Final Portfolio

Unit 1 Revision:
On the Unit 1 revision, I basically used the comments given by you on what I need to fix and improve on. I removed the whole rant about regents towards the end and fixed a bit of error in the beginning as well. I’ve added a few more details as to when I was NOT cared about and such. I included some type of detail in regards to online friends and their influence.

Unit 1:
It’s not a surprise that the American education system is completely disconnected from its student and reformation is needed. Lessening the stress applied to the students and making them feel more comfortable with being there would drastically reform this. Growing up as an introverted kid, I always resorted to having a life online and having a majority of my friends there, at the time. Being exposed to social media and having the capability to view almost anything, I was overwhelmingly exposed to opinions about resenting the education system and how poor it is. Mockery of teachers, the logic behind stories on the SATs, etc. Being so exposed to these opinionated ideas, it made me also conform to these opinions. I started to care less about school because I completely agreed with how everyone else online thought. The only way I broke free from this conformity is by having a personal connection with a teacher I had that made me move forward and made me feel like someone actually cared about me in school. Most of my friends being online just worsened it as I conformed to how they felt, rather than focus on how I feel towards education myself.
My resentment towards school made me completely give up on even going and focusing on my future. I felt as if school never mattered and I didn’t need school to go far in life, but I was completely wrong. Of course, I had external factors, like my parents, that cared about me going and made me want to focus on my education, but I kept rebelling. I lacked the motivation I needed to move forward and my mentality was that if no one cared, why should I? Sometimes I’d even try my hardest and if it wasn’t good enough, I’d be belittled by my parents at times and told to try harder and do better. I constantly look back to how I was in high school and compare it to how I am currently and realize I was stressing myself out for nothing. I always thought high school would be extremely hard and I applied all that stress towards myself with never showing up or bothering to do any work. It’s definitely self-inflicted but I felt as if I was given up on. Due to me rebellious nature, slowly my parents gave up on me and didn’t know when I get back to my senses. I stressed myself about my grades and how was I going to graduate, but again, it was all self-inflicted. As much as I wanted to pull a one-eighty and put myself on the right path, I kept failing to, as I said before, I lacked the motivation I needed to push on. I always dreamed about going to John Jay and entering the NYPD, but decimating my GPA by my actions during freshman year of high school, I knew that dream was long gone. I never agreed with the testing, either. Surely the point of testing is to test your intelligence but I could be more educated in one area rather than another and failing would make me feel insulted and stupid. I know my intelligence isn’t low and testing would make me freeze up completely.
I pushed myself towards heading to college and graduating with the class of 2019 by having a personal connection with a teacher that made me want to succeed. My previous global history teacher, Ms. Aluzzo, made me happy to show up to class and learn the material. The way she taught the material also made me intrigued to hear more about it. I never found any of her work boring nor did it make me want to not show up. Her, alone, set me on the right path as she knew my struggle with my absences in other classes and my lack of care for school. Aluzzo motivated me to move forward and not give up so easily. The care she provided for me was enough to make me want to go to college and actually become somebody. Before having a class with her, I’ve met her once by being kicked out of my freshman class and into her sophomore class due to bad behavior. After making her laugh and basically establishing some sort of relationship with her, it made me excited to have her as a teacher for my years to come, but around that time I still didn’t care about school. The whole social studies department of teachers always made me feel comfortable and cared for as history and politics have always been my forte. I’d say I had my turn around during my junior year of high school where I met even more history teachers that made me excited to show up and learn the material. As much as I hated the topic in my other classes, it didn’t matter to me. My history classes were enough to make me want to push through the school day. Having a friendly relationship with just one teacher was enough to make me want to push forward, but having multiple for my school years to come made it so much more tolerable. I finally realized the error of my ways and actually started to show up and finalize my education. My opinion of resenting school and most material taught hasn’t changed, and it still hasn’t. However, I don’t mind actually going and learning and doing what I have to do. Going to college gives me more of a choice of what I want to do rather than being forced on doing what I have to do and having that freedom makes me tolerate college extremely more.
The way I acted in high school I wouldn’t even dare to attempt in college as it’s actually not free anymore. Amaya, a classmate of mine in my law class and English class, once showed up sick. The professor gave her recommendation of staying home but Amaya’s mother justified her going to college by saying, “it ain’t free no more so you’re gonna go.” The environment of college and my classes are way more inviting in comparison to my high school. The environment justified my resentment formed by social media. Fake people, careless teachers, and so on. Some tests I’d take in my high school were given by instructors didn’t care enoguh where other students were openly cheating off of other people by copying their work and even the instructor didn’t care and even said to not make it obvious! Now look, I ain’t gonna lie to you, I did the same exact thing and cheated off of somebody else and even formed a little group to talk about questions, but it’s ridiculous that tests was taken not serious whatsoever when teachers would make it seem like it’s the hardest test ever.

Unit 2 Revision:
On the Unit 2 Revision, I didn’t actually change much but some very little details and such. I mainly dabbled within my first source rather than any other as I had the most trouble with my first source. I hope that would clear the air a bit. I explained more about the FEC and its mission.

Unit 2:
My Research Question: How do we Introduce a Third Party to American Politics?
American politics is dominated by a two-party system which is beginning to lose popularity, maybe it’s about time we introduce a third party? Republicans and the Democrats have always had a long-lasting feud and sometimes rarely being bipartisan on policies. Americans need a third party to get behind when they disagree with both parties and have comfort in running to one that would have a significant voice in the government.

Source 1: The Federal Election Commission: Qualifying as a Political Party
To qualify as a political party, it all comes down to how the state governs ballot access. According to the Federal Election Commission, it all differs from federal and state representation as you have to gain political party status after meeting state criteria. “While the laws differ from state to state, they generally all require a nonmajor party to demonstrate sufficient voter support—such as by filing a petition for party recognition signed by a representative number of voters—in order to qualify for ballot access in the general election.” Claiming you’re a political party without a sufficient amount of supporters is inaccurate and improper. The Federal Election Commission is an independent government agency whose purpose is to enforce campaign finance law in United States federal elections. The FEC was created during 1975 by Congress and it has jurisdiction over the United States. The current commissioner for the FEC is Ellen L. Weintraub whose affiliation is with the Democratic Party. However, the chair for the FEC is pretty divided as some seated members are Independent or even Republican.
The FEC is pretty important and cannot be affiliated with any party within the government and its main mission to primarily investigate finance abuse by setting limits. The FEC was created by the United States Congress in April of 1975 primarily to disclose campaign finance information, to enforce the provisions of the law such as the limits and prohibitions on contributions, and to oversee the public funding of presidential elections. You’re required to register your political party with the FEC, “when they raise or spend money over certain thresholds in connection with a federal election.” The FEC tells me what’s required for an organization to even claim political party status within a state and the criteria they specifically have to meet. This sets standards and boundaries so gaining status wouldn’t be abused or thrown away. If a committee can demonstrate they’re capable of gaining national status, the FEC will decide if they gained enough activity to even gain status. If a state wants to only participate in states and/or local elections, they’re not legally bound to register with the FEC, however, state laws will still determine if they meet the criteria to even show up on the ballot as a choice. Not showing up on a ballot will prevent any recognition or voters, a third party would get.

Source 2: Wikipedia’s list of Third Parties
Third parties already exist within the United States, but they’re so poorly represented and can’t even rack up electoral votes. Wikipedia can provide information on every third party that’s currently active, inactive, or even state-only parties that only stick with state and/or elections, like the “Rent is Too Damn High Party” which is based in New York City and wouldn’t qualify for federal elections. Wikipedia provides up-to-date information on specific topics and maintains a neutral standpoint as its purpose is to provide facts, not biassed opinions. Biographies, descriptions, questions answered, etc. Wikipedia is owned by Wikimedia Foundation, which was founded by Jimmy Wales, an internet entrepreneur, and Larry Sanger, an online community organizer and philosophy professor, in 2001. Jimmy Wales is pretty left-leaning as he signed an open letter to American voters, along with eleven business leaders, to not vote for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election. Larry Sanger’s party affiliation is unknown, however, Wikipedia is also run by volunteer contributors that assist in correcting information on pages.
Some may refute Wikipedia as a valid source and say some information is made up, but not just anyone can change the information on a page, it has to be verified. Wikipedia’s mission is to spread knowledge and help people with educating. The list provided by Wikipedia to show the number of third parties in the United States and what they are do not include independents as they’re just centrists with either left or right-leaning. The source also provides the presidential votes they acquired in the 2016 election along with any state legislators that won an election. The only parties that have a significant amount of registrations, which are people who registered their support for their respective parties, are the Libertarian, Green, and Constitution Party. The Libertarian Party exceeds 500,000 registered voters, the Green party has around 250,000 registered voters, and the Constitution Party has nearly 100,000 registered voters, these three parties are the only third parties that have the highest amount of registered voters.

Source 3: Poll conducted by Reinhart of Gallup News
We need a third major political party and Americans to want one. The two major parties currently dominating American politics consist of the Republicans and the Democrats. Gallup News, a pretty fair unbiased news organization, provided a poll displaying the support for a major third political party amongst Americans. “A majority of Americans, 57%, say there is a need for a third, major political party, while 38% of Americans believe the current two-party system does an adequate job of representing the people. These views have been consistent since 2013.” The percentage has been significantly higher than 50% for the past years the poll has been conducted throughout. Gallup began conducting this poll around 2003 which was reversed and the public supported the idea that the two-party system is sufficient enough for American politics. RJ Reinhart, the person who wrote the article and conducted the poll, is an analyst, writer, and editor for Gallup and Gallup’s Higher Education and Government Divisions. Reinhart is in opposition with Trump, in regards to his tweets/retweets of key critics of Trump. Reinhart is biased with his politics, which lean left, however, this doesn’t affect the integrity of the poll.
A want for a third party isn’t determined by your political party affiliation, but what you seek in a third party. “Independents are, not surprisingly, the political partisan group most supportive of a third party. Seventy-two percent of political independents support a third major political party. Independents have consistently been the most supportive of a third party.” The poll conducted by Gallup occurs every 3 years and ever since the poll in 2012, support for a major third political party maintained a fluctuation of 50-60%. A third major political party would allow for more room of debate and representatives from each local election engaging in the republic.

Source 4: Interview conducted by NBC Correspondent Simone Boyce
An interview conducted by NBC news that interviews a Libertarian candidate running for governor in the state of New York provides reasoning as to why third parties ultimately cannot win. NBC news maintains a predominant liberal standpoint, especially with one of their anchors, Rachel Maddow. The interviewer who interviewed Larry Sharpe, the Libertarian candidate, is Simone Boyce, who’s left-leaning according to her tweets which oppose Trump but show support for Democratic presidential candidates, like Andrew Yang. However, her bias is hard to unveil as she maintains composure and doesn’t leak out her bias so easily. Boyce conducts the interview pretty professionally and even provides context outside the interview as to why third parties fail. Sharpe even explains his acknowledgment of possibly failing or not winning the governorship, but is not willing to give up so easily and is optimistic about it. A candidate that visits towns other big candidates for the two major parties wouldn’t visit, going live on social media plenty of times, and interacting with the public is a good way to gain recognition and support.
Sharpe stands for legalizing marijuana and wants to maintain rights to gun owners, which appeases both left and right wings. Not to get confused as an Independent, but a Libertarian exercises ultimate freedom to their rights and refuses to have a government tell them what they do. However, not complete anarchy, unless you’re far there in the political compass, but don’t want a limit of their rights. Sharpe acknowledges that if people see you’re neither Democrat or Republican, you shouldn’t even be looked at. Sharpe calls politics a rich man game, and he is not wrong, you only lead in polls if your political establishment backs you or if you’re wealthy. The biggest barrier he claims is the system itself as it’s mainly a two-party government. Money could be the biggest problem but refuted by Donald Green, who’s a political science professor at Columbia University, claims it’s the actual government system that gives no benefits to parties in second or third place. The interviewer sums it up by introducing Duverger’s Law which if you award one office, you have two parties vying for that aforementioned office, this shows me that keeping a party stable and being involved in the government is very competitive and risky business when wanting to be apart of it.

