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African Americans are lazy. At least that’s what everyone says. But what is really going on within the African American community? Why are white people and other POC doing better than African Americans and what is the African American achievement gap? There are 4 factors that play into the lack of achievement in the African American community: Home life, school, mental health, and the history of African Americans. This topic is often ignored by not only white people/other POC but also by African Americans themselves. I think this ignorance comes from a lack of understanding and that’s what I hope to provide.

Growing up, I was fully surrounded by African Americans. In my predominantly African American public school, it was basically falling apart. Not only were grades on a decline but also the behavior of the students. It felt like I was the only one focused on success. I even grew apart from some of my peers. Why did it feel like everyone in my predominantly black public school was failing and didn’t care? I didn’t know anything about the achievement gap and I even thought sometimes that they were throwing their lives away. But their failure wasn’t entirely their fault. I mean, how were they supposed to thrive in an environment where books were falling apart, physical violence was an everyday thing, and parents just sort of… gave up?

History matters. When speaking of African American hardships, it feels like it’s almost impossible to not mention our history. The NAEYC says “African Americans have been exposed to generations of legal and illegal measures to deny them basic rights.” Schools are still highly segregated and not to mention that segregation ended in 1964, meaning my grandparents went to legally segregated schools. Thinking that the effects of segregation are not still very apparent is silly. Predominantly black districts are more likely to be underfunded than predominantly white districts. How can our environment affect our level of success? Well, our environment can create toxic stress. The Economic Policy Institute says “characteristics such as excessive litter, vandalism, deteriorated and overcrowded housing, graffiti, noise, public drug and alcohol use, and conflict with neighbors in close quarters—can exacerbate children’s toxic stress response to frightening or threatening events and impede parents’ ability to protect children from that response.” Kids may have to already deal with this at home but also imagine these things occurring in school. I know that I’ve witnessed all of this by middle school and many other African American children. So how are we supposed to succeed in a school with that environment? Almost impossible to not to give in to that stress.

How many frightening experiences 1,007 kindergarten kids have had are displayed. The results are split by race and family income.

Many may be asking, what about the African American kids in a better situation? The Atlantic says “Even black children in the middle class are more likely to backslide into a lower class or stay middle class.” They also go on to say that parents in the top 50% regarding income, also backslide in their adulthood. This just goes to show that even when success is reached, it is not guaranteed to stay. Based on my experience with middle class African American kids my age, we do a lot of backsliding due to wanting to be “hood” or at least what they perceive as hood. That has to do with how people think an African American should act. Black people have expressed time and time again about how their community calls them “whitewashed” when they don’t exhibit stereotypical traits like: listening to rap, talking “proper”, or having straight hair.

Comparison of the income quantiles of white and black people in America.

The toxic stress put onto African American is already a lot to handle. Now think about the mentally ill Black Americans. One reason being black and mentally ill is stigmatized because of how expensive it can be. NCBI says “Differences in access to insurance and other mechanisms to defray costs, in levels of illness or patterns of symptom expression, in health-risk behaviors, and in beliefs, preferences, and help-seeking traditions can also explain disparities.” when referring to the lack of mentally ill representation of the black community. Black kids on TikTok even share their experiences with telling their parents that they are mentally ill. A lot are met with “no you are not”. How can ignoring mental health affect our achievements? Things like depression can leave a child with no motivation to do school work. Why not just seek mental help? “One study of clients discharged from State mental hospitals found that African Americans were substantially more likely than others to be hospitalized again during the ensuing year” and “In another study of treatment for depression, African Americans proved similar to whites in response to psychotherapy and medication, except that African Americans had less improvement in their ability to function in the community”. So is treatment even working for African Americans? Not to mention that a large number of black students are being suspended over and over instead of mentally evaluated or given real help. They tend to be punished more than helped.

Now the main question is how do we close this gap? I found that black representation could help this gap (something that African Americans have been fighting for for years!). Chalkbeat Philadelphia says “Black teachers, in particular, are necessary to help black students develop a positive racial identity and ensure they have the tools to combat all of the negative images and messages they receive about them, their people, and their community,”. Representation benefits African American students and White students as well. Chalkbeat Philadelphia also states that White kids need to have diversity in order to see the different viewpoints and culture of POC.

I was only able to touch on a small portion of this topic. There is a lot more to it that I won’t be able to to put into words. But I want to bring awareness to this gap so that we have more solutions to fix it. It takes a lot of digging to even find articles on the achievement gap. I’ve come to understand my old peers a lot more. I now understand that I was lucky enough to thrive through the madness and some may never make it out. I’m not even sure how long until we are able to make progress on closing this gap. But I do know it won’t be quick and a majority of African Americans will continue to fail before we can succeed.

Annotated Bibliography

“Police Brutality”, is the excessive and unwarranted use of force by law enforcement. In the United States “qualified immunity”, is used to protect officers from litigation after incidents of police violence. Crazy right? I know you are getting tired of hearing about how another black person has been killed by the police. Well I am and if you didn’t know I am a black African American. In the first 8 months of 2020, 164 black people were killed, stated by LI Cohen . IN THE FIRST 8 MONTHS, are you serious.
My connection to this topic is myself being a black woman. I’m tired of hearing how white police officers brutality cleaning Black Afrain American. I’m going to be totally honest. I’m scared because I feel like it’s getting worse and I fear for me and my family’s safety. I think this is important for others to know because it happens all the time and it’s not like the police get the consequences that they really deserve. This issue is significant because we are fearing people that are supposed to protect us. This was stated in another article, “For young men of color, police use of force is among the leading causes of death.” This here picture represents an estimated lifetime risk of being killed by police by force as while as sex. This data is from 2013 to 2018. You can’t make these things up. I think it is important for me to know these things because I am a black woman and I have brothers and a father that at any time could be a risk. I can start to educate myself now because anything can happen. Let me tell you about a man named Walter Wallace Jr., he was a 27 year old man. He was mentally ill and his mother tried to let the police know that but they didn’t listen. He was armed with a knife but was 20 feet away from the cops and yeah should have put it down when and if they even asked him to. But as you should know cops carry teasers, they didn’t need to shoot SEVERAL TIMES, if they had TEASERS. Now read this article and tell me what you think. Crazy right? Same situation but you know the difference? He was a “vicious” black man if they were “fearing” for their lives. In conclusion, I wonder if this is ever going to stop. When are white police officers going to start using their none racist brains when it comes to handling a situation with black people? When I continue my research, I hope to learn more about defunding the police because this will solve most of the problems in the world. Like there is no reason ANYONE should be afraid of someone/system that is supposed to protect us from any harm but is causing the most harm . When it is going to happen?, is it still even something that people are stealing trying to enforce?

When you were younger, have you ever gone to a petting zoo? Do you remember your young innocent self being fascinated by cupping your hand and letting those adorable baby goats and piglets eat pellets out of your hand? You would laugh as it’s tongue tickled your hand and you were so content and happy. If that was you, flash forward to now. Do you still have that love and contentment for animals? Cows, pigs, chickens, turkeys, and all the other animals you pet at those petting zoos are [highly intelligent creatures] (https://www.lcanimal.org/index.php/campaigns/other-issues/veganism) that live [short, fearful lives] (https://navs-online.org/articles/veganism-animal-rights/) in extremely tight crates in modern factory farms. You can start to answer this question by looking down at your plate during dinner.

The [image] (https://sentientmedia.org/slaughterhouses/) above displays terrified, dirty, and cramped pigs waiting to be killed at a horrifying slaughter house.

For this project, I was drawn to vegetarianism and animal cruelty because I was very passionate about compassion for animals, and I myself ate plant based. I would watch videos about animal cruelty and think back to those summers when I would go to a petting zoo and cry because my parents wouldn’t let me keep this one baby pig that I loved so deeply. These videos shattered my heart and that’s all it took for me to not eat meat. But I know that not all people are like this. Not all people care about animals like I do, and that’s okay. It doesn’t make you a bad person. My goal for this project was to bring awareness to the extremely negative outcomes of eating meat. Going into this research, I encouraged vegetarianism because it’s ethically wrong, but the more I got deeper into this topic, I realized that it’s not just about killing animals.

Animal agriculture doesn’t just affect animals, it’s what animal agriculture is doing to us humans and the earth all wrapped up in one. Some people might take it as gratitude and compassion towards animals, but eating meat from animals is also largely contributing to global warming and terrible for our human health. We can attack the topic of eating meat from so many different areas: Compassion, climate crisis, and human health. There are so many red flags that point humans away from consuming animal meat but they choose to ignore it for a short euphoric state of enjoying a medium rare steak. People don’t want to lower their meat consumption because they think they have to be fully vegan and master commitment, but the truth is [lowering your daily meat consumption] (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jun/19/why-you-should-go-animal-free-arguments-in-favour-of-meat-eating-debunked-plant-based) will help the environment tremendously. There are many more layers to vegetarianism than you might think.

The first point I wanted to hit was compassion. Animals are just like us, they are living breathing creatures with the same pain tolerance as humans and consciousness. The only difference between humans and animals is that animals are incomplete. Animals can’t use words like, “Hey, human! That really hurts and I am extremely in pain and uncomfortable.” Us humans take advantage of this incompleteness because animals can’t speak for their rights in this human dominant world. Animals are injected with hormones and live in horrifying conditions in factory farms. This is why us humans have to speak up for animal rights because they can’t for themselves. Meat eaters never see the horrors of slaughterhouses in the average animal product industry. The documentary [“Earthlings”,] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gqwpfEcBjI&t=1652s) directed and written by Shaun Monson, really put eating animal meat in a different perspective. The film stated, “Killing an animal is in itself a troubling act. It has been said that if we had to kill our own meat, we would all be vegetarians.” What if as humans, we ate our own kind, and we had to go through all the suffering in animal slaughterhouses? We would have a choice right? To eat our own meat or switch to a vegetarian diet. Of course we would choose to go vegetarian because it is the most humane thing to do and we would do this to save our own skin. Why can’t we do the same for animals? Humanizing the animals and seeing it through their perspective makes you human, the good kind.

