idea on what I’ll be discussing with everyone. I would then need a great starting point to keep everyone engaged. When doing this TED Talk I need to be specific one specific topic. Implicit bias has to do with a lot of things. I don’t want to have my audience confused. Also in order to even do a TED Talk you have to have confidence. That plays a major role. Your speaking out into the audience and that’s very important.Speaking into the audience isn’t easy because you may get nervous, start shaking and other things. You have to make your TED Talk videos very interesting and not boring. If the audience is bored they are going to tune out everything that you are saying. You have to always have their undivided attention. It would be a waste of time to go up and make a speech but not anyone learned a single thing or understood the point you were trying to get across. People often do TED Talks to get their point across and to educate us on things we may have very little knowledge on. I’m not a shy person so this TED Talk will go pretty smooth for me overall. Basically TED Talk is public speaking but with an idea in mind. That idea is what you will use to guide you throughout everything. You may also want to see if your audience is engaged by asking questions.
Aisse Tounkara
Difficulty Paper
10/12/2019
Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence was a document written by Thomas Jefferson and our founding fathers on July 4th 1776. Pushing for Independence wasn’t easy but they found a way to do so.Sometimes reading a text may be complex. Especially when there is something that you don’t understand or are knowledgeable on. In the first draft of the Declaration of Independence it states “He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly and continually for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people. I don’t understand what Thomas Jefferson necessarily means by that when he adds that to the Declaration. It is very mysterious and unfamiliar to me. He’s talking about the rights of people but he himself had over 200+ slaves. So when you say right of people what are you specifically referring too by that. The Declaration of Independence starts of with details of Great Britain and etc. In the first draft of the Declaration slavery is described in a formal way but as you get to the final version it is no longer there anymore.
Great Britain have caused a lot of damage. What slows me down is the fact that the Declaration of Independence was designed to get slaves free but to also get their independence from Great Britain. It also states “ He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt out towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. This is something that I understand because when it comes to war, this is what usually occurs. The founding fathers did a lot of work when it came down to the nation.
Aisse Tounkara
Professor Carrie Hall
08/27/2019
Homework
“Mother Tongue” Response
Coming from an immigrant household with parents who barely spoke english I can relate to the situation the author is describing. Amy Tan’s experience relates to mine in a way considering the fact that my mother and father both did not speak clear english or should I say limited english. When Tan states in her story “ I was ashamed of her english” “the fact that people in the department stores, at banks, and at restaurants did not take her seriously, did not give her good service, pretended not to understand her, or even acted as if they did not hear her” says a lot about how speaking proper english can get you treated. When I was 7 years old, my mother and I went to the post office to pick up a package. As we were waiting on line it was our turn to receive service. The lady asked my mother “What are you here for” In her broken english she stated “Mi package e leff hea” the lady looked at my mother in disgust and stated “ Speak proper english and maybe I can understand you” I was so embarrassed because I knew my mother’s english was very limited. That does not give you any right to embarrass and degrade her. Other people may not have understood but I understood because she raised me. On numerous occasions when my mom would call the bank, insurance companies, or teachers I would have to take over on the phone and speak. I knew they would have a hard time understanding her.
When I spoke to my mother in English it was the broken english that she would understand as opposed to speaking with lawyers, and people in the professional world. Pretty much like what Tan was referring to in her story. To sum it up language is important because we use it everyday wherever we go.
Aisse Tounkara
Final Portfolio Reflection
12/17/2019
Who I am as a writer and what have I learned ?
Oh Boy. I have come a long way this semester. I can honestly say my writing has improved tremendously. I learned new things about myself and I stepped out of my comfort zone. I learned about a new genre of writing, and wrote a new genre of writing. Something I have never done in high school. I learned the different genres that include declarations, speeches, short stories, TED TALKS, and etc. With this new genre I struggled a lot, but I managed to push through it and received feedback that helped me with my unit 3, and feedback from my Professor on what I am doing well. I learned how to write a research paper with concluding research, and a whole process behind that research. I learned that revision’s are very important because they help you become a better writer. My favorite writing was unit one when we wrote about our view on education. It really allowed me to express myself in my writing. I learned the difference between high school writing and college writing. The things I learned will be beneficial to me in the future. As writers there is always improvement. One major thing that I also learned were commas, semi-colons, apostrophes, and other writing grammar.
As a writer I learned that the English language is complex, and the variety of writings. This semester has taught me how to use different genres that I’ve never done before. For example in Unit Two I use all of the same genres for my research project, and I was supposed to mix it up. Not just articles and articles. But articles and videos, and blogspot, etc. For example in the implicit bias training curiosity report I used all articles, and did not use any other genre. So when I revised it I changed it up and added a video. For unit two the revision that I made was “In this video “Confronting Implicit Bias” it talks about how police officers rely on stereotypes instead of things that African American men actually do. Social Psychologist Dr. Jennifer Eberhardt states “elected leaders and chiefs of police have increasingly focused on implicit bias, inherently unintentional yet more pervasive. Biases – especially racial ones – influence how people frame and interpret those around them, and they can exist despite people’s best intentions. In policing, the consequences of such biases can be dire. ” This video is addressing that an issue is there and that implicit bias in police leads to terrible outcomes. Implicit bias is a problem pretty much. If I’m a police officer and see a black person i’m going to automatically assume that they are a criminal and have these preconceived notions. That is the bias in them.” Before I made that revision I realized that I had a lot more potential and was using just articles and not looking into other genres. Looking at other genres helped a lot because you can see things from a different point of view.
In the genre for unit 3 I learned that a ted talk is also another great genre to get your point across. One great thing in this genre is that when I wrote the speech I felt a connection with the audience. For example when I stated in my speech, “ Do you know how many people like you are killed by police every year ? Do you know that officers have an implicit bias towards you as soon as you blink their way ?. I’m going to say a few words and you guys will have to reflect on the association you make with those words and what you believe the broader society like police makes with those words. Criminals (PAUSE) Low Income Neighborhoods, (PAUSE) Jail (PAUSE). That last sentence was a strong connection. When I was talking I had them think and they could make assumptions on what the police and implicit bias have in common. This ted talk and my topic goes hand in hand. The tone of the ted talk made it very interesting and was a great way to reach my audience. Another thing I learned was how to use the TEA idea. Topic, evidence, and analysis. Overall adapting to different genres wasn’t so bad afterall. As you write more and more you start to like writing in different genres. My development of writing has improved drastically. I’ve honestly became a better writer. This is going to prepare me for more and intense writing as I go on in my college writing.
I revised unit two and three. I added a new genre which was a video and got rid of the article, and for unit 3 although I got an A, I added some stuff and took out the unimportant information.
It was a pleasure having you as a teacher. I learned a lot from you, and I can use this in my future