What I Learned:
Third parties are poorly represented and lack the capability of gaining significant strides in local to federal elections, however, such stride can be made. Being more exposed to third parties and what criteria they need to meet to even show on a ballot requires so much patience, effort, and funding. Living in a two-party system, where Republicans and Democrats are what dominant the government, proves difficult for a third party. I align with the Constitution party and believe we do need a third major political party as I don’t agree with the GOP as I feel abandoned, and I don’t align with the Democratic party in any way. I still want to know why third parties are so poorly represented and why Republicans, Democrats dominate the political system for over a century while there have been third party strides in the past.

Bibliography

Federal Election Commission: Qualifying as a Political Party
https://www.fec.gov/help-candidates-and-committees/registering-political-party/qualifying-political-party/
Wikipedia’s List of American Third Parties
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_parties_in_the_United_States
RJ Reinhart of Gallup News Third-Party Popularity Poll
https://news.gallup.com/poll/244094/majority-say-third-party-needed.aspx
Simone Boyce’s Interview of NYS Libertarian Candidate for Governor
https://www.nbcnews.com/video/why-can-t-third-party-candidates-win-1348512835713

Homework assignments that improved me as a writer:

1. The Declaration of Independence Difficulty Paper
The Declaration of Independence is an important document in the United State’s history on July 4th, 1776, paved the way to what the United States would become. A colony to a world superpower, pushing through advancement, world wars, and economic destruction on some accounts. Jefferson and our founding fathers made it clear the obstruction they had to go through that wanted to make them secede as a colony under Britain’s grasp of being their own country. Pushing for independence has been a struggle for the colony and going through the most powerful army in the world at the time, it wouldn’t be possible for a bunch of fishermen to prevail, but hope was faith was on their side. King George III was the main reason a push for independence occurred as his iron fist didn’t sit right with the colony. “He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary for the public good”, “He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures”, “He has kept among us in times of peace standing armies and ships of war without the consent of our legislatures” (Jefferson, 1). There are many more reasons as to why the colony decided to break free but the main reason was the incapability of having any representation. King George III ruled the colony without any morals on how the citizens could react and how it would affect them. The king decided what would happen and didn’t have any care for what the legislators thought and this ultimately led to the downfall of his kingdom.

2. What I Learned Rereading First Draft of the Declaration of Independence
After sitting down and rereading the first draft of the DoI, it opened my eyes to a few things I was previously confused about. What I learned that seemed most important to me, however, was that the colony actually warned the British, specifically King George III, about constant pressure. George oppressing the colony by taxation and lack of representation led the colony itself to warn that if it were to continue, they’d break free from British hold. Now, I never knew that the colony actually warned the British about how they were treating them. I always thought it was just a massive self-destruction that occurred without much warning. I still find it so confusing as to why King George III would oppress the colony after the colony is his own people and they were part of the British Kingdom. Why would a King not work with a colony, but oppress it after countless warnings of independence? I’d understand if a nation was a puppet under British rule and was tormented with oppression, but this is merely just a colony, they should be cooperating with one another, but instead, a war broke out. Was King George actually that oppressive towards the colony as well, was he stupid enough to pull himself into a war, and how did they even manage to lose? Britain at the time was considered a superpower and had the best navy in the world and what I can’t get is how they actually lost to their own colony. Failure to supply your army is one thing, but what else was a leading cause of losing? Perhaps the attrition applied by the colonial army was enough for the British to lose with their lack of supplies.

My Final Reflection:

Now, where do I even begin? Although this may not be a big deal to anyone else, but this class being my first English college class drastically affected me as a writer AND reader. I was definitely rejoicing hearing that was absolutely no exams for the semester and writing pieces would instead be graded, I was stoked and I couldn’t wait to get into it. All my previous English classes mainly consisted of tests and essay tests where you’d have to answer questions in regards to a passage or write an essay about a topic you had no interest in, and quite honestly, it resulted in a bad stigma I gained towards English where I resented it. I’d always tell people, “I hate English class but I love to write”. Now, what kind of logic is that? There isn’t any. But after witnessing the huge contrast with the English class I was apart of in my first semester of college and high school English classes.

I’m fully aware other English classes within City Tech would possibly be riddled with exams and such, however, the way Professor Hall taught and gave out assignments, I actually felt attached to the class. I was always interested in what came next and what I’d be able to write about that made my creativity roam wild. The units given by my professor didn’t make me feel limited to anything, besides word limits. This class really made me improve my vocabulary in writing. Neil’s, a classmate of mine, rambling about anything and using such articulate vocabulary, made me improve my speech as well. However, if you read my writing and heard me speak, you’d think a completely different person was writing my pieces.

One report I wrote about the difficulties our founding fathers had upon declaring independence, I feel like I used such strong words, simple but not confusing either. “A colony to a world superpower, pushing through advancement, world wars, and economic destruction on some accounts.” This is in reference to the United States being a minuscule colony for Great Britain back in the 1700s then becoming a world superpower by the early 1900s. Vocabulary has always been my forte and I always seek to improve upon it. Being simple-minded isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but sounding sophisticated and intelligent enough is beneficial for you. Some people may take it as belittling or bullying if someone were to create a discourse using high vocabulary and the other person involved not getting it due to the vocabulary being used. I felt as if this class really improved my usage of vocabulary and my professor guiding me in what words are correct to be used and when.

Other than vocabulary, I wouldn’t say my writing has changed. My grammar was fine the way it was, my spelling is still extravagant, etc. It was a privilege to have Professor Hall as my first English college class, it really made me eager to venture out and proceed with my passion for writing. The advice given is actually quite good and makes me think about how I can actually improve my writing, but it’s something I’ve always had a problem with. This English class made me think more about how to write and what to write rather than worry about exams at the same time. It lets me use my creativity that didn’t feel like it was behind bars or too specific in what I want to write. I didn’t feel like I was writing the exact same thing as someone else and it made me feel good and unique ‘cause it let my creativity roam wild. Professor Hall made my first English class for my first college semester an adventurous one and it really made me feel comfortable with future classes. Although other professors will be entirely different, Hall’s class will definitely make me reminisce about it.

A specific thing I learned in Hall’s class was the genres. I always associated genres primarily with fiction, non-fiction, etc. I never thought I could expand the idea of genres to it being YouTube videos, articles, TV shows, movies, documentaries, etc. I’d like to go more in-depth with this lesson as I can’t wrap my head around what genres could expand into. Other than that, the rest of the class was definitely self-explanatory with the assignments given and how to pass the class. Thank you for making my first semester of college, a great one.

Final Portfolio

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

final prof

Unit 3

Elayne Susana Matos

Professor Hall

English

11/21/2019

How to do it

My genre is writing a magazine article about autism. To be more specific, I will be doing an article for teen vogue. When writing a magazine article you want to catch the reader’s attention. Therefore, you need a good hook! When looking at the articles teen vogue had to offer, I was amazed by the hooks they had. For example, “Camila Cabello Apologized for “Hurtful” Language After She Was Called Out for Racism.”. It made me want to read the article, because the main topic was already exposed in the title. That’s when I realized one of the most important of the formula is a great and shocking hook. As I kept reading the other articles, I saw there was suspense they didn’t tell you what you were looking for right away. They just hit you with details and facts, it feels like forever to get to the point, but it is information that Honestly would be good to know. After noticing the hook and the suspense that comes right after, I immediately compared it to my topic on autism. Including what type of Audience I’m seeking for. Since my topic is not about a celebrity or something trendy, it is in fact something informative. Finding a catchy hook for that will be hard but it isn’t impossible! After finding my hook, I will ease my reader with information that’s not boring and too scientific. I will write it in a way they feel I’m speaking to them directly face to face. I think that is a good tactic to keep the reader engaged in the reading and actually taking something out from it. I do need to be careful with the information I share. Not making it more interesting than what the actual hook will do this. When I get to my main point of the article, I will ask questions to help the reader relate to a person with autism, and see where people with autism are coming from or dealing with on a daily basis. Finally, I will end my article with a little sentimental conclusion. Ending with one fact that they will carry on with them.

Health

Are you being stereotypical when it comes to mental

disorders ?

“These stereotypes happen more often than you think.”

By Elayne Susana Matos

December 3, 2019

Most people just assume things all the time about anything. Imagine something complicated like a mental disorder. Let’s focus on autism, “ people with autism are retards”. This is one of the most common stereotypes I’ve heard followed by, “They don’t feel emotions”. There is always a stereotype for every group of people. It’s wrong, but hey it’s true. Now how would you know if you’re being stereotypical? Well, you would have to know the facts first.

The facts

People with autism have trouble with acknowledging people’s feelings. According to the National Autistic Society, “ Autistic people often have difficulty ‘reading’ other people”. This means that they will know if you’re sad or happy, eventually. It would just take them longer to process that you are feeling the way you do . Not knowing this information when interacting with a person with autism waiting for a quick reaction, might be awkward. It might make you assume things that are not true.

Autism, first and foremost has 4 different spectrums. Yes, there’s 4 different types of autism! According to Autism speaks,”In 2013, the American Psychiatric Association merged four distinct autism diagnoses into one umbrella diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder.” (What is autism?). The different types are autistic disorder, childhood disintegrative disorder, pervasive developmental disorder-not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS) and Asperger syndrome. During my research I read about an autistic child who used typing as a way of communicating. I’ve also seen and read about others with photographic memory. Autistic people can range from solving the quadratic formula in seconds to struggling with just 2+2. They do not fall under one category. They come in many different shapes and sizes just like the majority of the population with no mental disabilities.

Something interesting that most people don’t know about autistic people is that they carry a certain interest with them all the time. What do I mean by this? Okay so, as seen on the netflix show “Atypical” by Robvia Rashid the main character is let’s say obsessed with penguins. The penguins are his main interest. Now how does he carry this interest with him? When in a situation or before a situation happens in his regular life he thinks what would penguins do?When he developed a crush on his therapist. The main character followed the steps penguins make when finding a mate. These interests help them understand and deal with what is going on around them.