The image above showcases the horrific and unhealthy conditions animals have to face in factory farms. Image credit: [Tia Schwab] (https://www.nationofchange.org/2019/12/04/if-factory-farm-conditions-are-unhealthy-for-animals-theyre-bad-for-people-too/)

It was really interesting seeing this topic intersect and merge with another problem I’m passionate about; the climate crisis. Cutting down rainforests, greenhouse gasses, burning fossil fuels, plastic pollution, and now I can add farming livestock to the list. Livestock production contributes to [15%] (https://www.worldanimalprotection.org/blogs/not-convinced-you-could-become-vegetarian-eating-less-meat-still-better-farm-animals-planet) of global greenhouse gas emissions. This is further than cars, planes, buses, and other forms of transportation put together. Rainforests are also essential to life on earth because they regulate the water cycle on this planet and absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, but rainforests are getting cut down to raise more cattle and livestock. This means, [for every 257 hamburgers produced every second, one football field of rainforest is destroyed.] (https://www.happycow.net/vegtopics/why-vegetarian)

The picture above shows many examples of how animal agriculture affects our planet and it’s big impact on climate change. Credit: [Cowspiracy] (https://www.cowspiracy.com/infographic)

If you’re still not convinced to switch to a more plant based diet, just know that there are benefits for you too. According to the American Diabetic Association, “Vegetarians have a reduced risk of heart disease, obesity, colon cancer, adult-onset diabetes, osteoporosis, gout, gallstones, kidney stones, lung cancer, and breast cancer.” You can avoid future health problems and stress about medical bills by simply avoiding animal meat. It’s better for the body and the spirit as well. Some people think that we need to eat meat in order to get protein, but the truth is there is no lack of protein. All the protein our body needs can be found in plant based sources like beans, nuts, and whole grains. You don’t have the weight and guilt of eating a living creature on your shoulders to be healthy, and that feels great.

The research I’ve done has really taught me to be open minded. To not expect and have a full picture of a problem in your mind. I went into this research knowing that eating animal meat was ethically wrong, and my goal was to convince others to have compassion for animals and eat plant based. Coming out of this research, my gears shifted and I noted that eating meat is a much bigger problem than I thought, and my interest for this topic expanded. It did not just kill highly intelligent and conscious animals, but it’s also slowly killing our earth and our bodies. After doing this research, it made me realize how important our role is in this situation. How important our actions are, but I know how extremely hard it is to switch to this lifestyle. I remember not being able to resist bacon on a Saturday morning when I first decided to become vegetarian. I knew all the negative impacts it had on animals, the earth, and our bodies, but I still couldn’t hold back. This made me further question if this has something to do with the reward system in our brains. What if some people just can’t stop eating meat because it increases their dopamine level which is the brain’s reward system, even if they know all the damage animals meat can do? I think learning about the brain’s reward system can get me one step closer to help convince others to eat plant based.

[Annotated Bibliography] (https://docs.google.com/document/d/11OZfEtHJE1pv1S6ib5i2BsnjN8tAx580aM9n3JArBVE/edit?usp=sharing)

Anti Semitism and its effect in America.

Hi, welcome to my project on anti-Semitism in America. My goals for this project is to inform the reader on this topic and shed light on its deep crack in US history. So let’s begin.

If you don’t know what anti-Semitism is it is the act of hating the Jewish race. It was originality made mainstream in the crusades and with Martin Luther’s reforms to Christianity. This issue is a very pressing matter in the USA. It has run deep into our core and shadows many real-world events that are happing right now. For example, black people of this country for a long time could not attend certain colleges and get loans on homes. That same thing was happing to the jews at the exact same time. In fact, if you look around the country you can find some Jewish colleges such as Brandeis University.

For me, this topic hits closer to home because I am in fact Jewish and wish to fight this injustice. Also, I love to research history, this can include euro-centric things like ww2 or how gran Columbia was formed. And thought my research of America it shocked me of how much anti-Semitism there was. I feel like for this reason that if we look into past parts of anti-Semitism we can see how the future can pan out.

My research so far has shown a new light on this situation. For example, when I was doing my teacher I found that in 2018 it had the highest anti-Semitic activity that was reported since 1970. This along with the recent start of the black lives protests show that white supremacists movements are on the rise again.

Even with my research on this project I still wonder many things such as why is it still around today even though there are more facts on how bad this is or how is social media effect the spread? Is it decreasing it or increasing it? One of the things that I wonder the most about is how can we plug this poison that is sleeping out of America’s deepest cracks?

As with many things I still hope to learn more about this situation. As I all ready stated I wish to learn more about the social media aspect of it and I still want to learn more about where It came from. Finally, I would like to know more about how in wartime how did the Americans treat their jews. In the holocaust did the general public not know about it and did nothing accordingly or did they know and threw them to the curbside? Finally, the last question I want to learn about is the immigrating process of the easternmost jews in Russia into America.

Thank you for reading this, I hope you have learned a lot about my topic and have encouraged you to seek better research and education on the topic of Anti Semitism in America, mabby my questions inspired you to do your own research and questing of your own. Thank you for reading and I hope to see you soon.

Sources - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1u87PatNP1zcnBMsWXXC0apCz-teIm1DT00lulKaJj28/edit?usp=sharing

Amjed Washaha Mrs. Giknis English 1 22/3/2021 Social Media Impact On Sexually Based Crimes Hello, did you know that in 2013 researchers have concluded that the number of child pornography images had increased 1500% since 1988?! Also, there was a 375% increase in the amount of child pornography websites between February of 2001 and July 2001, just five months apart! Now imagine how high that number has increased with the new modernization of computers and cybersecurity. Now if you don’t see the problem here you aren’t blind you choose not to see. This inspired me to do my own investigation into this topic. As I discussed in my earlier post, Twitter the infamous social media platform know primarily for political nonsense and cancel culture has some serious issues with the exchanging and sale of unsolicited pornography of not only minors but adults as well. Adults that are ignorant to the fact that their private photos and videos are being sold and exchanged on sites such as Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. With the amount of users apps such as Twitter have you would expect that moderation for things such as this would be good and looked after well no Twitter does nothing to fix this issue only if you report the user directly will Twitter do something. Well then report all of the accounts right? There are so many accounts that it would be impossible for me to do so and even if I do these accounts are what we call “throwaways” which are accounts that have to link to the user and can be “thrown away” at any time. After they are removed or throw away their account they just make a new one and start their operations up again. Source: Twitter Names and hashtags covered to prevent the advertising of illegal activities It doesn’t take much to fully understand what is going on here. But there are some things to explain like what does “S2R” mean, well it means “send to receive” this is a tactic these criminals use to obtain a greater stock but also make sure you are an actual buyer and not a cop or someone that is just trying to toy with them. Amongst other things we see one user state that they have 100 gigabytes of material on deck which for comparison is around 20,000 songs or in our circumstances around 200 hours in standard definition video or even 100,000 photos according to “Kenstechtips.com”. When you think about it this is one person amongst thousands in this world and he already has enough material to last him a lifetime. Now, do you see the problem?

If you have keen eyes you will see that all of these posts are very recent with the oldest being only made a day before this article was written (24/3/2021) and one even been made only nine hours ago. Source: Twitter

In this snapshot, I have made the decision to not cover the search bar. The hashtag “Megalinks’ ’ refers to an anonymous file-sharing application known as “Mega.nz”. I do not hold Mega.nz accountable for the actions we see displayed here as their services help small businesses and developers share data without the fear of the data being compromised. The reason I have decided to share this information with you is that I have come to the realization that anyone looking to purchase this crude material will go above and beyond to obtain it and it is quite easy to obtain information on this topic. From what we have concluded these accounts are “throwaways” and they share material using anonymous methods, the combination of these two tactics offers these criminals total anonymity. So what is being done about this issue? Nothing on Twitters’ part at least, Twitter hasn’t even issued out a statement on the matter. As of March 25th, 2021 the only action taken against these criminals has been mass reportings and floodings of the threads. Users will “flood” the hashtag “megalinks” with gifs and memes shaming the child pornography market as shown in the image below. Reporting doesn’t do much but this flooding tactic has a lot of potentials to help hide the users selling the nefarious photos and videos.

Here we see a user flooding the #megalink thread with something a little more friendly. Link from the Zelda series! Source: Twitter
What can you do? Even though users can make new accounts at anytime mass reporting can get the seller off the platform and make them move to more discrete and harder to reach parts of the internet. Although this might not solve the problem it will make it harder for first-timers to purchase and get addicted, it will also shield children from stumbling upon such vulgar media. Email Twitter, emailing twitter’s support center can help inform twitter of these criminals’ existence. If all else fails hit them where it hurts their wallet! Contact investors let them know what is going on in the company they have money invested into. And finally, be safe whilst doing research for this project I had to cut out many things for as it was too vulgar for a school setting I also stumbled unwarranted photos whilst looking through threads while the photo is down now I cannot say for sure if it was re-uploaded again. Thank you for reading let us make a difference!

Twitter support→ support@twitter.com List of top 5 investors and emails: .The Vanguard Group, Inc. (Email): institutional@vanguard.com .Morgan Stanley. (Email): prospectus@morganstanley.com .BlackRock Fund Advisors Inc. (Email): complaint.info@financial-ombudsman.org.uk .SSgA Funds Management, Inc. (Email): geam_web@ssga.com. .ClearBridge Investments LLC. (Email): info@clearbridge.com

Suicide eliminates the potential to open a new chapter of life.

Suicide is definitely a problem in our society today and also the second leading causes of death between ages 15 to 24 according to US Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Many people today are or know of someone who has suicidal thoughts and organizations like the Suicide Prevention Hotline would like to help prevent these people from taking their own life. There are many ways to prevent the person from committing therefore we should make a huge effort as a society to make sure these people have the support they need. This is where regular people like me and you come in to support and prevent this cause.

Personally, I have never experienced such thoughts but I think everyone might know someone who does. I would like to bring this issue into light as something very important and allow us to observe our surroundings more. I believe that there’s always someone willing to listen to you and just because your closest ones don’t seem to care, even strangers are willing to listen. This is was a reason why the Suicide Hotline is available for everyone.

The second leading causes of death for some age groups was suicide in 2018 and sadly the ages start from as low as 10 to around 34 years old. In the US, one in five teengaers think about attempting suicide every year and this can be affected by many factors which may include certain life experiences, mental disorders, alcohol and much more.

A chart of the top leading causes of deaths by age groups in the US in 2018.

One of which is ninety percent of people who die by suicide have a mental health condition that may be treatable. In 2016, more than 90 percent of people that took their own life had depression or other mental disorders. Understandably many teenagers feel the pressure and stress to succeed in the future or worrying about things out of their control. As time passes and changes happen in our lives, the more stressful it might seem to make discoveries like what you’re passionate about, high school or college applications, career choices and many more.

TW: THE VIDEO TALKS ABOUT SEXUAL HARASSMENT, SUICIDE AND MORE SENSITIVE TOPICS

A touching story and the journey of Travis, a suicide survivor and how his experience feeling these tough emotions.

Being able to observe your surroundings and communicate with people around you can be difficult but this should not stop you from saving a life. There are many ways you can look out for yourself and your friends by finding warning signs of when someone may be feeling off. One common warning sign is having a mental disorder. This topic isn’t something everyone can openly speak about but always remember to check up on your friends and family to make sure they are okay. There are many ways to prevent someone else from taking their life like therapy.

There’s many kinds of therapy but two types of therapy that I would like to mention recommends others to look into if they are or know of someone who is struggling. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) has been shown to help people who are depressed. CBT can help people acknowledge their negative thoughts and find a positive way to cope with these thoughts so they don’t lead to unhealthy behaviors. Dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) is also helpful to those who are depressed but the therapy makes you more aware of the negative feelings and cope with them kind of on the spot. This can include breathing exercises or meditation.

Therapy is not the only way to prevent suicide. If you notice odd behavior or situations that may cause an individual to feel a negative way, you can always be a support friend and be there for them if they need someone. There are so many ways to prevent such events from happening and everyone should acknowledge the events that may lead up to a bad ending.

Studying more on this topic continues to add onto my mindset of we don’t really know what everyone is going through. The feelings and thoughts suicidal people might experience are indescribable and I don’t wish anyone to feel this way so I think as a society we should make a greater effort to prevent it. I am very interested in seeing the newer ways doctors and researchers find helpful in supporting suicidal behavior and how to notice before things get serious. I genuinely think the suicide should not be so high and wondering if we continue to move on in a society that doesn’t prioritize all lives, how many generations will live on?

Annotated Bibliography

What do you imagine would be an ideal body type? You probably think skinny, thin and tall. Now did you achieve that body type or are working towards that body type? Our society is making it seem like there is only one beautiful, healthy body type. It can be very difficult to feel comfortable in your own skin when you are constantly fed this narrative that fat people are ugly or people who are too skinny are unhealthy. It’s like you are only allowed to look a certain way to be deserving of self love. That’s why The Body Positivity Movement was created “…to help people with marginalized bodies (read: fat, queer, trans, bodies of color, and more) feel entitled to self-love, something that had previously been reserved for people in privileged (read: thin, white, fit) bodies,” stated by Julia Malacoff in “Where the Body-Positivity Movement Stands and Where it Needs to Go”. I want to impact the Body Positivity Movement positivity by trying to clear misconceptions that body positivity can’t be for fat or too skinny people. Everyone deserves to love and be comfortable in their own body.

I’ve always been a person to not care about expectations on my appearance but sometimes it can be hard. People constantly compare themselves to each other whether it’s consciously or subconsciously. It’s hard to see my friends cry themselves to sleep knowing they don’t have society’s ideal body type. “That is an enormous (and nonsensical) leap from trying not to hate yourself or making the effort to stop forcing yourself to fit into an impossible cultural standard.” says Kaila Prins, a body positivity wellness coach and burlesque teacher in ‘What Does Body Positivity Actually Mean?’ by Psychology Today. The standards society makes doesn’t mean you are healthy being a certain size but it doesn’t mean you aren’t healthy either. It is unrealistic. I don’t want to see people in my life starve and degrade themselves because they think they look ugly. Diversity is a good thing and we should accept our unique looks.

brief introduction to The Body Positivity Movement

There’s been a lot of misconceptions about body positivity. Especially nowadays, there’s been a lot of backlash to plus-size people promoting body positivity and the audience saying it’s promoting obesity and unhealthy lifestyle. Why can’t plus-sized people love themselves? Are only skinny people allowed to promote body positivity? Plus-sized people aren’t any less human than anyone on the streets. They have hobbies, interests, and goals. Some people have to live “overweight” in society to maintain a healthy body. It is disrespectful to assume someone is unhealthy because they aren’t the skinniest. In some cases, people don’t take care of their body and overeat but it’s unrealistic to let that group of people represent the whole plus-sized community.

There is no perfect body. We are all unique and beautiful.

Body positivity isn’t about being skinner or losing weight. It’s about feeling comfortable in your body and responding to your body’s needs such as hunger. There is no image of what a “healthy body” should look like. Everyone’s body is different therefore there shouldn’t be a standard. Everyone’s version of healthy is different. When plus-sized body positivity influencers decide to lose weight, they are portrayed as “traitors” for not showing body positivity by changing; this misconception has led their supporters to turn on them. These misconceptions make it extremely hard for anyone to promote body positivity. If plus-sized influencers have to live plus-sized forever and can no longer change their body how they want because they would be “betraying” the movement, then what’s the point of promoting to be happy with your body? Dieting and changing your body has nothing to do with body positivity as long as you feel comfortable and happy, there should be no problem. There’s research that states if you hate yourself, you won’t take care of yourself. Therefore, if plus-sized influencers can’t diet or lose weight for their personal reasons then I see no reason why they’ve been supported so long.

Deep insight of plus-size models and judgements as a body positivity influencer

I don’t blame supporters or daily people for not understanding the body positivity movement. There is no official definition for body positivity. Our society has fed us too well with lies and unrealistic expectations. I always thought body positivity was very straightforward but after diving in, I realized how big the spectrum is. Not only plus-sized people getting backlash but skinny people are getting backlash also. I’m glad certain magazines decide to ban photoshop on their pictures and clothing brands expanding their sizes. There is progress to be made but at least we are going somewhere. I wonder when people will feel like being fat isn’t gross or only skinny people are pretty. I hope I can learn more on the pressures of not only being an influencer but a body positivity influencer. How does it feel that your image is based on your body? Is it scary to change your body and constantly be examined by your supporters? Being a promoter of body positivity, is it more beneficial to you or your supporters? Why?

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1c9rvk1PNyb74YR5yqH7Y9UDttaeQWZvLic3hRLQuwaY/edit?usp=sharing

Picture from [National Geographic] (https://www.nationalgeographic/) of a starving polar bear.

What is something that you care about? Do you have any pets at home or care for any? Have you seen something that you felt was wrong and wanted to do something about it? Well, that is what this all is about. I wanted to bring attention to climate change and the effect it’s having on polar bears.

I saw this kind of influence on tv of polar bears starving and even in some cartoons. I didn’t pay it much mind. It was until I actually looked into the topic that I started to care about it. I am a person who loves animals and I care for a cat of my own. I hate seeing animals being mistreated and hate to see animals in poor conditions. Another reason why I care about this subject is that we can do something but a lot of people don’t care. The earth is getting warmer due to climate change and is affecting the animals in the arctic mainly polar bears.

Graph showing the 19 polar bear subpopulation from the [WWF] (https://arcticwwf.org/newsroom/stories/polar-bear-assessment-brings-good-and-troubling-news/) article. From the research I have done about polar bears there are 19 subpopulations of polar bears. About 2 of the 19 subpopulations have a stable population going for the past 8 years. For about 7 of the other subpopulations, we don’t know how they are being The decline in sea ice due to climate change has affected how polar bears reproduce and hunt. There is a time in the year where sea ice is supposed to freeze and make more, but in recent, this process has been shortened and less sea ice has been made due to climate change.

Graphs from the [Carbon Brief website] ( https://www.carbonbrief.org/polar-bears-and-climate-change-what-does-the-science-say) showing the trend of sea-ice from 18 of the 19 polar bear populations in the past 3 decades.

Since the ice caps are melting polar bears are having to move closer to land when their main food source seals are at sea. This causes polar bears to starve for days, have no stamina, and die from starvation. Polar bears also need a lot of food to survive so they wouldn’t even be fine if they found a new source of food on land. Polar bears have been seen to up to a total of 200 pounds of food in one sitting. I also found out from the national geographic study on polar bears that they use about 12,000 calories per day even though they mostly stay still. There was a study on a polar bear for 9 days. By the end of the journey, she had lost the cub she was traveling with and 22 pounds of her body weight.

Picture of polar bear cubs in their den while their mother hunts from [Carbon Brief] (.https://www.carbon brief.org/polar-bears-and-climate-change-what-does-the-science-say)

Greenhouse gases are a major threat to polar bears causing global warming and sea ice to melt. Even though there have been some measures to stop greenhouse gases it is not enough and they are still rising and won’t stop until 2040. But by the time 2040 does come the population of polar bears will be about 40% of what it is now.

There is still time to help. There are ways I can help and so can you. There are sites online where you can [donate] (https://polarbearsinternational.org/donate/us/) to save polar bears. Or even adopt one which I don’t recommend if you don’t have any animal experience or can deal with a 1-ton bear living with you. I have many ideas I can do to help this post. Let’s all work together to save polar bears and stop global warming, all we need to do is try.

Education is the backbone of our society. Sometimes, it’s more of an invisible one. If you aren’t in school, it’s especially easy to brush the whole idea out of your way, because it no longer concerns you. Doesn’t it? Except education is the biggest tool we give to the next generation. What we teach, what we don’t teach, who we teach, who we don’t teach. How we teach the next generation to follow in our footsteps, or how we teach them to create their own path. As important as education is, there are still so many issues with it. Are teachers really being appreciated? Are students actually learning? Do they want to go to school? Why are we giving one set of opportunities to one group of kids, while another group’s opportunities are being taken away? Throughout my research, I wanted to learn about these questions and more, and see what I could do about it.

My mom has been a teacher for 20 years. Now she is getting her PHD in music education. I’ve seen her many schools, seen how she teaches, and even how she learns from her students. I’ve been to teacher strikes, seen the arts as more than an add on, and been there to watch from the other side. Something that struck me about all the schools I’d ever seen was funding. I remember going to a school when I was younger that had classes for engineering for toddlers. There were smart boards in every room, bathrooms on every floor and a clean feel to the entire school. Other schools I went to were great, but I remember things like having the only bathroom be in the basement, having 30 kids or more in classes while other schools only had 15. It was one of the first things that came to my mind about schools, and I was curious about the federal budget, so that’s where I started.

SOURCE 1:

The first source I looked at was called “Federal Spending: Where does the money go?”. This source goes in depth about the way federal spending is used in the United States. This article shares that federal spending is divided into three sections: Discretionary spending, Mandatory spending, and interest on debt. This article also goes into depth about the way federal spending was used in 2015. In that year, the budget was 3.8 trillion dollars, which was 21% of the US economy. The Discretionary spending made up 29.34% of the budget (1.11 trillion), the mandatory spending made up 64.63% (2.45 trillion), and interest on debt was 6.03% (229.15 billion). It gives pie charts as well that describe the way this money was used for each section.

The ‘National Priorities Project’, which is the site where the article is found, seems to be a well respected and trusted force. There isn’t a direct author of the article, but there is a team for the organization which includes Lindsey Koshgarian, Ashik Siddique, Lorah Steichen, and their consultant Jason Leveille. Their mission is to inspire “individuals and movements to take action so our federal resources prioritize peace, shared prosperity, and economic security for all”. The bias of this source would probably be to only show the flaws of the system. Some of the information is also a little outdated, from 2015. It is helpful in understanding the past, but in order to get the best possible information it must be corroborated with a more recent source.

{English 9} (www.nationalpriorities.org/budget-basics/federal-budget-101/spending/)

{You and the World} (www.nationalpriorities.org/budget-basics/federal-budget-101/spending/)

These pie charts are really attention-getting because they aren’t balanced. There are times when some things are prioritized over others, but it poses the questions: ‘who decides what is prioritized? And for what purpose? Is profit valued, or people?’. The discretionary chart is the most shocking, because the Military gets 53.71% allotted to it, whereas other categories like food and agriculture (1.18%), science (3.51%), housing and community (5.68%), and education (6.28%) get the far lower end of the deal. And why was the military given so much in the first place? The other chart is also imbalanced, but it seems more reasonable that ‘medicare and health’ and ‘social security, unemployment, and labor’ were given more money.