After reading these facts, did you find yourself stereotypical to this group of people? Did one of these facts clear up something you had in your head about autistic people? When we read the facts we find the faults in stereotypes. Next time please don’t assume. Look it up online instead of assuming. When interacting with someone with autism please remember these they have feelings too! https://www.autismspeaks.org/what-autism

Unit 2

Elayne Susana Matos

Professor Hall

English

The world as we see it so simple and full of agendas to fulfill. Everyday things we are accustomed to like Asking another how you’re doing or acknowledging that someone is there, that comes so natural to us. Now might that be the case for everyone? The way we function and react since babies have impacted our social lives. A large majority of us don’t react and understand like the rest. These people are viewed differently and are misjudged. Which made me stop being selfish and actually want to understand the different perspectives of life. Instead of ignoring the facts I decided to learn about different disabilities one by one. Which brought me to my question “What is autism? How does a person with autism process information?” Let’s find out!

Before we get into the specifics, as you should know autism is considered a disability and people with disabilities often get discriminated because they are not understood and are misjudged. “HR Hub“ a website where it’s insured employees are not being discriminated against by displaying news specifically on employees suing their jobs for violations and etc also showing ADA compliance guide. On this website cases from employers are displayed legitimely with details. A person with a mental disability at Chuck E Cheese in wisconsin was fired due to their disability of mental retardation. This is an example of disability discrimination. The EEOC which is an agency responsible for enforcing federal laws of applicants or employees such as harassment or discrimination brought Chuck E cheese to court, making EEOC plaintiffs and chuck E cheese the defendants. While the defendants argued “ it is highly unlikely that he experienced any significant distress as a result of his termination”(Jury Awards Record $13 Million in Disability Discrimination Case). Basically that because of this person’s mental state being fired didn’t significantly affect them. Opposing, the plaintiff’s argued that just because of a person’s mental state that does not mean they cannot acknowledge discriminations they do consider these feelings even if it’s not done in a traditional way. As a result the jury’s decision was a sum of 13 million dollars in punitive damages, 10,000 in back pay and 70,000 in compensatory. The jury also wanted this to be a message for employers to give equal opportunities to those with mental disabilities.

When reading this case I felt disgusted by this employer’s actions. Having a mental disability does not mean you are vulnerable. The plaintiff’s brought a statement from the Chuck E Cheese manager stating “ Chuck E Cheese don’t hire those type of people” (Jury Awards Record $13 Million in Disability Discrimination Case). As the manager called it ‘those type of people’ are just people who view the word different than we do and that is okay, we shouldn’t fear that. The comments made about how the ex employer wouldn’t acknowledge the distress was very ignorant from their side. The jury did a great job with their decision and sending a message to employers across america.

Social interactions for people with autism is a constant everyday battle. They are blind and/or immune into understanding that someone is sad. That sadness and happiness are two different things. They struggle with asking questions that come naturally to us like “how are you feeling today?”. The national autism society is the UK’s leading charity for autistic people. They are often getting involved in autistic cases which is why this is such a reliable source. In their article they stated “Autistic people often have difficulty ‘reading’ other people – recognising or understanding others’ feelings and intentions”(Autism).They have a hard time acknowledging people’s feelings. In addition, “This can make it very hard for them to navigate the social world”(Autism). Navigating everyday life is difficult. they tend to appear insensitive because of this and not seek comfort by other people.

A big key to humanity in my opinion is feelings and social interactions. Feelings can often affect your actions and help people describe who you are in their eyes.It is import to acknowledge this about autistic people and take them into consideration. I actually find this very interesting because I think feelings are involved with passion. Something autistic people have is passion and dedication. They have these feelings and they aren’t even aware of them. Which is something I’ve been learning about them and most people don’t know. Unfortunately, they don’t share that instinct with us instead they replace that skill into other skills we don’t acknowledge ourselves.

Aside from having trouble with social interaction people with autism have different ways of communicating. The Time is known for their partnership with the new cast CNN. They did an article called “inside the autistc minds” written by Claudia Wallis. She is the managing editor of scientific minds and a health reporter. They focused on autistic kids and gathered evidence about them which made this such a reliable source. Hannah, a kid with autism, she communicates by typing. “ a girl thought to be incapable to read or write wrote I love mom”(Claudia Wallis). In this case the specialist were worried this girl couldn’t communicate but they found out that she can just in a different way. This girl was actually full with information inside of her head. The reason is “autistic children tend to have the brain of a 13 year old.”(Claudia Wallis). Later on she was asked, “ Do you have a photographic memory?’ and ‘Hannah typed “yes”(Claudia Wallis). These people have abilities we just can see it’s all inside their minds.

Do most autistic people have a photographic memory? I would like to know. Hannah was given a worksheet with 30 math problems and got all 30 right in an instance. This shows how she remembers everything she sees. As you can see autistic kids are very quick. They are in tune with the world already full of knowledge with everything they see and they analyze it since a young age. Which is pretty amazing how rapid their brains grow.Now that we are getting deep into the brains of autistic children. Autistic kids brains start growing rapidly since the start. “ they experience rapid expansion since the age of 2” (Claudia Wallis). Since the age of 2 they start to analyze and process information. Which a regular person does not do.

People with autism always have an interest that is what they think about and relate every scenario to. Atypical a show on netflix produced by robia rashid a talented writer of hit shows was interested in kids growing into independence who are in the spectrum. When writing this show she did a lot of research and met with a lot of people asking what they thought about her main character who was on the spectrum. This is why this is a credible source .In the netflix show Atypical the main character is autistic and he is very interested in penguins and antártica. When he confronts situations in his everyday life he compares it to a penguin it relaxes him and helps him better understand the situation and what he should do. When he decided he was ready to start dating he compared himself to the penguin male and how they find a partner. He saw how penguins get attention from the female penguins and assert their dominance and so he did the same he changed his appearance. He even made desserts for the person he was trying to make his partner. He wasn’t doing it because of how he felt he did it because it was what penguins did when they are ready to mate.As you can see penguins take a big part in his life and is very important to him. I see this as a comfort zone for him.

In this show, you get to see how and why he makes his every move. This autistic kid being the main character helped understand what might be going on inside an autistic person’s mind. When it comes to the interest we just don’t see that he likes penguins we see that he relates and helps him to cooperate with his everyday life. It shows how he is always thinking about it and it calms him down. This inside look helped understand what can be going on inside an autistic mind and of course how information might be processed in their head.

After reading all these articles learning all these new things I still want to read more and if I’m lucky watch one more netflix show like the one I introduced. Did I answer my question for the most part yes but my question has an on going answer that keeps building on every month year or day as we speak. It is a question I have to keep my eyes on. The autistic mind could feel like a maze to people very hard to understand this is why I chose this question. There are still other things I did not get to discuss that I will research on my own. What is the process of helping people with autism with social interaction? And so does it help them in the real world?

“Autism – What Is It?” Autism Support – Leading UK Charity – National Autistic Society, www.autism.org.uk/about/what-is/asd.aspx.

“Jury Awards Record $13 Million in Disability Discrimination Case.” Www.hrhub.com, www.hrhub.com/doc/jury-awards-record-13-million-in-disability-d-0001.

Wallis, Claudia. “Inside the Autistic Mind.” Time, Time Inc., 7 May 2006, content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1191843,00.html.

Ramos, Dino-Ray. “’Atypical’ EP And Cast Discuss Authentic Representation Of Autism And The Casey-Izzie Romance – ATX.” Deadline, 10 June 2019, deadline.com/2019/06/atypical-mary-rohlich-brigette-lundy-paine-fivel-stewart-jenna-boyd-amy-okuda-robia-rashid-netflix-1202629867/.

Unit 1

Elayne Susana matos

Prof. Hall

English 1101

9/12/2019

After transferring schools Clinton was NOT your regular high school at all, I don’t care how much you can relate or compare to your high school. This school was just on some other shit. On my first day of school… let me tell you. That is when I realized this school was not shit. Why right when I walk in through the doors the security guards by the scanners were looking at me like I’m their next predictor. Looking like hungry ass lions in the wild. Honestly this is a school. They swore they were working at a prison word to my mother. You got security guards patting you down and passing the hand wand all around you. I’m just thinking in my head “What the fuck do these kids bring to school? Like am I bugging or?” .

Anyways, after the trauma with the security guards. which was nothing compared to what I saw. I literally could not tell the difference, like was I at school or on Fordham road right now? These guys were posted up on the wall, hollering at girls and playing dice (sort of like gambling) in the corners. I just kept walking straight trying to ignore all this nonsense. Specially these ugly kids trying to holla at me. I saw a friend I made on Facebook that went to this school down the hallway. I was so relieved because I didn’t even have a schedule in my hand. therefore, I had no clue where my classes were. She was so cute with her dirty blonde curly hair and her Nike outfit from head to toe. She approached me all happy and excited. She laughs at me and says “are you okay you look lost hahahah” which I was honestly. “Yes, I am I need to find an office or something because I do not even have my schedule bro” I responded stressed. She directed me to an office where I waited a whole hour. Walking with her felt like I was a child at a carnaval who had lost their mother. At every corner she greeted someone and every time I blinked she was on to the next. It was so stressful figuring out where she went and all these people looking at me.

Once I walked in, there was a huge line with students filled with complaints about their schedules and all that nonsense. When the counselor finally got to me she kept going on how I was not on the system yet. A bunch of excuses on why I didn’t have a schedule set up yet. She looked weird to me. She had pointy reading glasses and looked like the suit maker from the incredibles. Honestly I did not care I just wanted this to be over with. She made my schedule right then and there. I mean you could say I was lucky because I got to pick which classes I wanted which is rare in high school.While she was putting my schedule together breaks were taken in-between with a lot conversation about nothing work related very unprofessional.

After leaving that office at 12p. I headed to my 5th period class, where only 10-7 students were present. Mind you the attendance had about 30 students who were supposed to be there. Now this was the most shocking thing. I see this spacious room with no students. The teacher rushing around the room with her blond curly hair going on about some nonsense. A couple of students on the smart board watching a football game and the rest well talking. I sat down and just stared at everything going on. She exclaimed out of nowhere saying “please take out a pen and paper and look productive thank you”. So is she not planning on teaching a lesson? Anything? I realized how going to class in this school was rare I just couldn’t understand why would that even be rare. I came from a school where if you came late you had detention or if You didn’t wear uniform you got sent home and where you rarely saw one person in the hallways. Also you would have to pay a dollar Friday’s to Not wear uniform but that is another story.

Coming to Dewitt clinton high school impacted the way I viewed education and school, because first and foremost no one seemed to care about their education. The staff and teachers didn’t care about giving it to the students either. This school showed me how a school is an effort everyone part takes in it not only the teachers. A teacher can not teach a class if the students do not show up. This also showed me how some educational campuses are corrupted and most importantly none cares about your education more than you. What you put in is what you get out of it. This school that I am describing to you is where a lot of famous people graduated from including Stan lee. A school with money and many opportunities of programs and everything you can name provided and these kids did not take advantage. Education and school has to be something you want and are willing to work for it will not be handed to you all the time. Sometimes you have to work for it. That was a big lesson I learned there. It also impacted me to learn on my own and to not rely on my teachers for everything, to take responsibility for my own education.

Homework

On my paper I did not specify the audience. I need to go over my writing and find not only the audience but the topic and why the reader is reading my story. I will remove sentences and apply more scenes to back up my topic. Also I will work on my transition to make it easier for the reader to know the audience I’m seeking. I did not specify if I was talking to teachers students or both which throws off my whole writing. Transitioning my writing will also help. the reader catch up to what I’m saying going in steps. Instead of me jumping from one thing to another.My plans for all of this is to start over with the goal and audience and applying all these things I said like transition and etc.The other option I had in mind was to take the old version and just add on sort of editing it instead of writing it over. I have a feeling writing it all over would be better because can focus on what I want to perfect on. This means I will automatically remove irrelevant things in my writing. I will also take count on the readings we have read in class to help with my writing. The readings will help me reflect so I can improve what I have. Basically I will start over from scratch with the same side and a solid topic to better my paper. I will also ask my peers to read it for more support.

Reflection

As I look at my work for the research project on unit 2, I can tell I learned new things just by looking at it. The first thing I learned was how to do a research project. Which is very different from a research paper I might add. The struggles I went through doing this project has prepared me to write a better one in the future. Another thing I took away from this project was how to do a proper citation even though we just copied and pasted from a website. I learned the way a citation should look and what needs to be included. Citations was one of my big take away because college writing is different from high school. In high school teachers weren’t so strict about quotations and giving credit to where you found the information from. On the other hand in college is very important you do those things because college is actually a transition to the real world. In college you’re not being babied you start taking responsibilities. This is why I’m glad this unit taught me about how to properly use and make citations because there is big consequences when credit isn’t given. I have become a better writer because everything you learn as little as it can be, can influence your writing. I believe there is always room for change, even if you think you are perfect at something, you can learn something new and become better at it. On our last unit, the genre unit I learned and saw the difference between genre, I also saw how the genre impacted how you are supposed to write your paperIncludin the structure. This stood out to me so much, because I saw how people went through their own own struggles trying to meet their genre requirement. For example me i had to read several articles to fulfill my requirement. Overall, as I went back to revise my work, many errors were found. I revised unit 3 and 1 and there were so many run ons. Since we also learned in class how to use commas and quotations properly. I went back and added so many commas and periods, Honestly looking back at my work opened my eyes. The group project we had in class really helped me fix my grammatical errors. In addition, not only did I add quotations and commas. I also added sentences like evidence and deleted sentences. I also re-phrased

What I meant to say in a much simpler way.

Final Portfolio

Unit one: E + R = O ?

Twenty percent of our population are students but they makeup hundred percent of our future. A teacher is the first person we encounter as students other than parents. We spend more than forty hours a week with teachers. So yes, it’s important what teachers think about us and what relationship we have or try to develop with them. I was blessed to build a great friendship with staff that can help me through a crazy roller coaster named high school. Mrs. Guash and Mr. Ghie was dean and guidance counselor in my high school. They were my school parents. I could always keep it a buck fifty with them and always had lots of respect for them. They both understood my story as a student and my behavior problem. They introduce to equation that I didn’t believe was helpful until this very moment. E+R=O simple solution to all my problems and the key to my stress free day.

I struggled in history for many reasons it probably was that fact I had class the second to last period of my school day I was always tired. I was in class full kids that can care less about this class. Had a teacher that made the subject boring not interesting. Pretty much the odds were against me. I felt Mr. Bux wasn’t the greatest teachers. He found time to waste during class to check other students behavior Venus from checking them after class or letting their grade suffer. We only had 45 minutes per period we never as a class got alot done because of other students taking advantage of the teacher. He was one of those teachers that had to stop the whole class to check one student and their behavior. I mean how annoying is that when you are half tired and just want to go home. Which out of 45 minutes it takes 10 minutes for everyone to come in calm down it takes 5 minutes just for him to finish correcting students. Leave us with not a lot of time to learn new materials or even review older ones for quizzes and exams. I was always lost in class, when I told him he tries to accuse me of talking to peers about things off topic is the reason why “ i’m having trouble” which was far from the truth because I didn’t like anyone in class so why talk to them ? Mr.Buxs and I always bumped heads in class.

This day I went to U.S History class Mr.Buxs assigns a group project gives a due date that is different from whats on pupil path. So I tell Mr. Bux “you do know that there is different due date on pupilpath then what you verbal said to the class” so he looks on pupilpath and it turns out I was correct. Instead of apologizing for it saying its an error and warning other kids. Mr. Buxs tells me “there is no reason why I need to act so cocky and arrogant“ at this moment every student heard exactly what he said. I was put on the spot in front of the whole class embarrassed is an understatement in this case. So I told him “ who the f**k are you talking to and how am I cocky and arrogant for helping you out.”

“ Amaya, I’m tired of you and your outburst during class, you are distracting the whole class from learning you need to learn to have self control, if you don’t stop im calling your mom and i’m calling school safety escort you out of my class” Mr. Bux says I reply back “what are talking about I don’t care if you call my mom im not waiting for you try to make an example out of me which is unfair.” He calls safety so they can come I told him” I’m not leaving class because today you acting like a complete d**k, just because you had a shitty day doesn’t mean you make mine one too.” When I look up at the door two safety agents and Mr. Ghie was there. It was a sense of relief because finally someone can witness this dumb stuff and not think Im making it up. He tells me “Amaya come to my office your not in any trouble we need to have a little conversation so bring your belongs please come with me.” I didn’t fight or argue with Ghie even though I was a tiny bit disappointed that Ghie didn’t put him in his place. But nevertheless I still just got up went with him the whole elevator ride down to his office I was so mad and frustrated. At myself mostly because I let him get underneath my skin, that made me so angry I missed out on my purpose for being in school which is to be present for the review. Instead I’m on a one way ticket heading to the dean’s office because of him.

Ghie brings me into Mrs Guash office we both sit at a round table in her office. I gave them a play by play on what happened. Both of them started laughing because they knew earlier that day before I went to class I was not interested in going at all. I felt his vibe would be bad, I wasn’t there for the shenanigans he got going on because he couldn’t find a park that morning so the fact that not even 15 minutes and yes 15 minutes after the late bell rings . I’m back in her office yelling “Guacamole this teacher picked the wrong one, on the wrong day to f**K with me” had the whole office laughing.

Now remember that simple equation I brought up in begin watch how this dramatically changed my life. Mrs Guash looks at me and see the anger underneath the humor I had about the situation. I got so angry that I started to cry. So she asked me what is your goal when you walk in that class I said “prepare for the regents “ do you think want just happen in class helped or harmed you and your goal I said to her “no it harmed my goal. ” She then tells me teachers have upper hand of students because they are responsible for your grades. Teachers are human and make many mistakes, they are normally out number in classroom so when you call him out after his bad day of trying to find a park. You my darling is the straw that breaks the camel’s back, this doesn’t make it right . this isn’t even the time to try to argue with him since it is the last week of the marking period she follows up with another question “but you only have control of who?” I said “ myself “ so in the event you want a positive outcome your response has to be positive right ? I agreed so do you believe in this event your response was positive or negative I said while rolling my eyes “it was obviously negative” Ghie jump in like its a teachable moment and says E+R=O. Event plus response equal outcome. So next time you are put in this situation think about your outcome, you can’t control event but you can change your response so you can get the right results and outcome you want.

Little light bulb went off in my head and it explains a lot of the disconnect from other teachers. So that point on I made a mental note sometimes not saying anything can make you win in the event you need to respond. To wait process information on event you are not in any hurry to make a choice, weigh out your option if you pick one option over the other what is your result ? And how is it different ? Is this the result you are trying to achieve if not what are you trying to do to change your results. At that very second everything made more sense than before, I left her office with a better understanding of everything. So after that day, I promise I won’t let another teacher get up under my skin. I’m in control of my education and my life I won’t let the event control me to the point I lose focus of my goal. Since that point I never argue with any teacher when it happens I just listen, wait after class to respond. So no one is pressure to act a certain way it has worked for a while, I pass it to all my friends when I have advice to give, because it has helped me so much on my daily interacting with other people but more so teachers.

Unit 2: Curiosity Report Final Revision

Let’s take a moment to talk about something that nobody really wants to talk about domestic violence. This topic is one of many that can be viewed from a one-sided lense like women are the only ones that get abused in relationships or there is no such thing as same sex relationship to abusives which is totally not true and completely bias. Normally you hear the same version of the same arguments why is bad ? what can we do to stop it ? I’m pretty sure there are many alternatives answers to these common questions asked about domestic violence. Instead I’m going to ask the question that nobody really wants to ask or even thought of. Why is it so hard for victims to leave their abusive relationships ? Ha, I’m pretty sure you don’t have the answer do you? It’s not a yes or no question so I bet you didn’t even think that far ahead right, I didn’t think so but that’s fine I will help you get educated so you can spread the word and knowledge that you and I are curious on this report why is so hard for victims to leave their abusive relationship?

Sources 1: National Domestic Violence Hotline

People believe that abusers have a type but that’s incorrect also they don’t normally see color or race. What they do pay attention to is your confidence as a person and your vulnerability. Why you ask ? because when a victim is in relationship with abuser normally the abuser believe their superior demand respect from the victim. My source the National Domestic Violence Hotline describe the abuser tactics as a wheel of power and control. The abuser at one point or another uses one or all of the points on this wheel. But before we get into that we need to be on the same page about what is domestic violence is before we can go any further. Domestic violence is a pattern of behavior used by one partner to maintain power control over another partner in an intimate relationship (national domestic violence hotline:whats is domestic violence?/Is this abuse ?). Abuser uses the power and control to intimidate victims to make them feel less than, inferior by abusing their partners. There are many types of abuse, some are more common than other like physical abuse, emotional abuse which are all forms that we see on tv at one point or another. People are aware of what physical abuse is choking, hitting, slapping, pinning down, pushing. Emotional abuse another common one but a little bit harder to pick up on as an outsider emotional abuse consist of putting down someone, name calling ,isolation These are just the common one, they’re still a lot that people aren’t so familiar to that fall out of the usual ones. That’s mainly because you don’t see them unless you are behind closed doors with the couple.Reproductive abuse, this sounds exactly what it is controlling a person when they can or can’t get pregnant by controlling their birth control, purposely breaking the condom forcing them to have a baby. Financial abuse another type of abuse that you won’t see so often this also consist of forbidding you to work, maxing credit cards in your name without your knowledge or permission and many more If you ask me this makes it extremely difficult for someone to escape under these circumstances. Victim already have a hard time leaving due to the fact their extremely scared of their partner or In denial of the fact their in an abusive relationship. Controlling the people their around or money flowing in the house so I won’t be able to get the help I need and be afraid to ask for help.

Now is it credible you ask ? Yes they’re National Domestic Violence Hotline is secondary sources they use people’s real life situations to come up with their facts by comparing and contrasting different victims stories support them with many examples. This sources help all readers see the warning signs in an abuse relationship. They aren’t one sided because they make sure to put the option of pronouns like he /she or him/her. They sometimes eliminate that option all together and only address them as victim and abuser being sensitive to all people, their identity by staying neutral unbiased as possible. This source also answer my question by explaining to me all elements of abuse and supports the claim of victim normally have a hard time leaving due to the fact their extremely scared of their partner or In denial of the fact their in an abusive relationship too afraid to ask for help.