{You and the World} (www.nationalpriorities.org/budget-basics/federal-budget-101/spending/)

The specifics:

Science: 0.78%- 29.81 billion Energy and Environment: 1.17%-44.85 billion International Affairs: 1.31%-50.22 billion Housing and Community: 1.60%-61.48 billion Transportation: 2.22%-84.99 billion Education: 2.67%-102.26 billion Food and Agriculture: 3.54%-135.7 billion Veteran’s Benefits: 4.19%-160.63 billion Interest on Debt: 5.97%-229.15 billion Military: 15.88%-609.3 billion Medicare and Health: 27.42%-1.05 trillion Social Security, Unemployment, and labor: 33.26%-1.28 trillion

The final graph had the best representation of the federal budget as a whole. The website showed the different percentages and values for each slice of the pie, as seen above. Again, the military in the whole amount was surprising compared to all others that were scrunched up near the top. There was also a solid percentage for education, 2.67%, which would be corroborated to make sure the information was still accurate.

After looking at this source, I had a better understanding of the way the federal budget was divided. But I also wondered: “Is the federal budget the main source of funding for many of these programs? To what degree does the money given to each change the outcomes?”. I needed to not only corroborate my information, but I needed to see how it related to my issue of Education Funding.

SOURCE 2:

This site was an infographic. There is a series of graphs that show how the federal budget was used in 2019. It gave information on the revenues, where the money came from, and how the money was spent. Just like in source 2, the site described specifics in Mandatory, Discretionary, and Interest on Debt. It even provided additional information on deficits and surpluses, and each category of the federal budget provided more facts and graphs to hopefully display the information. This infographic came from the website “Congressional Budget Office”, which was a site founded in 1975. Each year, the economists and budget analysts produce dozens of reports stating objective, impartial analysis on the economy. It was important to keep an eye out for any biases, but the site was true to its word and provided only the facts. It seemed to be a reliable source.

{You and the World} (www.cbo.gov/publication/56324)

This showed very similar percentages to the year 2015. Since source 1 had been out of date, this source was very helpful in figuring out what was accurate and what was not. They were actually very similar, and there weren’t huge changes. Mandatory was still about 61% (2015 65%), Discretionary was 30% (2015 29%), Interest on Debt 9% (2015 6%). However, 2020 was also a huge year for the economy, with Covid 19 and lots of unemployment. It was much easier to understand the struggles of the past with this graph, but there was still more to understand. After learning the federal budget only accounted for about 8% of education, it was easy to wonder if this section of research was all that helpful. But things had changed a lot in 2020 and 2021, so it still felt like there was information missing.

{You and the World} (www.cbo.gov/publication/56324)

As for this graph, I wanted to compare it to the one found in source one:

2015:

Social security, Unemployment, and labor: 33.26%

Medicare & Health: 27.42%

Science: 0.78%-
Energy and Environment: 1.17% International Affairs: 1.31% Housing and Community: 1.60% Transportation: 2.22% Education: 2.67% Food and Agriculture: 3.54% Veteran’s Benefits: 4.19% ^^^^^^^17.48

Military: 15.88%

Interest on Debt: 5.97%

2019:

Social security: 23%

Medicare & Medicaid: 24%

Other & Nondefense: 30%

Defense: 15%

Net interest: 9%

As you can see above, the two years were actually very similar. Percentages were used to have a more equivalent comparison. Everything was close together, which was helpful to know because in a regular year, it seemed that this was what the percentages would be. The categories were a little hard, because they used some different sections throughout the sources. However, most of the gist was still there. This information was corroborated across sites and years, so it was pretty clear what a regular year would be like. However, Covid 19 had changed the economy, and it felt important to gather that information in the future.

This source helped me corroborate the information in source 1. I knew what I had was an accurate representation of a regular year in the United States. But I also realized that a regular year wasn’t the only thing I needed, because in order for my information to have an impact, it needed to relate to our situation now, in 2021. I also needed to be able to see how much the information I found impacted my issue in the first place. If the federal budget doesn’t have a huge impact on education funding, it would be more beneficial to focus my efforts elsewhere.

SOURCE 3:

This article, “Fixing Chronic Disinvestment in K-12 schools” by Lisette Partelow, explores the question and problem of Chronic Disinvestment in K-12 schools. They explore deep cuts in education, and how schools have responded to that. Specifically, the article talks a lot about the aftereffects of the 2008 Great Recession, where many states systematically disinvested in K-12 funding. They describe the effect that money, salaries, and lack of funding affects schools and describe ways to address and solve these problems. They came to the conclusion that “If education is truly to be an engine of opportunity and economic mobility, states and the federal government must invest far more in the communities that need resources most.”. This website, “Center for American Progress” has more than a hundred people working on it, all different types of researchers and positions. It is clearly a well established organization. It has a real author, a full bibliography at the bottom, and is very thorough. It is very likely a reliable source. The source’s bias would most likely be giving information that states their cause only. They are less likely to show things that contradict what they are saying, so it would be helpful to again corroborate other sources.

“On Average, 47 percent of K-12 education funding comes from state revenue, while local government provides 45 percent, and the federal government provides the remaining 8 percent.”

“In addition, the federal government can play a role in investing in teacher pay, first, by rejecting administration efforts to cut funding and, then, by expanding existing funding streams. It can also bring forward any of a number of proposals to improve teacher compensation that have recently been introduced in Congress.”

This bit of information was really helpful, because it helped clear up some questions that were brought to attention in source 2. The first quote specifically was able to show how much schools were really impacted by the federal budget, which was only 8%. This was able to put things into perspective, showing that state revenue and local government were far more influential.

But, like the second quote shows, the federal government can still play a substantial role. They do have the power to reject efforts while expanding others, and can create new proposals that can cause far more change. So, they are still an important factor for the success of school funding.

{You and the World} (www.cbo.gov/publication/56324)

This particular graph shows the progress from 2008 (The Great Recession) to 2015. But progress has been all over the place. While some states were able to make a comeback, many of them only caused a range of 0-10% increase. Even more of the states had from -1%—30% and greater. After 7 years, the majority of states have barely made a comeback and even decreased education funding for particular states. This graph clearly shows the problem the nation faces. Education is how the nation teaches students, how they empower students, how everyone learns. If education is not prioritized for students what kind of nation will the United States become? What nation will be lead as the next generation follows in the same path? It’s a very powerful image.

This source had a lot of helpful information and was able to put into perspective the effort that has been given to this problem in the past. I was also able to see that the federal budget only made up 8% of education budget, which led me to realize that the federal budget wasn’t even that influential in this issue. Of course, the federal budget still has an impact, especially with either speeding the process along or slowing it considerably. but it did make me rethink my topic.

SOURCE 4:

This article, ‘Special Report/ The Funding Gap’ by Amy M. Azzam, was about the funding gap in schools. They say that a big concern in schools is the achievement gap, but behind that is the concerning problem of the funding gap between high poverty and low poverty districts, and low minority and high minority districts. The article discusses a study that looked at annual financial data for the 2001-2002 school year. Then, they suggest courses of action and goals that need to be achieved in order to help solve the problem. This source is reliable because it’s data comes from U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of education, there is a reliable author who researches and writes articles for student education. The site is a little outdated, so the bias had to be kept in mind because not all the statistics would necessarily be the same.

“ The Education Trust recommends that states adopt the following proven policies to close the school funding gaps: Reduce reliance on local property taxes to fund education. Target extra funds to help low-income children. Fix funding gaps for individual schools within districts Improve state education funding in terms of increased spending on public education.

Closing the achievement gap starts with closing the funding gap. Only by providing the necessary resources can states help ensure quality education for all students”

This quote was very helpful, because it provided a clear statement for what needed to be done in order to help close the funding gap. It talks about starting small by fixing funding gaps within districts, and using money to the best ability. Instead of sharing the money evenly, share the money equitably. It addresses the issue that some kids need help financially before they can focus on their schoolwork, and to work to add more opportunities and increase spending over time. It’s not a quick process, it’s one that takes time and dedication. But it will pay off, because as the second to last sentence says “Closing the achievement gap starts with closing the funding gap.”. It’s like that saying, where you give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he’ll eat for a lifetime. But it would also be super helpful to give a man a fishing rod, a tool to help them learn. That’s what the funding is for these students, because once they have tools to help them, they can focus on school for real and have many more opportunities to succeed. Maybe this isn’t the only way to help, as the last sentence suggests, but those resources may be the difference needed for many students who struggle in their families in high poverty districts. Once the funding levels out, it can surely only help the achievement gap shrink as well.

This source helped to give me an idea of what direction I could take this project in order to have the best impact.

SOURCE 5:

This article, “Impact of the President’s FY 2020 budget on K-12 Information” was about the president’s proposed plan for many cuts and eliminations that would impact the budget for education in 2020. It gave detail about which programs the plan would affect and why they mattered. This source was a little tricky to test reliability, because it was a PDF. It came from the organization “First step” and the only person I could find listed was the Assistant Director, Drew Aherne. It’s bias was also the fact that this entire article was a proposed plan, and didn’t show exactly what had happened. But it did show the kind of power the Government and President had, and what the impact could be.

“One major request that would have a negative impact on K-12 education is the elimination of 21st Century Community Learning Centers, which are a critical source of funding for many local afterschool programs and serve about 1.4 million students at over 9,500 locations. Another harmful request is eliminating the Supporting Effective Instruction State Grants program that provides grants to state and local education agencies to increase student achievement through teacher development and class-size reduction. These grants are important because teacher quality is one of the most significant factors in promoting student learning.”

Teacher quality is clearly an important factor in student learning. A lot of teachers would probably be way more enthusiastic if they had higher pay. But this also brings into question a lot of these actions. Education was already struggling, causing students to suffer and strikes to be held because teachers were fed up. Plus, now there is online school where students are losing motivation and struggling with mental health. Now more than ever schools need support and the government need to give back to the teachers that have been driving the whole process. There cannot be continual budget cuts and eliminations of programs that benefit so many schools. There was already so much cause to add more funding to schools, but now, in a crisis, a pandemic, these problems need to be addressed and solutions need to be found.

This helped to show the effect of the people in power on education.

Overall, I learned a lot, but I think I need to redirect myself and go into more detail about the questions I have asked throughout my research. There are many problems to address in order to create an impact and educate people on this issue. My research has been all over the place, but it has helped to narrow down where I should go and what I should do. I will continue to do research to answer the following questions:

-What can we as citizens do to help?

-How has 2020 impacted Education Funding?

-Where can I find information to prove the point that Education Funding is an issue we need to address?