Sources 2: There A Stranger In My House By Tamia

In the song “ There A Stranger In My House ” songwriter Tamia sings about how she unaware of this new person that’s in her home, It’s her husband she was talking about. She refers to him as a stranger because he wasn’t acting like himself loving, caring, supportive instead he is being sneaky, jealous, argumentative . In the lyrics of her song the chorus states “ Cause he wouldn’t touch me like that, and wouldn’t treat me like you do, He would adore me, he wouldn’t ignore me , So I’m convinced there’s a stranger in my house “ ( There’s a Stranger in My House songwriter Tamia ) which leaves a lot of gateway space to take prior research, apply to my other source to this situation. Reading in between the lines of metaphors, Tamia paints a beautiful but yet sad picture for her listeners in her song. Her husband being a stranger to her, it’s someone she does not recognize at all because he isn’t acting like himself ignoring her, blaming her for his cheating even hitting her which are all signs of abuse. But for her as his wife that’s out of his element in her eyes. She in denial of the fact her husband is basically abusing her. But Tamia also has a conflicting conversation with herself, she tries to remind/convince herself asking is that my husband doing? must be someone else. But in fact it is her husband she as stated “ I’m checking your clothes And you wear the same size shoe You sleep in his spot And you’re driving his car” (There’s a Stranger in My House songwriter Tamia) she is completely aware of that’s her husband but isn’t himself because he is building behaviors as an abuser

This relates to my question because it shows the mindset of the victim and leaves possibility of why a victim wouldn’t want to leave or struggle to leave because she believes he will change his emotions and actions as a husband but doesn’t. Or the fact that is my husband and I need to stay, I have to stay to fix him because that is my husband. This source I believe is credible because she is talking about an event that happened to her in the past this is basically coming straight from the horse’s mouth. who lie about such a thing. Tamia does have a direct audience and point of view and she speaking to all the ladies in the house trying to connect with them through poetry. Some say she being bias but I think she states her opinion on it and supports it with experience which I believe very true and raw and credible

Sources 3: Instagram post from Theshaderoom evelynlozada

Many victims struggle with removing themselves from this toxic relationship because they don’t have support from others about further steps they should take to remove themselves from the problem. Victim normally go through many conflicting thoughts when coming forward. Victim blaming can be one of the reasons why victims have a hard time leaving their relationship. According to victim reality TV star Basketball Wives Evelyn Lozada posted on instagram clapping back to people that had an opinion on her domestic violence case against former football player and ex husband Chad Ochocinco. Who after 45 days of tying the knot with Lozada get into a heated argument with former husband Ochocinco. Ocho Head bumping in her face leaving with a huge busted forehead and nose. That marriage came to a halting stop after this incident. After referring to herself as a survivor and not a victim Lozada believe that victim blaming makes it hard for them to step forward. As stated in her post “ victim blaming culture discourages domestic violence victim from coming forward. The fear of being judged and shamed is enough to make anyone stay quiet and suffer in silence” (Theshaderoom:evelynlozada) which makes it harder for them to leave their spouse. Lozada also believe when victim build up enough courage to “speak their truth”(theshaderoom:evelynlozada) many people don’t believe them don’t support them on the fact that they spoke up especially if abuser has higher social media following people believe the victim are clout chasing. People had reason to believe Lozada was doing it for notoriety and this was just another relationship that went flop. Which is pretty cruel if you ask me what happen to innocent until proven guilty that doesn’t just work inside the courtroom it should be applied everywhere. Then wonders why victims don’t come forward, who wants to be told their truth is a lie? .

Now due to where I got my source from many may say its not credible because anyone can post on instagram and that’s correct anyone can post on this social media but truthful I believe depend the story how many elements are supported by true facts. Instagram can be credible, its credibility shouldn’t be questioned due to where it came from as far as the app but more about who said it, who would believe someone that has the scars to prove it. walk with them everywhere she goes, she has insight on something she lived through and choose to speak up and not stay silence

Sources 4: Legal Articles Domestic Violence Spousal abuse charges/ Francine Hughes Killed Her Abusive Husband—And Changed U.S. Views on Domestic Violence.

So let’s play a game of what if, so say one day a victim comes forward and tells their side story of the abuse they have been going through with his or her spouse to the police. Now they want to start a case against abuser, There are many different penalties of domestic violence offenses it all depends all on evidence in the case. Statewide penalties for domestic violence change from being a simple misdemeanor to a harsh felony due to elements the case presents. According to my sources “charges depend on the severity of the injury offense being charged and whether the defendant has a criminal history, age of the victim. Many states also will upgrade offense if the victim is a child.” Legal Articles Domestic Violence:Spousal abuse charges) each offense may get a different penalty some can be as simple as a fine or community service or something more harsh and severe like restraining order supervised visits with child or completely terminating parental rights lastly up to ten years of imprisonment. Unless it’s Spousal abuse this abuse gets a totally different charge and penalty oddly enough it’s not the same as domestic violence but is similar. The difference between both of them is your relation to your abuser. Spousal abuse is the most common abuse. According to my Source “ charges and penalties for spousal abuse depend on whether the acts result in serious bodily harm, have been continual, or if the accused has a history of abusive behavior.” (Legal Articles Domestic Violence:Spousal abuse charges) meaning that charges can change due to damaged created by abuser. It’s clear our legal system has an order they try to follow its gladly appreciated. but it only works if you suffered from physical trauma or emotion trauma. If it was any other type of abuse like financial abuse or it wouldn’t be able to be proven under spousal abuse charges. FoAlso this system wouldn’t work for long because its not proactive on the violence but really only reactive on it. On top of the fact, this only works if the victim is willing and not afraid to come forward. And police completely believe the severity of the allegations you the victim are putting forth. So the legal issue is does the crime fit the punishment? does this secure the safety of the victim if abuser only gets serviced a small amount of time jail comes back out after servicing his time because he only got charged with a misdemeanor.

Even sometimes the police react too late because police completely overlook the severity of the allegations victim are putting forth. A great example to use is Francine Hughes case, many of you are probably like who is this lady?. Well hold your horses because I’m going to give a little back story. Francine Hughes wife and mother to four beautiful children was happily married to her former husband James “Mickey” Hughes. After being fed up with the fact Mickey constant physical and emotional abuse being under the influence of alcohol. She files for divorces him, when she noticed the behavior will never change. Mickey refuses to sign the paper and decides to pay Francine a visit. With in this visit Mickey manages to rape and beat Francine in front of the kids for the last time. Francine snaps and manages to break free and not run away from him but kill him. Yes I said it Francine kills her ex husband. According to my source “ Francine Hughes stood outside her Michigan home, watching it burn. Inside was her abusive husband …. She stood watching the fire, then turned and entered the car where three of her children cowered in fear. Then she drove herself to authorities and turned herself in.” (Francine Hughes Killed Her Abusive Husband—And Changed U.S. Views on Domestic Violence.) that is crazy right ? But before this happens Francine did make attempts to get help according to my source “ Francine called the cops, but they refused to arrest Mickey since they had not witnessed the abuse themselves—even though he threatened them and told her “it was all over” since she had called for help. When they left, he continued beating her and raped her. Afterward, he fell asleep.” (Francine Hughes Killed Her Abusive Husband—And Changed U.S. Views on Domestic Violence.) In 1977 Hughes was charged with murder, sentenced to do several years in prison even after pleading for a motion of insanity.

With all the research I made I have learned a lot about the topic of domestic violence that made basically an expert on the topic itself. With each source there was a different genre it gave me a different point of view on domestic violence as a whole. And made me look at this topic in a different light than before.

Unit 3: Proposal

The audience im trying to reach is the young adults between ages 15-25 year old that are in relationship so awareness is spread among the young adults about all the things that are associated with domestic violence and it won’t be social expect from others when seen

Talk show I believe it will reach the largest amount of people in my targeted age range this message is for and how it will impact my audience better because i’m already connecting with my audience by using modern technology

Posting online my subject which people can have a chance to ask anonymous questions on the subject posted I will answer them to the best of my knowledge in tonight’s talk show. This doesn’t have to be only a TV show you can also use it for a youtube video like a question and answer video which follows the same temple.

Unit 3: How To’s Talk Show

Ingredients You will need

Social media profile

Social media following/Follower

Cell phone Pen/paper

Patients

An Open Mind

So there’s no manual to this and anyone can do it and there’s no wrong way or Right way of doing this normally Youtubers just casually go onto any social media profile such as Instagram Twitter or Facebook anyone Will do. you only want to use these platforms because you will need to get a wide range of questions but it’s all up to you and your choice This part is optional you can pick a random subject so that you can narrow down your search for questions after doing that you must let your followers ask questions or a statement based on subject because this makes your job a whole lot easier and You don’t need to have high follower count you just need active followers that Are willing to respond and free to respond just know you It’s up to you what questions you do or don’t want to answer it’s all up to your comfortability of the question make sure all questions are open ended meaning you can answer the question with something other than yes or no if so try to strengthen your response with your reason after you got all your questions the last final step is to record keep in mind the responses you could possibly get from the responses you got from the questions keep in mind of all rules try to be sensitive to the issue and don’t speak on something that you don’t have facts on after you have recorded all the stuff post away and this could be anywhere it could be I Snapchat IG TV Twitter video or Facebook Leslie YouTube

Unit 3: Script BROOKS’ SHOW

Domestic Violence Episode Final Revision

Maya: Welcome back, my name is Amaya Brooks. You are here watching from your couch from my studio the talk show called The Brooks Show. Where we always find somehow someway to keep it real.As you know on the show we always have guest host every thursday so give a round of applause and a warm welcome to Shania Romain

Shania walks on the set, the audience stands up and applause. Shania smiles and waves at the fans and hugs Amaya and sit in the chair next to her.

Shania: Hey girl, how are you

Amaya: I’m good girl, for some of you that dont know Shania and I go back

Shania: Wayyyy back, from freshman in college back

Maya: (starts laughing ) Well are you ready to have girl chat?

Shania: Yes girl born ready

Maya: So those of you that don’t know what is it, Girl chat is when we go through our social media letting our followers ask us questions that they want us to answer. All we have to do is keep it real, Are you ready Shania ?

Shania: I’m ready for this so spill the tea girl

Maya: So we have a tweet from anniesocrazy5261 saying:

Hey ladies, I need some sisterly advice from both of you on what I should do with regard to my best friend. She has been married for the last 5 years and I notice a shift in her behavior. We go to the mall, we see some oh so fab shoes. She was so in love with those shoes, I just knew she was going to buy them. But instead she told me she can’t, before I could even ask why not ? She says shortly after her husband said “ she is not allowed to buy anything without his permission” because he says “that’s his money she has to wait on her allowance from him” also notice that she has been very jumpy around girls and I. She always has bruises on her body there always new one never not old ones.

So the question is this okay to do in a relationship ?

Should I ask her what’s going on or is this overstepping my boundaries as a friend ?

Maya: (look over to shania ) What you think Shania?

Shania: Well Maya I don’t think this okay I wish my man tells me what and what not to spend, I mean I thought when your married you share funds between both of y’all ?

Maya: Don’t get me started girl I’m not married I’m single (wink into the camera ) as Pringle I’m too busy waiting on Trey Songz to scoop me. ( Maya looks into the camera and whispers) call me

Shania: I don’t think this okay at all, this seems very controlling in my eyes seems like domestic violence if you ask me. (Maya shakes her head and agrees) If you are her friend you should help her, but ask first when she is not around her man so she can feel like its a safe enough zone for her to vent to you.

Maya: Well Shania I couldn’t agree with you anymore, this sounds exactly like domestic violence. Annie, I would just ask her if she even wants help because some do not. Some are also so unaware of the problem at hand they don’t want to leave they think they can change them and can’t. When they realize and accept the facts it’s too late.

Maya: According to the Domestic Violence Hotline Domestic Violence is a pattern of behavior used by one partner to maintain power control over another partner in an intimate relationship. Many people think domestic violence is only physical like choking punching hitting or even slapping. But in fact there is many more than that, people are not aware of such type of abuses sexual abuse emotional reproductive and financial abuse. People don’t know that there is even a such thing of a thing that exists. All these types of abuse are the first step three to four steps before the abuser even hits you in the first place.

Shania: Wow that’s crazy, reproductive abuse ? Girl didn’t I tell you I learn something new everyday

Maya: (Maya starts to laugh and looks at Shania ) Shania you are to funny. Many victims are scared to leave this abusive relationship for reason like they share children together they don’t know how to be independent without spouse. They believe that the abusers actions are on the bases of love, victims are too afraid to come forward. because they think they will be victim blamed no one will believe their story or B just plain fearful or abuser actions overall.

Shania: Wow, Victim blaming I mean who wouldn’t believe someone and think the victim is causing the problem of abuse. Who would think something like that ? I mean that’s nothing to play with at all it’s a serious matter

Maya: I totally agree with you Shania. I’m hundred percent on your side with this one.

Shania: I mean that’s going to create larger problems in the long run of things that’s how you can possibly create a killer or make the victim emotional or physical snap

Maya: No, come on you are dragging it right now, I think it would get that far would it ?

Shania: Come girl you the story about francine hughes and her husband. She literally tied her husband to bed, ( the audience looks in disbelief ) Yes she set fire to the bed while her three children were in the car looking from the outside. She snapped and she just didn’t do that out of nowhere she was pushed and she was ignored. When she called the cops they didn’t believe her story and never made an arrest because no one saw him abuse her. What happened she gets locked up for losing her shit and pleads guilty under the notion of victim insanity it lowers her jail time but she was still having to do the time nevertheless. That is not fair at all.

Maya: Oh yeah I completely forgot about that cases, that case changed a lot stuff regards to spousal abuse. Didn’t that start a movement in the late 70s early 80s ?

Shania: Yes girl, it did its called the Battered Women’s Movement.

Maya: Domestic violence which all falls under the same umbrella as spousal abuse. But gets a totally different penalties in the courts. I mean it changed lots of laws far as I know I think as a people that just sit and observe bad stuff happening everyday we should just catch the signs early.

Shania: Yes I agree being aware of the fact that your friend is being Isolated by her spouse or she not herself when she around her? Is she happy around? Is this relationship or marriage one sided etc. Don’t be afraid or scared of asking questions if you feel something going on because you might be the one saving your friends life.

Maya: Well you are completely right Shania, if you have anymore questions you can look on our website www.brooksshow.com/ domestic violence awareness that’s all the time we have today thank you shania for stopping by for some girls chat ( lean in ands hugs shania )

Shania: No thank you for inviting me it’s always cool sitting and talking to you don’t forget to invite me again

Maya: Of course Shania anyways remember be true and be you see you next time on the brooks show have a fabulous night. (Theme song comes on. Audience stands up claps for the two host on stage)

PART 2: Two Low-stake Homework #1

Task: Read and Annotate Mother Tongue by Amy Tan, type 250 word response on how Amy Tan experience relates to you?

Amy Tan did things to help and protect her mother by interacting with others when people didn’t understand her “Broken English“. Tan believe that as a child coming from an immigrant chinese based household that her mother english is “perfectly clear, perfectly natural” that’s her mother tongue. Her mother influenced and inspired her career of choice which was writing. From watching her mother struggle on daily task interacting with others and how she needs her to help her so people can take her seriously. Tan also believe that the only reason why there isn’t many asian american choosing creative writing programs is because people convince them to stick with subjects they’re better at like math and science. She choose to still follow the odds and put everything on the line for writing. Tan and I share the same journey how we picked our career of choice. people believe girls west indian or even african americans are known to be good at math or science thought I should be a doctor or a nurse and that is something needed to be. I choose the odds which was being a lawyer even I knew reading was not my strong suit which didn’t stop me from wanting to be apart of change in government like how she wants to be the change in literature show that ”broken, limited and simple english” didn’t stop her from wanting something.

Homework #2

Difficultly sure that is something I can say for sure that the declaration of independence rough draft and and final draft both had. Reading both copies waved language borders which only made me this a lot harder to read and just to focus on the main idea of the central idea. Many sentences I had to reread 3 or even 4 times just to find out that it didn’t even make the final draft how frustrating can that be the whole time reading this I try to stop myself from falling asleep between lines of hard word like” abdicated “or other words that “arbitrary” words that dried out the document that I believe didn’t add much value to the independence with it. It confused me and probably many other readers making harder for us to understand what they want for their new government to be like in this new world without having prior knowledge about it. But in reality we are in an era where people replace the word no cap for no lie but it keeps the interest in the other people to listen to what you are trying to say and ideas your trying to show this point of view.

PART 3: Reflection

Have you ever just stopped and took a moment to breathe after a long semester of hard work and grinding, my professor. Professor hall gave me the easiest task in the world which is to stop and reflect think and appreciate give yourself a little pat on the back for all the hard work you have done this whole semester. How far you have came as a writer.

Before the semester started, I had reason to believe that was a poor writer. That I didn’t write appropriately, looking back at it now I realize that I have my own personal writing style something that keeps the reader listening laughing and simultaneously learning something at the same time. If you ask me I’m a writing genius. Yes, I have my flaws I don’t know how to spell for the life of me. My punctuation sucks just as bad as my spelling but according to professor hall you can’t teach spelling and grammar as long as you keep writing you’ll learn as you go and see your errors more often. I mean I’m the queen of capitalization I mean sometimes I do it just because it looks pretty in the middle of my paragraph. Girl, don’t you know I love me some run on sentences without a comma or period.

When I’m writing I have a tendency to write like I’m texting someone or I’m venting to a close friends about a situation. For instance in my unit one paper talking about my no good very bad experience with my horrible teacher Mr. Bux in this paper I wrote after being picked up from my dean Mr. Ghie. I had the whole office laughing at what I was saying as I entered the room “Guacamole this teacher picked the wrong one, on the wrong day to f**K with me” This is one of many times my personality shines through my writing. I’m pretty sure I had my reader responding back to many of my comments I wrote or just simply laughing at me because I kept it real and said exactly what he or she was thinking the whole entire time reading my short story. Trust and believe me it’s a blessing and a curse to have this type of writing style.Yes there were times during my road of being a successful writer where I found myself lost confused on how to start or where to begin, who is my audience How do I keep them interested in my writing while keeping an appropriate not so childish. This happened A lot mostly during my unit two paper, man the struggle was real. Some call it writer’s block but for me it felt worse than that I called it a writers’ worst nightmare because not only was I not able to produce anymore writing. But I felt like the writing I had on my paper wasn’t something I was proud of i couldn’t write my name next to that. On top of the fact, time was not on my side it was a frustration paper to write, read and revise. No matter what I did to this paper I felt It didn’t scream Amaya brooks when I read it. When really all I needed was a push and little motivation. As a writer you learn to ask for help within your peers. Sometimes having your classmates read your work helps to give you insight on your work. A fresh pair of new eyes will notice the glows and grows of your paper. Their feedback is very much needed, it gives you just the right amount of push you need in the right direction makes you really think on your writing as a writer. Whether it’s clear who your audience is? It your point of view clear within your paragraph or does it get lost in the sauce? These are all questions you have to address within your writing or it will be a complete waste of time to read.

Sometimes you are asked to step out of your comfort zone and adapt. Talk about something that nobody else really wants to talk about but still keep it as your writing style. It’s hard and not easy, it test your ability as a writer. Unit three Genre was out of my comfort zone writing a talk show script is something that takes finesse. And can intimidate any rider because it’s not their usual type of writing but can be tweet into something similar. But when I read it out loud it sounds completely up my alley. I feel I have grown a lot as being a writer, adaptability language punctuation and spelling are all the things you need to have to be a great writer developing the skills will make you an unstoppable writer. Your writing genre will not be limited because you can master not only creative writing but master others.

FINAL PORTFOLIO SHANIA ROMAIN thank you Professor Hall

I really loved this english class and for my first semester this was the perfect class for me . I was allowed to be myself i was allowed to express myself and i was allowed to remain myself . SSo far this year I have learned The importance of citing textual evidence and proper vocabulary. We also covered the use of proper grammar including commas semicolons periods quotations (ect).Understanding annotations are a key writing skill and Is used to add evidence to a writing piece. I have learned that a good writer has great Coherence in their writing. This was a big emphasis by my professor. My biggest drawback from the semester is that I wish that I learned more and I wish I wrote more. There was a lot of good learning in this semester . In my English class i would say the main things i learned was the five key qualities of a good writer witch are Focus, Development and coherence as what i like to call it . Without these writing guidelines your essay will be redundant and have no substance to it.You have to know how to form you words and make it flow . All of these things made me a better writer . An essay should have A clear Central idea as to what the essay is based upon. This is main things.Each paragraph should support or explain the central idea of the essay or paper.This is like TEA The idea of each paragraph be Should be proper illustrated through examples and thorough descriptions. That is the Every paragraph should relate to the main idea Or Central idea of the overall paper. An essay or a paper should be accurately and coherently organized to Where information and detail and go together. A Paper or essay Should be written in clear complete sentences In relation to the central idea. Writing is one of my biggest passions and I am very satisfied with my grade in this English class this semesterBecause I feel as thoughI came in as a good writer and I am leaving as one . . I did not just gain another college credit,I gained valuable writing skills. Next semester I plan to pass my English class with the highest grade possible. I will attack my next English chorus with extreme ambition and desire to persevere. I understand And comprehend the grandness of surpassing my educational goal with city tech. The expectations of my next English course are exponential, I have gained tremendous educational wisdom this year.

Shania Romain

English

Professor Hall

December 2019

FINAL PORTFOLIO

Chain Of Events

That lil boy really saved my life I tell you man! You may be wondering which boy I am talking about .Have you ever heard the saying “ My son changed me? He made me a better person, I am so glad he came into my life ?That’s me, and I have definitely said that Let me run you through the “Chain of Events”.I was a troublesome kid in high school, I went to the Urban Assembly School of Law and Justice, where I was notorious for getting suspended expelled getting into fights, It was literally the worst academic time of my life. Did I hate school? No. Truthfully, I just needed consistent guidance and truthfully nobody was really there at the least . Let me break it down a little for you. Every other kid can sit and boast about how they enjoyed their prom, their senior trip or how they became the president of a club or something. They exclaimed how they got into their dream college , etc. I was the opposite. I got arrested, I got left-back, I became pregnant.I was the only one who didn’t graduate. While there was a 99% graduation, I WAS THE 1%. LOL!! Isn’t that funny?