I will work to create a more polished presentation of my work and find a way to spread my work even online.

SOURCE 1:

“Federal Spending: Where Does the Money Go.” National Priorities Project, www.nationalpriorities.org/budget-basics/federal-budget-101/spending/.

SOURCE 2:

“The Federal Budget in 2019: An Infographic.” Congressional Budget Office, 15 Apr. 2020, www.cbo.gov/publication/56324

SOURCE 3:

Lisette Partelow, Sarah Shapiro. “Fixing Chronic Disinvestment in K-12 Schools.” Center for American Progress, www.americanprogress.org/issues/education-k-12/reports/2018/09/20/457750/fixing-chronic-disinvestment-k-12-schools/.

SOURCE 4:

Lisette Partelow, Sarah Shapiro. “Fixing Chronic Disinvestment in K-12 Schools.” Center for American Progress, www.americanprogress.org/issues/education-k-12/reports/2018/09/20/457750/fixing-chronic-disinvestment-k-12-schools/.

SOURCE 5:

https://firstfocus.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/FACT-SHEET-Presidents-FY20-Budget-K-12-Education.pdf

Annotated Bibliography:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZWkFMLwMXKT1AbQJb4_wUAiCaJGLSDAJl_0lFQxYDlg/edit?usp=sharing

Tik Tok is one of the biggest social media platforms at the moment. Users and content creators are attracted to the platform for its easy outlet of creativity allowing for people to express themselves in various ways. However, not all that glitter is gold when users begin to feel silenced or limited when speaking about important issues like police brutality and much more. Furthermore, when the algorithm and for you page begins to feel like yet another thing ostracizing Black people and their advocacy for different issues.
The Tik Tok algorithm is a significant factor in determining which videos get the most attention and likes. However, the algorithm has not been equitable and fair for all on the platform. Black creators have been very reliant on TikTok out of all social media platforms because news travels like wildfire and it would allow the Black Lives Matter movement to grow and gain publicity and support. Additionally, I learned that black creators had no one to blame but TikTok’s “Community Guidelines”. The Community Guidelines were very strict in the summer as everything with the Black Lives Matter movement was progressing more than ever. The Community Guidelines were so strict that they filtered through creators’ videos judging the nature of the video. Things like hateful ideology and behavior, slurs, weapons, drugs, dangers to children, frauds, and scams were all sifted through and analyzed through videos. While these things are very important to sift though they are not the center of discussion. It is frustrating to creators, specifically Black creators when their videos are taken down even though they are not violating guidelines. Many people made it a point to point out that there are major and visible inconsistencies in the Tik Tok algorithm. Being heavily user reliant doesn’t help even out the playing field of which videos ultimately make it to the for you page. Additionally, Black Lives Matter is a very social media-based campaign and movement so when you limit the potential of important videos about these topics on people’s pages you are also limiting the potential of how much attention these important topics get. After being called out, Tik Tok quickly issued an apology for making the Black community feel invalidated or silenced. They explained that it seems to be caused by a technical glitch in the software however, people were still not buying it because why we’re the only hashtags targeted about the Black Lives Matter movement?.

*Photo #1; This is a picture pulled from the Tik Tok website of the Community Guidelines and all of the categories that determine if a video is allowed to stay up or not.

*Photo #2; This is a picture pulled from the Tik Tok website displaying an apology issued by Tik Tok to the Black community.

Photo 3; This is a photo of a statement uploaded by Tik Tok to their account from CEO Kevin Mayer

Overall, although Tik Tok issued an apology and statement to the Black community people are asking Tik Tok to take steps and measures in ensuring an equal playing field for all videos on the For You Page.

My topic is about something I don’t think a lot of people really care about. At first, I didn’t really care either. Actually, I just didn’t know anything about snakes and what they went through. A couple of months ago I really wanted to own a snake. I was super close to getting one. My dad and mom didn’t think it was a good idea but I still wanted one. I did a little research and everything seemed fine. Snakes are very cheap too, so I thought it was perfect for me. Then my mom started sending me articles about the things snakes go through and why it wasn’t good to have them as pets. I chose not to get one because I didn’t want to deal with my parents, not because I had realized it wasn’t good to own snakes. When the Y&TW project was introduced, the first topic that I came up with was this one. Why people should stop getting pet snakes. I thought it was going to be the easiest since I already had a couple of sources, and it was something I thought not many people would pick. However, I wasn’t personally very passionate about it. After a while of doing research for this project, I actually started caring more and really understanding some of the horrible things that pet snakes go through that not a lot of people actually know about.

Snakes are captured from their natural habitat to be transported to different continents, this process is sometimes very cruel and they are treated with very little care. Many die in the transportation process. Once they are sold to people that most of the time don’t have all the information needed to be able to provide their pet snakes with all of their needs, they are put into their new environment that is nothing compared to the experience they have in the wild. Tanks can’t provide snakes the necessary space they need to stretch, hunt and roam freely.

Example of the small enclosures snakes are kept in.

A lot of snakes sometimes try to escape their habitat which can be bad for them and the environment in multiple ways. They can experience trauma due to failed escape attempts and they can get hurt trying to escape. If they do successfully escape, they can cause the killing of native wildlife.

Breeders selective breed snakes in order to make different scale patterns, skin colors, and fur. This has various negative effects on snake’s physical and mental health. People that want to get snakes most of the time want them because their appearance is interesting or they just look cool. They don’t really pay attention to their needs. They view them as a “new hobby” or a “new collection” but not as a wild animal that isn’t meant to be domesticated.

Picture from a pet store.

It’s so normalized to have snake pets. You can just walk into a pet store and there are snakes sold there as if they were hamsters or dogs. My dad used to have snakes when he was little, and I have a couple of friends who have had or still have snakes. I think if people were more informed about everything a snake can go through from the moment they’re captured to when they’re bought, not as many people would buy them. They’re not an easy pet to have. They have complicated needs that most people just can’t provide for. I want more people to know about this because it’s really sad to know that this snake industry is so common after knowing the things snake pets go through.

Annotated bibliography

What is Autism? How does it affect a person’s life? Well, let’s start with Autism and what it is. People are born with autism. You can’t get it from any immunization. In 2020, the CDC reported that approximately 1 in 54 children in the U.S. is diagnosed with autism. Most children are still being diagnosed after age 4, though autism can be reliably diagnosed as early as age 2.

The autism diagnosis rate increase from 2004 to 2020.

As more people are being diagnosed it gets harder for other people to get help so there are many places that you can go and get the help that you need. The first place is going to be a meta site, like Autism Navigator. Autism Navigator was founded by Nancy D. Rich Wiseman this is a source where they help you. The site can steer you toward resources for the future. If you have someone you love that has autism and show you what are going to be the challenges that you are going to face. This also gives guide books that give you books that are full of information.

The second source that is also going to help is going to be Autism Speaks. Autism Speaks was found by two people Bob Wright and Suzanne Wright and their jobs are to provide the families with insurance and much more. They have shown that they can because they have helped over 22.6 million families since 2005 and planing t keep helping every family that they can.

The third source Autism Society. Autism Society is a source that helps you understand what it is like to live with autism but this can your opinion on what you are there to see that are many other ways that you can see this is just showing you what it is to live with autism it does not give you the full experience that you need to see.

I want to change people’s opinion about autism; it’s not just saying “oh, he’s is diagnosed with this, so he can’t do it”. There have been many autistic people (or people with autism-dependent on your stance on person-first language) that the challenges of living with autism and have shown that they can be better a someone that is neurotypical. This has been proven to be true because I have family members with autism (or autistic family members). see is that they are not scared to show who they are really are they don’t care what other people think about them they want to show that they can show people that are neurotypical that not all neurotypical people are scared to show who they are they want to sho that they can.

or the people that are neurotypical, you don’t have to hide who you are some people hide who they are and if you think that you are the only one. There are many more than just you. You are not alone because I have family that is like this but there is a way to change this you should not hide from what your real colors are you should always show the true colors that you are it does not matter if you aren’t the same. Just remember that you are special then if people don’t agree with that explain to them why you are special from other people.

You Can’t Please Everyone.

Are you someone who lives on planet Earth? Do you breathe? Do you or anyone you know have asthma?Well,listen up because while we talk, my planet, our planet is making a huge change, and not for the good. The problem here is climate change, and the real main problem is us humans. Many glaciers are melting, the average temperature of the planet is rising every day. Scientists are discovering that in a short amount of time, our planet could go through a change; causing an increase in many diseases and deaths.

Krabi, Thailand

Temple in Japan

Our planet is important to me because I’d like to travel around the world some day. When these changes happen, the adventures I might want have, the places I want to explore and see with my own eyes could change before I’m even an adult with the means to experience them. To say the least, the end of the world has begun, in a slow but very real process. This isn’t to scare you.here’s still time to make a change, and prevent this from happening. “How can I help out?” I’m glad you asked, there is a lot of stuff you can do! But, before I show you how to make a change yourself, from the comfort of your house; I want to explain what causes these changes. One way that you might already know to protect the planet is recycling. This is a great way to protect our atmosphere. The plastic, and all the trash you throw out, is sent to junk yards, and then it sits in landfills or is burned. But, plastic is hard to get rid of, it takes years for it to decompose, and most of that plastic winds up in the ocean. This causes many more problems. Once it’s in the ocean, sea animals digest most of the trash without knowing what it is. This trash also kills coral reefs, these reefs produce half of the planet’s oxygen. So, the plastic bottle you toss in the trash kills ocean animals and it decreases our planet’s oxygen supply. You remember oxygen? It’s that gas we humans need in order to survive. Animals around our planet; like the wolverine in the Arctic, are trying to adjust to climate change. For many animals, their chances of survival are low. Their habitats are being erased; they are no longer not finding homes in which they can live safely.. For animals, it’s their habitat, for humans it’s our health, and depending on where you live, it can also have changes in your environment, and leaves a lot of people without homes. As the heat rises, wildfires start in many places, a very good example of this, is in places such as California. There have been wildfires, due to the heat, and the heat rises due to the toxic gasses produced by factories. The gasses break the ozone layer, which protects us from harmful radiation from the sun. Of course all of this might seem crazy and some people might not care. But, I do. Many beautiful natural treasures in this world are in danger. Maybe you don’t care because it might not impact your life directly, but many people have been impacted. . The effects of climate changes are reaching places that haven’t even been discovered yet.Sadly two things could happen to these places. One, they might be underwater in 10 or 5 years. Scientists had predicted that many changes were gonna happen in later upcoming years, but more recently, they found out that these changes are more closer than they had expected. Climate Change Is Accelerating, Bringing The World ‘Dangerously Close’ to Irreversible Change .Secondly, places such as a coral or a beautiful field full of flowers, could turn gray, due to the plants being dead after being in contact with a lot of toxic chemicals. So, if you’d like to explore the wonders of the world, make a change! You don’t have to do god/ goddess work. Just recycle, use your own personal bags at the store, try and save electricity, and water. Many of the power that goes to your house are from power plants that make toxic gasses or support an environmental organization so they can make big changes, with the help of you.