Classes usually ran like this 8:45 am you had to be present in advisory where you basically got prepared for all of your classes. Your advisor spoke to you about things your other teachers were saying about you in. the classes you needed to improve on, they also checked attendance etc . My name was never called because I was never there. My first class was Global , I had to take that class again because I was a dick head who couldn’t pass it the first time. History was one of my best subjects too, like what the hell ! The class wasn’t even that hard to be honest. For example,Napoleon Bonaparte was a French man who moved his way up during the French Revolution . He led the French Army during hard times blah blah blah and the other nigga got his head cut off because he was being a Tyrant and people didnt like the way he was ruling. See? It wasn’t that hard. . At least I understood something .I just needed the motivation to stay consistent . All of my teachers looked at me like a delinquent and didn’t want to help me even if they saw me struggling They thought I wanted to be the way I was however i was just looking for someone to help me. So i eventually lost hope. I could’ve gotten out of highschool faster if someone looked out for me but no one did . Isn’t that a teacher’s job though ?

Fast forward to the time that I got arrested. Like I said I was a troublesome kid who needed consistent guidance and this is the story called “Chain of Events” It was a sunny day in mid winter , you know like when winter is finishing up not that cold but cold. You still had to wear a coat but not a big one .There was no snow however I had a blue Nautica coat, a burgundy H&M sweater, dark blue jeans and some all blue Adidas shell tops.Fun Fact ! Blue was my favorite color .I loved those blue shell tops and yes the other reason had to do with a gang affiliation . The “Crips “ I am sure everyone has heard of them . I was affiliated, not official. I just had a crip boyfriend well ex boyfriend who went by the name “Loco”. Anyways, back to describing the day I regretted my hair was in a bob and of course, my eyebrows were well drawn on . I was looking cute that day not knoiwng I was going to be escorted into an NYPD van , I got arrested for a stupid fight, This was no ordinary fight . This was a fight against a pissed off angry teen and an NYPD cop . Yes, of course, he was White , so you can only imagine how I felt. My friends and I were Downtown Brooklyn standing in the corner as we watched the whole block go in shambles . On this day everyone was fighting for some reason and we were just standing there laughing. There are like 5 different high schools Downtown Brooklyn .The cops came last minute when everything settled down and everyone got their fights in and the block was clear again . Here they come acting as if they were doing something running and pushing people . This is how everything started. As we are standing there officer Bradley yes I remember his name decides to push through our circle and literally break it apart . How can ONE person maneuver to break a five person circle ? This is what turned up the heat. I turned around and yelled “WHAT THE FUCK “?? Of course, I was the only one who had the nerve to say anything everyone else was too scared. I didn’t really think he heard me but he did. He turns around stares me down with his blue master of the slave eyes and grabs up my fucking collar. My friends stand there shook and scared . What CAN they do though , they don’t want to wind up getting shot for retaliating. He does this for about 45 seconds . I’m not gonna lie, I was extremely scared but that only enraged me more.He let’s go and walks away I got angry.I exclaimed ”Oh hell no , does he know who the FUCK I am”? I am not your regular black bitch I WILL CUT YOU !” I grabbed my pocket knife out my bag and began cursing out loud “ I am not the fuckng one ..!! “ You messed with the wrong MOTHER FUCKING BITCH “ !! I made enough ruckus to catch the attention of a black officer who put the cuffs on me and took me to the precinct. what enraged me even more was that a black officer arrested me not even the cop who had the issue with me .Thank God right because maybe a limb of mine would have been gone or something . Luckily no one got hurt. I was in that dirty stinky pissy ass precinct crying and banging on the walls for about 3 hours where they had me do the regular take off your belt shoe laces earrings etc. It smelled horrific in there I kept seeing the officer walked past and I swear he looked at me grinning. I just shot up the midlle fnger and said’’ Go fuck yourself “There was a guy in the jail beside me who was high .You could tell .In his face he was lightsknned and short looked about Peurto Rican. I saw him when I used the bathroom, I couldn’t hold it !. don’t judge me .That bathroom was gross though ! He was my buddy for that time being . He told me he got caught with some drugs on him but he is going to sue them for stop and frisking him because he was wobbling in the street and they stopped him. He has four kids. Poor guy. That experience was horrible . Do you know what it feels like to have flappy shoes with no shoe laces? Pants falling when you walk i’m sure everyone can tell I just got released from jail by the way I looked. When I got out.I was so embarrassed.Eventually they let me out and of course my mother was unhappy she called my whole family and told them I was a big disgrace , which I was. This was only one of many disappointments. I kept disappointing her.I was troubled . I mean no one was helping or guiding a troublesome kid who could make something of herself but just needed someone to be there. Not blaming anyone but this is what happens when you don’t pay attention to small details and then teachers don’t try to go the extra mile to pass the stigma and help students succeed .

This may be a disappointment to others however this was my ultimate saving grace.Like I said I was a disappointment . I got pregnant and this what really changed my life. I got pregnant before I could finish high school I found out in June of the academic year 2018 . I had 7 credits to get. This was the icing to the cake of my many disappointments. I found out i was not going to be graduating on time .Howevr I was ecstatic to know that I was having a boy. My baby boy who was supposed to be born February 22nd, 2019 arrived 12 weeks early November 30th. Born premature at only 30 weeks, he is the reason why I am the way I am now, a different person. Like I said that boy really changed my life and for the better .The new and improved Shania Romain . He came early and he had many difficulties he had 2 ½ surgeries and everyday was a new day for him . Everyday could be good or bad .There was time his little body couldn’t tolerate all the food they were feeding him There was times he had to go on I’vs . Sadly he went through many things that cut really deep to talk about. He came early because I was stressed and my placenta stopped feeding him. One day I went in for a check up and he I ended up staying in the hospital for more than a weeks before they took him out by cesarean . Being born premature is risky and it can affect every child different. After He came into my life I immediately wanted to improve it .There was a huge shift in my academic development and he is the definitive cause of that . When my son came into my life it changed my perspective of life. I thank God everyday for him because I would have still been out there being a dickhead kid. I would have still been getting into things I didn’t need to get into . He made me want to do something with my life. I WANTED to get focused. I WANTED to get on track. I had to, I really didn’t have a choice. I had someone who was looking up to me . His name was Leonard Elijah Jermaine Romain-Martin and although he passed away from Necrotizing Enterocolitis which is when the large intestines dies due to being inflamed, he had a large impact on my life for the little time he’s been here . That disease came from him being born so early and in some situations, it can get worse .Leonard’s got worse . He gave me a purpose and he is the reason for my change in behavior and the way I view education . I would never want my son to go through the things I went through , I had to switch up quick and take advantage of the opportunities in front of me. First, it was finishing school , and getting into college so that I can make him proud because he was and still is the closest thing to me. No one should ever have to lose a kid that young but God knows best. One thing that I admire about him is how he never gave up on life, when the doctors told me that he only had approximately three days left , he showed us that he can push for seven ! He is my angel , my personal motivation to keep going, he changed my life. I made a promise to him when he was passing away to not make my mother disappointed anymore to be a better person to change my life and be better and make something of myself. I also vowed to make him proud . He taught me to keep going, and even when life is against you keep trying, you keep striving. This is why I am never going to give up on myself again . I needed someone to push me a teacher a mentor orsomeone.No one was there then he came along and he was what i really needed . This is the new and elevated Shania Romain. I am determined to reach my goals because my son didn’t live to reach his and as his mother, I have to make him proud.

I view education as something I need and yearn . I view education as the way out .I didn’t have the best mentors in my life to guide me . I wish I did but that “boy saved me “ and I’m glad he can call me his mother.

In this writing prompt I revised certain grammatical errors and I added and subtracted some things .There is not a major difference in what I did because this piece can from my heart and when I read it over I felt the same way I did when writing it . I felt empowered . This piece represented me shelling out my old skin and talking about things that recently transpired .This piece talked about how one person directed me into a new path in life .I changed a little bit of the introduction .I added a little more in the pregnancy part and I also made the arrest paragraph more clear .

Shania Romain

Professor Hall

English

December 2019

Rebuild Renew Change

Hello ! Hello ! All !

If you are sitting here at Bridgetown Hall tonight it means you want answers you want change and you have had enough and it means that you believe in me and want to see better for our society for our millennials coming up .You want to see a better outcome a change and I thank you . Thank you for coming out in the cold .Have you talked and started seeing the wind yet ? You know the white air that you see as soon as you speak? That’s how you know winter is here ! I told my husband that I needed all the heat today literally,and when I say all the heat I mean for everyone to show out and that is exactly what happened .All the seats are filled in this room. So now I feel extremely warm and I thank you.

Today we are discussing the need for change in our justice systems . You’re clapping because you have had enough.You’ve had enough of the unsolved issues. You’ve had enough of the broken systems .We need to Rebuild Renew and finally Change . Black men are unfairly incarcerated due to preconceived notions o f black men. This needs to stop Once and for all .( Pause while they clap ) We need to Rebuild our communities Renew our systems and Change the way our government persecutes .This is the solution. Rebuild Renew and Change a system that has been broken for so long.Our communities is so broken .The society we live in needs to mature . America has grown but not in a good way.At this very moment right now,there are two things America is known for. These may be the things the other countries are laughing at us for .One we have the most arrogant unfiltered immature President in office and second our incarceration system .We have the highest! A staggering 2.2 million black men’s re improsoned .Why haven’t America finally got past the stigma that black men are so cruel and dangerous.Black men are so vindictive and arrogant.Dumb and stupid.They have nothing to offer to society . They do nothing but get themselves in trouble.In truth have you seen the amount of black men who graduated from Ivy League Schools .Yale, Harvard , Princeton .They don’t talk about that though . Haven’t you you had enough ?

Did anyone hear about the man who has been on death row for 21years? Despite no evidence against this man he still remains on death row .They were about to execute him a few weeks ago ! AMERICA WAKE UP ! Rodney Reed brought an uproar to Texas’s cruel and unjust justice system which is notorious for the death penalty. Rodney Reed who was 28 when falsely convicted has been incarcerated for something dna has not proven. Rodney Reed’s sentence is controversial because after many pages of evidence he still remained on death row . This particular case is troubling because of so many different factors such as police misconduct missed DNA samples prosecutorial misconduct and Rodney Reed’s poor counsel . Rodney Reed was convicted based on semen sample.This is the ONLY piece of evidence brought against him. Now Rodney did have a legal relation with the deceased Stacey Stites. Does that mean that he killed Stacey .A black man dating caucasian a woman still intimidated a lot of folks back then it seemed .I mean it is Texas right ? No other evidence connected Rodney to this death not DNA from clothes or who knows her body that day but just semen . She was found in the forest and they didn’t find finger prints of dna from the clothes at all ! He was set for execution for November 20th.Thank God they delayed his execution and they are giving him a new trial .Our mission continues . I say our mission continues we need to Rebuild Renew and Change .Our system is broken for penalising an innocent African American man and basically framing him for something he did not do . When will this stop America. When will we learn to accept African Americans and stop trying to shun them from having the life we all deserve !

There is many more evidence pointed towards Jimmy Fennel .At this point they still have not incriminated Jimmy Fennell which is not okay ! Jimmy Fennel is the one who has a past .We are moving into 2020 a new decade this cannot continue . I applaud you guys because you guys understand the need for a new start.This should not be happening . The system should not be biased . However the system was biased because Jimmy Fennell is at home in his house while Rodney Reed is serving time living in a hell hole for something he did not do . He is sitting behind bars for a crime he did not commit! Why does an affair with a black woman intimidate Mr Fennell to go out in the morning to kill a woman who he is supposed to be marrying . Stacey Stites was his fiancé ! An innocent woman is now dead because of man who was was supposed to be law enforcement .Thats hypercritical ! Jimmy Fennel was an ex cop at the time. This same police officer pleaded guilty to kidnapping a woman in 2008 and he was released in 2018 The woman did say that Mr Fennel also raped her To top it off did you know that an inmate who served time with Mr Fennell signed a sworn affidavit swearing that he overheard Mr Fennell saying that he did in fact kill his ex wife for sleeping with a black man .This man deserves to be on death row . This man needs to be behind bars .Do You see the problem here now . When a black man is accused of doing a crime accused he immediately gets sentenced to long periods of time in prison .However a Caucasian guy doesn’t get questioned until years pass by and he is still not suspected of doing a thing . That can cost you one African American but the system does not care though right ?

Would you look at that Not only are black people shot for walking or stopped and frisked or pinned on the ground for not swiping a metrocard their lives are being framed and taken from them .This is not right .This is a continuing cycle that needs to be stopped .The big picture here is that the justice e system needs to be fixed and the justice system needs to stop taking advantage of black men .It needs to be stopped .It needs to be changed .The Justice system needs to be Rebuilded Renewed and Changed

America You have to do better . STOP THROWING AWAY THE BLACK MEN .Stop stealing their life . I say this because this is a great epidemic . This should have never been Hopelessness did not manifest .Thank God you guys stopped the process and voiced your opinions and used your phones for something positive . I need you guys to continue continue to put the government on blast .When you see something say something .Take out your phones !Record when you know you can’t do anything that’s eveidnece . You guys channeled that energy to move the process along for a better outcome of mankind and we thank you . I thank you . .Each one of you 5000,000 signatures got this innocent man case delayed .His case got delayed so that he may at least be heard .He deserves to be heard . He needs to be heard .You put your voices toward something as one people .In America unfortunately the prison system is failing our black men.Degrading our black men. Abusing our black men. We cannot sit around on this any longer . This needs to be changed . Our journey as black people has already been hard .The task of protecting our black men has been moved forward even more .The best is yet to come. . I want to thank everyone for using their voice for something . Every celebrity ,every news outlet ,every signature mattered and we are here now .We are here now to make sure this does not happen again. How many of us have an uncle or brother incarcerated for something they did not do .Being beaten behind bars by CO’s .Being abused .This needs to change . I have an uncle who served 10 years in prison for a marijuana charge something small as marijuana ! He served time in Upstate Correctional Prison. Meanwhile there are real rapists real murders real killers out there . This is how they treat our black men . Marijuana cannnot scar someone marijuana cannot harm someone .Howver Jimmy Fennell did ! Jimmy Fennel scared a whole family and scared an innocent black man by allowing him to take the fall .He deserves to be on death row bot people like Rodney Reed who at a tender age had to serve more than half his life in prison for something he did not do ! They looked at the facts and they still kept him hostage . The fiance told the truth and they still kept a black innocent man captive under the hostilities of the worst conditions . We have to fix this in our nation . The prison epidemic is becoming to big too known it should not be something that is common to us once in a while but everyday ? Let’s fix this America ! I will fix this !!

This essay I revised by adding a topic sentence because my ideas were all over the place . I followed TEA and it helped me get the message ascross bbetter . I organized and I added more things . I organized the paragraphs also by separating them like you told me to . There is a black man paragraph a Rodney Reed paragraph a Jimmy Fennel Paragraph and a conclusion .

Homework Assignments

GENRE HOW TO

When I did this homework I was excited . I got dressed up just to read my speech in class .This really represents a me as a writer because as I mentioned in the beginning of the year I like to write formally .I feel like that assignment was the beginning of me coming into how I want to write and how high I hold myself.This assignment really shows the standards I hold for myself . I would love to continue to write even better !I like how I mentioned that you have to have an attention grabber to key the audience in and you have to know what you’re talking about before you even speak so that it can flow . This is like any writing ,wether it be persuasive argument i’ve .So I really enjoyed this assignment .

BLOG POST

This homework assignment describes me and my classmates as writers because this was like the summary of when we did our first assignment. We realized that we have many things in common . For exhale me and Neil were both trouble some kids in school and we didn’t get the help we needed . We both feel like we could have been motivated more and strengthen more instead of teachers looking at our weakness. The. environment that we can agree on was not the best .Thereforw we just did what we knew ! I remember that day in class when people ben cried because we knew that teachers don’t know the kind of impact they have on students’ lives . If you don’t believe in your students then what is your puspise . I like how I said we are all here for a reason . It was like if this was meant to be . We all got along we all were fairly close we all agreed on the same thing and we all came for a purpose . That homework assignment was the start to great things .

Portfolios due by 5 pm today!

Hey everyone, just a friendly reminder that your portfolios are due by 5 pm today– I’ve already extended the deadline and I can’t extend it any further. I have to submit the whole class’ grades at once, so everything does need to be on. time.

If you have questions, first check the assignment sheet (under “units” at the top of the web page.) You can ask me questions, but I will be in and out of email today. Don’t forget the genre how-to along with Unit 3!

You may either post the document on OpenLab or email it to me at: chall@citytech.cuny.edu

I miss you guys already!

Final Portfolio

Final Reflection
Low Stake Homework 1 Genre How-to
Low Stakes Homework 2 Difficulty Paper
Unit 1 Essay
Unit 2 Curiosity Report Revised
Unit 3 Artist Statements

All my works are in PDF files

For my video, Its on youtube. – ” Unit 3: Curiosity Report, Death Penalty “

It didn’t let me attach a mp4 file.

Reflection( Final Portfolio )

From the first day of the semester until now I have improve myself as a writer overall . Learning new ways to go more in depth of my writing and make it interesting to my target audience. When it comes to writing about a certain topic the aim is not to bored the readers . By giving as much details as possible. But as always ask myself what do I do to become an even better writer .I’ve learned of how to search for articles and and explaining how it connects to my topic that way my readers are gonna get the info they want. I’m glad I was to learn new writing skills or techniques that can help me improve my writing and to improve myself as a writer .

When we first started unit one it was the first challenge that I’ve been tested on and unit one teached me about the first steps of towards becoming a better writer since this the first time that I have put these these new writing strategies onto my first major writing assignment. My Unit One essay was about my high school experience and this was aimed towards new incoming freshman and what I wanted them to know before they start their freshman year. The challenge was me and how to explain them I realized that at first I thought that I wasn’t telling them enough info or I thought I wasn’t going more in depth . So I think about what I was missing or doing wrong . But I truly realized that this was aiming towards newly incoming freshman and that I wasn’t directly talking to them about what they need to know about high school and that I was just telling them about my high school experience. Basically telling my audience that high school is fun I consider it as a gift as it lead you further in your education .What I learned from this unit was talking directly towards my targeted audience as a recent high school graduate . I said towards the end of my education essay that ” enjoy every moment and always take advantage of the education opportunities that they will offer you.” The reason why I said it because not only Im just talking about my high school experience I’m just saying in general that everyone’s high school experience was fun . Yes the important thing was keeping up with your academics but also you just got have fun in high school cause it’s only 4 years where the you are gonna make lots of memories. As I directly say this to my audience which are newly incoming freshman and this taught me on how to directly speak to my audience.

In unit 2 we talked about real life issues or any real life concerns that we would want to talk about in our next assignment . My topic was American intervention or American foreign policy . My audience was aiming towards people who have no idea or don’t have a better understanding about American foreign policy . What I included in my essay are 4 sources which are related to my topic of different genres like legal sources , interviews etc. I summarized this sources and took quotes from it so that I can explain what do the sourse mean . I explained about the past history of American foreign policy and also how is it affecting American foreign relations in the present. Also explaining about what citizens think about foreign policy from experts and how we are just simply getting involved too much outside our borders and who knows what can the outcome might be . In my essay I said that what will ” U.S involvement be in the future be the future what will might be the causes and effects for the United States and the rest of the world. Unit 2 was mainly me working on improving myself on analyzing sources and interpreting them into my own words and explaining it sufficiently in my essay .

Before we started on our education essay we practiced analyzing our essay topics so that we can better idea of what we planning on writing for our essay and our topic question . Also learning on how to analyze our resources like explaining our quotes and explaining on how are we going to convince our audience on what we are trying to say or prove to them . Also we write about what’s the whole purpose of what we are trying to explain or accomplish and also of what is the tone of the reader and what is he trying to explain. Also explaining the background the of our topic because the readers want to know what are the backgrounds of this certain topic .

Unit three was about the speech that I presented to the class I think I did pretty well on my speech at least I wasn’t nervous so my speech is basically a whole simple summary that was based off unit two which was on American foreign policy summarizing the past present and future and that what the limitations should be which is to simply” not get involved unless national security is a concern”. Unit three was me just basically having to address a topic in which many people often question or have and questions , comment or concerns about.

Throughout the semester I believe I improved myself as a writer from just normal bland essays to being able to analyze my resources and being able to explain my topic sentence to my readers and being to understand on how to directly talk to my readers of what I want them to know . I’ve learned a lot throughout this semester and hopefully I will be able to use these writing strategies to help me improve my writing even more. Thankful to learn these strategies that I was able to obtain and that these will help me out in the foreseeable future.

Snapshot of my writing reflection

Have you ever just stopped and took a moment to breathe after a long semester of hard work and grinding my professor. Professor hall gave me the easiest task in the world which is the stop and reflect think and appreciate give yourself a little pat on the back for all the hard work you have done this whole semester.

Before the semester started, I have reason to believe that was a poor writer and that That I didn’t write appropriately looking back at it now I realize that I my own personal writing style something that keeps the video listening laughing and simultaneously learning something at the same time if you ask me I’m a writing genius yes I have my flaws I don’t know how to spell for the life of me and my punctuation sucks according to professor hall you’ll learn spelling and grammar as long as you keep writing you’ll learn as you go I’m the queen of capitalization I mean sometimes I do it just because it looks pretty in the middle of my paragraph. girl, don’t you know I love me some run on sentences without a comma or period. When I’m Writing I have a tendency to write like I’m texting someone or I’m talking to my friend. But I struggle to write formally like for my law or something

Finishing up!

Hey everyone! We’re finishing up for the semester– make sure you’re working on your final portfolios, which are due on Thursday. Your comments on Unit 3 are all posted– unless you did not post your unit 3

A note: you need to revise 2 units. If you got an A on unit 3, but you still want to revise it, feel free– I’ll give you extra credit!!

Category: Final Portfolio

Final Portfolio

Final Portfolio

final prof

Final Portfolio

FINAL PORTFOLIO SHANIA ROMAIN thank you Professor Hall

Portfolios due by 5 pm today!

Final Portfolio

Reflection( Final Portfolio )

Snapshot of my writing reflection

Finishing up!

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The OpenLab at City Tech:A place to learn, work, and share

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