The change we need, starts with you!

My Annotated Bibliography

Did you know that there is a huge issue going on, around in the Asian-American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community? Did you know that there are people who are getting verbally and physically assaulted, even murdered, just because of the way they look? Did you know that some of these AAPI hate crimes are not being documented/filed as a hate crime? Did you? Well if you didn’t, you can now. In this post I’m going to go more into depth about (what I believe) hate crimes that are targeted towards the AAPI community. This is a major topic that is, thankfully, being more publicized and talked about, but (in my opinion) aren’t being dealt with properly and aren’t given immediate consequence, to the people who are assaulting/murdering the AAPI community. As a person of the AAPI community, I would like to show my knowledge of what I learned from my research about this sensitive yet really engaging topic. I hope this can help/add to your knowledge about this topic and soon will, hopefully, make a change in our society to make these Anti-Asian hate crimes stop.

This chart shows the increase of Anti-Asian hate crimes in 2019 to 2020.

Now, in my opinion this topic just hurts and disgusts me by how many AAPI are getting assaulted, cause as an Asian-American living in the U.S. I am constantly scared by what if I’m the next person that’s going to get assaulted, or even murdered, just by how I look. Or even worse, if one of my family members gets assaulted. I just can’t get that through my mind and how much it hurts me to see my community hurting like this. When I read or watch articles/videos about the AAPI community getting assaulted, or murdered, just really infuriates me how society treats us AAPI.

WARNING: THIS VIDEO MAY BE SENSITIVE TO SOME VIEWERS!

I am really passionate about this topic because I learned that some of these horrific assaults/murders happening to the AAPI community, aren’t even being documented/filed as hate crimes.

I watched this podcast by The May Lee Show, talking about why some of the AAPI’s assault cases are not being documented as hate crimes. When I watched this podcast, I respect on why some opinions that were being made, like why the prosecutors aren’t digging enough to find the answer that the defendant wants, but I just don’t agree with those opinions. To paint a better picture of what I’m trying to say is by looking at the recent case of murders, by a man named, Robert Aaron Long, who killed a total of 8 people in Atlantic spas. When I first saw this news, my reaction was like, “are people getting this bored in the Pandemic that they’re starting to kill people ‘for fun’?” But soon to later find out that despicable man, killed 6 women of Asian descent out of those 8 victims because of his “sex addiction”. Then to hear that these spas shootings probably wasn’t towards a particular race. Yet this white man goes on a mass killing spree into spas, that are predominantly Asian spas, and decide to kill 6 Asian women, was because of his “sex addiction”, isn’t called a hate crime (case still under investigation)?! Another key thing I realized was that the officer, who was the spokesman on this case, said that the attacker was just having “a really bad day.” So you’re saying a white man killing 8 people, with those victims, 6 of them are from Asian descent, to come to a hypothesis, that the attacker was just having “a really bad day.” That is the dumbest, stupidest, inconclusive, white supremacist answer I ever heard. Plus, the white spokesman who said that Robert was just having “a really bad day”, promoted a sale on anti-Asian t-shirts, on Facebook. That said “ ‘imported virus from Chy-na.’ ” So, this sounds like that white spokesman was first, racist and second, biased. Side Note: It seems like the Police Department hasn’t said anything about how long Robert will serve in jail, but if it’s only, like 4 years…why, all of those victims because of his idiotic actions.

WARNING: THIS VIDEO MAY BE SENSITIVE TO SOME VIEWERS!

This issue is a very significant topic to learn about, especially during these times where the hate crimes towards AAPI are significantly unfolding faster and getting worse till this day. Learning about this topic can tell you that America isn’t just about the “American dream”, but can reveal about the actual history behind America, that was always covered up.

To continue with that, let’s talk about a word you probably heard many times before, stereotype. Yes, that famous, loathsome word, that impacted so many AAPI’s during their childhood and till today, still. First, I would like to talk about a term that falls under with the word “stereotype”, The Model Minority Myth. That word just means that, “a persistent stereotype that paints Asian Americans as inherently successful and problem-free, particularly in contrast to other minority groups, had helped keep the story ‘from being a big deal before this’.” said by NBCNews. Second, I really disagree with that myth, using this information about how the Model Minority Myth impacted the AAPI community, many times in their life is a good way of knowing how America decides to treat us AAPI community, by making up a whole Myth just to make the rest of the world think that we’re smart, well-off, or that we’re always going to be successful in life. But no, that is completely false. AAPI are not born smart, they are trained just like every other kid in school to get good grades and soon to be successful in life. But I guess America thought that they needed to degrade another race, to make the AAPI seem to “know more” than the other students. Like have they never heard of studying, the people in America didn’t have to make a whole racist myth because AAPI are “good” at studying. LIKE WHAT?! I just think that was the most idiotic conclusion America came to.

Next, I am going to talk about my research/some stories I found about, what’s happening to the AAPI community, and how they’re being impacted by the Pandemic. First, let’s talk about this source, where they talk about how “Hate-fueled attacks on Asian Americans spiked across major U.S. cities last year — in some cases by triple-digit percentages — …” I think that is disgustingly high by how many hate-fueled attacks (hate crimes) there are towards the AAPI community. Like are you serious, the triple-digits?! They just had to go that far. Second, there is a source that talks about how brands are responding towards AAPI hate. Here is a quote that I took from the article that I really love, “ ‘No one is paying attention. No big news outlets. No brands. No influencers. No hashtags,’ he wrote.” “ ‘Silence…The model minority myth placed on Asian Americans through a systemic, racist system has made us raceless. That dynamic has resulting in silencing us even in the greatest moments of appropriation and violence…Don’t let us die in silence.’ ” I just love that quote. I loved how that person brung up how the government excludes us, AAPI, completely as a race. It’s disappointing that AAPI doesn’t even count as a race, to some people. Third, there is a news source that talks about how hundreds of people are escorting elderly AAPI and roaming around Chinatown, to keep the APPI community safe. I love that idea because the ones that are most vulnerable, in these times, are our AAPI elders.

Fourth, there is another news source that talks about how “Additionally, according to the study, between February and May 2020, the New York City Commission on Human Rights (NYCCHR) received reports of 389 coronavirus-related hate incidents. Of those, 145 involved anti-Asian sentiments, representing 37 percent of all complaints.” That just upsets me, that the NYCCHR had so many reports on coronavirus related hate crimes, that the NYPD (in the video above this quote, in the source) had to make a “Asian Hate Crime” task force just to stop this nonsense. Fifth, this source talks about how an elderly Asian woman was waiting in front of a bakery in Chinatown. Until, an attacker decided that it was okay to start calling racial slurs at her, then push her harshly on the concrete ground until she fell unconscious. And later had to get 5-10 stitches because of that hate crime. I was just at awe when I read this article. I was just dismayed, how that man had the guts to do that, to an AAPI lady, who wasn’t even provoking him in any way. Finally, the final source I found, talks about people’s experiences and how they’re trying to cope with the hate crimes towards the AAPI community. And one quote that really resonated with me is, “Unfortunately, Asians are often targeted for violent attacks because Asians are stereotyped as weak and non-confrontational, …” That quote was just so immaculate and accurate because I do believe that is true. It seems people like to stereotype AAPI, as the type of race that are weak, or won’t tell the attacks to authorities cause we’re shy (stereotype). But no, of course we will tell some type of authority, we’re human too. You attacked us, that hit us to the point where we had enough of this AAPI hate.

To wrap all of this educational information, some of you may not be part of the AAPI community but you can still help. These hate crimes are still happening, the AAPI community will stay here as long as the AAPI history lives on, in America’s exposing reality. What I am wondering for my readers is, if there was a protest near you, will you protest with the AAPI community? To let people hear that the AAPI community will not stay silent no more, to the point where we can prove that we are happy for who we are. Are you going to give support and respect to the AAPI community? Are you going to be there, like when we were there for you? Are you? I really hope you do and use this revealing/exposing information about America’s real history towards the AAPI community. Help spread the word to stop AAPI hate. If you would like to help the AAPI community please donate to this gofundme, if you witness a hate crime toward an AAPI, report it to https://stopaapihate.org/, and if you would like to know more information about what’s going on in the AAPI community, go to https://nextshark.com/news/.

#AAPI #AAPILivesMatter #StopAAPIHate #StopAsianHate #RacismIsAVirus

My sources: Annotated bibliography

Human trafficking leaving effects on victims is basically guaranteed, whether they’re physical or mental. Human trafficking is something that can happen to anyone, most commonly women and girls. Many females don’t feel comfortable going out in public because of the possibility of being trafficked. That doesn’t mean that men and people who don’t identify as either (male or female) don’t also experience being scared of human trafficking because it can happen to anyone. It is very important for people to recognize how this constant fear of being trafficked holds back people from living their life. It leaves people just as a shell of themselves. When someone is trafficked they are stripped of their humanity. They are bought and sold at the hands of strangers. Hopefully spreading awareness of the effects trafficking can leave on people will make people sympathize with people who have experienced this.

This image shows a point I made in my post. That Human trafficking spares no souls and can happen to anyone.

As a teenage girl, Human trafficking and other types of sexual or just abuse overall have always kinda had a little spot in the back of my mind. I have never experienced anything more than unwanted nudes or catcalling by older males when I am walking in the city. And that is common for most teenagers. I think everyone should know more about the after-effects of someone that experienced human trafficking is very important because then it might be taken more seriously. Some people that have experienced Human trafficking or rape might be hesitant to come forward because some people might not believe them. According to the Central Minnesota Sexual Assault Center, about 20% of America’s population are survivors of childhood Sexual assault. As many as 90% never report anything to law enforcement and 30% will never report it to anyone. According to the World Union of Catholic Women’s Organization, in 2018 at least 48.5% million people were enslaved in human trafficking.

This infographic shows many statistics of human trafficking

The most common effects Human trafficking can leave on a person is depressed, and PTSD. Those are more mental, More physical ones would include sexually transmitted diseases, substance abuse, or pregnancy. Having such concerns especially at such a young age is already very common amongst teenagers (especially this like depression, anxiety, and stress). An Interesting fact to keep in mind if you are talking to someone with past experience of being trafficked is that the effects of the trafficking can be emphasized based on past trauma, whether it’s violence abuse, or sexual. Another less talked about or less known effect is a victim can adopt a lack of independent skills, often relying on people they trust to help them live a normal life. These effects can also happen after they experience being trafficked. Often due to not being supported by family and loved ones or how the law failed the victim in trying to seek justice. It is so important that we focus on these effects as much as we should ensure more victims feel safer sharing their stories. Obviously, that trauma will never go away but there is so much good a person can do when they let others know that they are not alone.

This other infographic shows more statistics about human trafficking, more globally based.

So in conclusion understanding, the long-term effects that human trafficking can leave on a person is a very crucial step to making them feel like themselves again. We also went over a few heartbreaking statistics. Overall I am very pleased with the information I learned while working on this post. I would like to learn more about survivors and how their story has inspired others to go on. Another interesting topic to me is the effects human trafficking can leave on the victim’s family. So in general I am proud of my work and the information I have gathered.

This is a Ted Talk by Noy Thrupkaew. She talks about how human trafficking is a part of our daily lives, more so than you’ll think. How it is more than what we just think it is.

This is my annotated bibiliography

“Body shape is something that a majority of women struggle with, as many believe their size is too big, too curvy, or even too skinny.” (The catalyst.) This is a quote I took from an article in a high school newspaper. It touches on what I believe to be a huge issue in our society. Toxic beauty standards. In our society we’ve set an unrealistic standard for ourselves. We look at highly edited pictures of so called “instagram models” and believe that is what we should look like. Young children look into the mirror and wonder if there’s something wrong with them, and wonder why they don’t look like the models they see on TV. All over the world people try to change their appearance because they’ve come to the belief that they don’t fit into the standard. The toxic, unrealistic standards that are portrayed everywhere.

An image showing how [body dysmorphia] (https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Freverehealth.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2Fdysmorphic.png&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Freverehealth.com%2Flive-better%2Fwhat-is-body-dysmorphic-disorder%2F&tbnid=xRMohUBVSX_lvM&vet=12ahUKEwj5u47t78zvAhUiAN8KHfdsCUgQMygGegUIARDiAQ..i&docid=HwhjpIwyzQE8nM&w=701&h=701&q=body%20dysmorphia&ved=2ahUKEwj5u47t78zvAhUiAN8KHfdsCUgQMygGegUIARDiAQ) can look.

When I was brainstorming what I wanted to focus on for my you and the world project I thought about issues that matter to me and things that affect me personally. One of the biggest that came to mind was toxic beauty standards, and specifically how they’re portrayed on social media. Beauty standards are something that have been around forever. While conducting research for this project I found a blog post that listed Standards for women’s bodies from 1292 B.C to today. It described the traits that were most desired and expected from women in each time period, it was this article that gave me new meaning to the term, “Toxic beauty standards.” Why is it that the so-called standard of beauty changes all the time? Why does our society constantly change what our bodies should look like, and why do so many people fall into the trap of thinking that they aren’t beautiful because they don’t fit into the standards that are constantly shifting?

Something that’s most definitely not talked about enough is how beauty standards directly affect people. Especially young girls and teenagers. Unrealistic beauty standards are shown all over the place, social media apps fill their explore pages with instagram models showing off their “Perfect lifestyle.”

“Instagram model” who often shows off her so called [perfect lifestyle] (https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fneoreach.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F06%2FTop-10-Models-on-Instagram.jpeg&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fneoreach.com%2Ftop-instagram-models%2F&tbnid=dRW8k9Pprye0SM&vet=12ahUKEwjotaPa98zvAhXHBt8KHZ49AVUQMyguegUIARCcAg..i&docid=4i56BqQ3cr5PoM&w=1393&h=900&q=instagram%20model&ved=2ahUKEwjotaPa98zvAhXHBt8KHZ49AVUQMyguegUIARCcAg)

Magazines print the newest it model on their front pages.

Models posing for a [Vogue] (https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.etonline.com%2Fsites%2Fdefault%2Ffiles%2Fstyles%2Fvideo_1920x1080%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2017-02%2F1280_kendall_gigi_ashley_vogue_020817.jpg%3Fitok%3D-baLoriu&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.etonline.com%2Fnews%2F209818_kendall_jenner_gigi_hadid_and_ashley_graham_slay_the_cover_of_vogue_stunning_group_photo&tbnid=xtPRkBwKAlYIHM&vet=12ahUKEwiulK7g-MzvAhUGT98KHYaFDtIQMygBegUIARCkAQ..i&docid=yRJhO07Rf3iYgM&w=1920&h=1080&q=gigi%20hadid%20kendall%20jenner%20vogue%20cover&ved=2ahUKEwiulK7g-MzvAhUGT98KHYaFDtIQMygBegUIARCkAQ) photo shoot

In our society it’s hard to live without constantly comparing yourself to the people around you. This constant comparing and doubting yourself can lead to a lot more serious issues and can take a large toll on your mental health. One of these side effects is developing an eating disorder. According to the alliance for eating disorder awareness, around 30 million Americans have experienced a clinical eating disorder in their lifetime. And an article by Jessica Defino for Hello giggles stated that “Studies prove that beauty standards directly contribute to anxiety and depression. They can trigger body dysmorphia and disordered eating. They can fuel low self-esteem, self-harm, and even suicide. All of these conditions have risen in recent years, and all of them are unequivocally connected to beauty standards.”

Infographic showing different [stats] (https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fthebodyimagecenter.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F09%2FNEDAW1-730x1024.png&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fthebodyimagecenter.com%2Feducation-awareness%2Feating-disorder-statistics%2F&tbnid=N5c06vymT4GxWM&vet=12ahUKEwjf6YGs-czvAhWJdN8KHfNVBgoQMygCegUIARCCAQ..i&docid=8cipRVgBTa9MIM&w=730&h=1024&q=how%20many%20people%20have%20eating%20disorders&ved=2ahUKEwjf6YGs-czvAhWJdN8KHfNVBgoQMygCegUIARCCAQ) about eating disorders

This quote really ties it all together. The effect beauty standards have on people across the world. They’re terrible for our mental health, can lead to serious medical conditions, and drastically lower self esteem. We must reflect on this as a society. Why do we constantly promote an unrealistic standard when we can just focus on celebrating the beauty each individual person has? And why have we decided that a certain set of traits is the standard for beauty?

The spread of misinformation on the internet has become more and more rapid over recent years and I think it should be recognized as a serious problem. This can be a very dangerous issue as hundreds of millions of people use the internet each day for information and when things that are untrue get shown, posted, or written on the internet, and people believe it, some really bad things can arise from it. This is important to me because I have always used the internet a lot and with online school I have been having to use it even more than I usually do. So when I see something like a harmful post with misinformation on social media, it concerns me that I am not always aware of digital falsities being shown to me.

A chart showing the concern of internet misformation in different countries

There are many ways to avoid and spot out non credible sources though. A New York Times article writes about ways to recognize misinformation especially for older people as a lot of the time the older demographic are the ones who can be targeted through platforms like Facebook. There is also a lot of concern for the future of information on the web, as pew research center interviewed about one thousand technologists, scholars, practitioners, strategic thinkers and more about this issue and stated: “Some 1,116 responded to this nonscientific canvassing: 51% chose the option that the information environment will not improve.” In other words saying that more than half of the people answering believed that this will be a future problem we won’t be able to fix any time soon. The Government has noticed the rize of digital misinformation as well, shown in an article by trendmicro.com that writes: “Governments are starting to recognize that fake news is something that must be actively fought. Various government agencies are now setting up services to debunk stories that they consider to be false. They are also considering imposing regulations and punishing sites that do publish misinformation.” This could be good for the future and might prevent the problem of misinformation on the web from getting worse.

Chart showing that facebook is the worst social media when it comes to misinformation

This isn’t just an indecipherable problem though, they’re many examples of misinformation you can find. In an article written by Paris Martineau, she goes over and cites many occasions where people had made stuff up and faked numbers for differing reasons. She mentions in 2013 when youtube had to deal with people using bots to fake views. This led to the bots views rivaliving the number of real viewers and youtube had to find a way to step in and stop/get rid of these bots. However a more unique example is shown in a story by the Washington Post titled ‘A Gay Girl in Damascus’ comes clean. In this story, a 40 year old man was pretending to be a gay girl protesting in the middle east who was writing about it through blog posts. These blog posts and the gay girl he was pretending to be became a big deal in the media until one day a blog post comes out from her “cousin” saying she had been kidnapped. After a while the American man came clean about himself running the account and admitted that the whole story and girl was all fake. This wasn’t the most dangerous case of misinformation obviously, but it goes to show how easily someone can make something like this up on the internet, which can be really threatening in the wrong hands.

Quote from article talking about false information on the web

After researching all this I have concluded that I had good reasoning to be concerned and it’s easy to see I am not the only one. I have definitely picked up a lot of knowledge about misinformation and how to prevent and notice it, which can probably help me in the future. Overall this is something that I am happy to see being dealt with and pushed back on, but a lot of the articles on this topic are from 2016-2017 and I hope people will continue to care and make an effort to check their sources past the peak of this problem’s media popularity, especially with covid and information about the vaccine.

Annotated bibliography

“Don’t give him money, he’s going to buy drugs with it.” “She’s too young to be homeless, she’s probably faking it so she can get more money.” These are the things that I hear from the people that I talk to almost everyday, which is really sad because I honestly thought they would help and also support me, while I try to help the homeless. I live in a neighborhood where I see a homeless person either sleeping on the ground or holding up a sign that asks for food wherever I go. Before I came to the United States I never really saw or thought about homelessness; but since I started seeing more and more people on the streets, I felt this thing, a sort of passion, that I have to help them. There are many different ways and reasons on why we should help the people that are currently homeless , but just remember, [try not to give them money](Helping the Homeless: Making a Difference for Someone on the Streets (darkpeakgear.com)) Some people would go and buy drugs or alcohol and get addicted to it, and we don’t want that because we want to help them and not hurt them. I never really showed that I cared about homeless people in front of my friends and even some family members because they think that homeless people do not deserve our help. People think that others lose their homes because they are suffering from addictions and then they don’t show up for work, don’t pay the bills, and end up homeless. Which sometimes is true, but not all the time. Around 44% of homeless people were employed. For women in particular, domestic violence is a leading cause of homelessness. According to the most recent annual survey by the U.S. Conference of Mayors, major cities across the country report that top causes of homelessness among families were: [(1) lack of affordable housing, (2) unemployment, (3) poverty, and (4) low wages,](:Homeless_Stats_Fact_Sheet.pdf (nlchp.org))

As you can see, the number 1 reason for homelessness is job loss, alcohol or drug use is in second place but we also have to see that there are more reasons why people became homeless and not just because of addiction.

I believe that we should do everything we can to help people who are currently experiencing homelessness. However it is tough because there are many people without a home right now everywhere around the world. If we try really hard, I know that we can help them have a better life. So my main idea was: we should, or at least try to, build hotels around the world for homeless people. They would get a small room to themselves and they would get a small job; maybe like a school crossing guard, a school janitor or even something at the hotel, just so that they get used to the feeling of working. I think this will be a great start for them to remember how it is to have a house and have to earn money. After saving up their money and being able to get a place where they could stay, they would leave the hotel and hopefully start a new and better life. Like I said before, this will be hard, but they are humans that need our help. Anyone could end up in this situation and I know that everyone would want all the help they can get.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1f2GqFcCQIbktZq-xo3hWUqKRINU22Sv0MJhMrNgGY2A/edit?usp=sharing

Oppressed? Terrorist? Women with no rights? The twin towers? All these words have been associated with Muslims for many years, especially Muslim women that wear the hijab. The cloth that they wear on their heads have been given so many negative meanings to it, people would rather be blinded by the media and ignore the meaning of the word hijab. When we think of the word hijab, we would usually think of a scarf a muslim women would wear, which is correct. But the word hijab applies to both men and women that practice Islam to be modest and control their gaze. As the world is very misogynistic, men that dont wear their “hijab” get a pass and don’t get shamed while women do. The stereotype of “oppressed Muslim women” came from the media mixing up culture and religion together. For example, there are cultural places in the middle east that have laws for women to cover their body, those are the places that are seen as the symbol of Islam.Many cultures have a part in making Islam look “bad” or “ unfair”. Many cultural practices dont even fall into Islam and would be considered a sin.

I chose this topic because it’s one that I’ve always been interested in and doesn’t get enough attention. Especially as a Muslim women that decided to wear my hijab, I can’t stand for the wrongful ways the media has portrayed my religion, especially the women. We already live in a sexist and misogynistic world and seeing muslim women be the symbol of oppression isn’t fair. Fun fact actually Islam was he first religion and group of people to give women rights before the Europeans did. Culture and religion have been mixed up and falsely represented in the world. Muslim populated countries usually run on culture more than religion, like for example have laws for women to dress modestly. Even if tourists come they would need to cover their bodies. Why? To respect the culture that was made by the people that are following Islam. Now here’s the bad side, the media (specifically streaming networks like Netflix) Have made it seem as if the hijab is an oppressive tool used against muslim women. The scarf that they wear on their heads are “strict” or “passive”. But you see, the hijab for most women is seen as powerful, inspiring, and amazing! But we will always be put into [the three categories of being oppressed, veiled and the worst of all homogenous.] ( https://muslimgirl.com/watch-dismantling-the-mainstream-medias-image-of-the-muslim-woman/)
‘Now It’s a Sign of Protest:’ Muslim Women in Denmark Defy the Face Veil Ban

And its not only the media that plays a part of this bad face of Women in Islam to be known to all, its also the beauty sense and different ways people believe women should be like. A girl from Palestine or Nigeria could be forced to wear her hijab while someone who loves their hijab moves to the USA and is pressured to take it off. “Take it off you’ll look better that way” or “Put it on and you’ll be seen as more prettier”. People have taken the meaning of the hijab and made as if it’s something to throw around. Muslim girls that choose to wear it know that it was the biggest decision in their life. There are some that took it off but still respect it while others would bash it because they felt oppressed. But they are reminded it was because of CULTURE not RELIGION.

Watching Tv and Movies everyone should know that at least one show they watched had a muslim lady (Most likely arab and black hijab) having a bomb. Or taking off her scarf to feel free. Yes many muslim women take off their scarves but thats for their life journey. Tv shows would make removing the hijab a sign of freedom aka being able to run away from a strict family and live life with her dream white boy. For example, the Netflix original show [“The Elite”] (https://nwhsjagwire.org/showcase/showcase-showcase/2019/12/08/misrepresentation-of-muslims-in-hollywood/) has a character named Nadia Shanna that removes her hijab for the sake of her lover Guzman. There is no problem with Muslim woman taking off their scarf for themselves but I will forever have an issue with media companies believing its okay to think that I would remove my scarf to feel free with a white man. They are showing a lot of “White savior” complexes on screens, saving her from being oppressed. Islam is the second biggest and growing religion in the world and stereotypes like this are still being spread and damaging the way women in my religion are seen.

I don’t have to show my hair or body to feel empowered or be a “#girlboss” I already am one. [Modesty empowers] ( https://theconversation.com/how-muslim-women-break-stereotypes-by-mixing-faith-and-modesty-with-fashion-110767) and I see beauty in my religion and faith and strive to strengthen that. I am not oppressed. I am not a terrorist. No I did not bomb the twin towers. I am a Muslim women looking and fighting for the proper rights and representations in the media, because for I am tired of being seen as less than.

Doing research for this project was definitely fun to me surprisingly and kind of saddened me. I always thought Islam was being seen as an oppressive religion was an “All muslim” problem but it mainly focused on the women in Islam. Before they talk about the men its always being talked about the headscarves, the way we dress, or our face coverings, being seen as bad, scary, and un-american. I would like to learn more about why people think like this? Why does me wearing a scarf scare people so much? Why are you scared of a piece of cloth on my head? Is the media going to change the way of how Islam is seen since it’s the second biggest religion in the world? Don’t they think it deserves more respect to its title? As my research proceeds to grow, I hope to find more answers to these intriguing questions.

Have you ever noticed a homeless person in Philadelphia that needed help but you didn’t exactly know-how to help them? The Philadelphian community is suffering to get Homeless people, families, and children off the streets. This is a big issue that should be discussed and fixed to get people off the street and help anyone in a bad situation. “Homelessness In Philadelphia.” I chose this issue because it needs more discussion, more awareness, more attention to make the issue a little better. My family and I, at any free moment we have we always try to donate or give something to the homeless people on the streets. This issue matters to me because I try to put myself in anyone’s shoes, and if I were in a dire predicament, I would want people or anyone in my corner to care enough about me and my situation to want to help. This topic is essential for others to know about to help but to know that there are many non-judgemental people in the world who are willing to help you or anyone you know that is in a challenging situation.

Homelessness is a massive issue in Philadelphia. According to Know Homelessness, there are about 5,700 people that are considered homeless, but 950 out of the 5,700 are unsheltered. Philadelphia has the lowest number of street homeless people than any other city in the U.S. Things you should know about homelessness in Philly also talked about how 1.6 million people that live in the city of Philadelphia, and 400,000 of them were found to be living below the poverty line in 2015. They can’t find jobs or have jobs but don’t get paid enough to pay bills, and the rent gets higher. People no longer have enough money to spend, etc. to add on Project Home stated: “A person would have to work 86 hours per week at the minimum hourly wage of $7.25 to afford even a modest one-bedroom apartment.” this just makes me think like how does the government expect people to be able to live comfortably? But then it goes in talking about children experiencing homelessness, and it exactly said: “3,899 School District of Philadelphia (SDP) students experiencing homelessness, 58 percent remained in their school of origin, 19 percent attended different schools, and 5 percent enrolled in more than two schools.” These are some excellent points to bring up because I know that some people in this world take children to a very soft spot in their hearts.

Now that we have some background knowledge of the issue, we can see how recent events made the Homelessness population go up even higher. As we all should know, Covid-19 is a big deal now, and while we were in Target, Walmart, and other stores arguing over who will get the last pack of toilet paper, I don’t think we ever thought about how this pandemic will affect the homeless. Well, the City of Homelessness enlightened us on the experiences of homeless people during the pandemic. They first started by stating: “After SEPTA enforced new Covid-19 rules and placed barrier decals to ensure social distancing, fewer homeless people were seen sleeping on trains, though many still ride the rails for hours in a semi-hypnotic, drugged state. Even in a pandemic, the trains serve as a kind of temporary home.” Then it went in on how Liz Hersh, the director of Philadelphia’s office of homeless services, talked about how the “city streets are home to about 850 unsheltered homeless people.” City Life gives us the perspectives and quotes of actual homeless people. “T.S. Eliot ( a homeless person) talked about how December is one of the cruelest months because of the holidays that are coming around, and it reminds you of everything that you’ve left behind.” going back to my thought of putting myself in someone else’s shoes I would be really sad about not having any family on special holidays.

Lastly, Understanding Homelessness talked about the challenges that homeless people face, such as “Safety & Security, Physiological Needs, Cleanliness & Hygiene, Barriers to employment,” etc. It had a page called the “Explore Data,” and you can find your state, city, country, or region to see how many homeless people there were in January 2015. 1 Dot=5 Homeless people. One of the parts that I enjoyed about this sit was that it has a section that tells you and shows you how you can help homeless people. For example, it says that you can help with “Addiction services, Better data collection, Clothing supply, Finding jobs, Flexible housing types, Food provision, Fundraising, Health services,” and many more.

After all of my research, I feel that I have more knowledge of the different things that factor into people becoming homeless and how I could help them live better in this world in the situation they’re in. I’m wondering if more people were to take just an hour out of their day could the homelessness population decrease? What is one good strategy you have to help homeless people? I hope to learn more about how to make things better in the world in general.

[Annotated Bibliography] (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lEoKEJ6IvhtKKP79x-XdYJC9ZNH2gBteyY7hIkInNao/edit?usp=sharing)

Everyone has someone they love. Whether it is a family member, friend, or significant other. Love is supposed to be one of the greatest feelings in the world. Loving someone means you are happy to spend time with them, do things for them, and feel safe around them. But what happens when being around a person you love starts to hurts? What if you’re always scared or gloomy when that person comes to mind? Is that still love?

Having such a relationship with someone is known as being in an abusive relationship. Most people have heard of such a term before, of being in a relationship with someone that is constantly manipulating or harming you, whether it be physically or mentally. This kind of relationship doesn’t only occur between 2 people that have romantic feelings towards each other. It can also happen between friends or family. Abusive relationships are very common. Mentalhelp.net states “Every minute, approximately 20 people are the victims of physical abuse by an intimate partner in the United States.” This is also backed up by the fact that there are about 27,000 calls made to the National Domestic Violence Support Hotline every month.

statistics from a survey about how many people had experienced any form of an abusive relationship

Abusive relationships are not exclusive to only mental trauma. Most of the time, there is a lot of physical abuse involved in these kinds of relationships. Though women are the more common victim of abuse, men are not in the clear neither. According to Mentalhelp.net, 1 in 3 women and 1 in 4 men have been physically abused by a significant other. Abuse doesn’t recognize gender as much as we think it does.

Percentage of men and women physically abused in a current or past relationship

There are plenty of ways to recognize an abusive relationship. One of the most obvious ones is physical abuse. If someone ever physically harms you, then that is a big sign that points towards an abusive relationship, and the issue should be dealt with immediately. Another big sign is just the way you feel. If you feel like they are controlling everything you do, are careful about everything you say to them, or just feel upset in any way around someone. If you recognize signs like these then you should put some distance between yourself and that person.

Of course, leaving an abusive relationship is easier said than done. There are plenty of difficult situations people are in that won’t allow them to leave the relationship. But no matter how difficult it seems, you can get out of it. Maybe not on your own, but there are plenty of people out there wanting to help. Talk to someone close to you that you trust about your situation. If there’s no one that you’re still in contact with, then you can go to the National Domestic Violence Hotline for help.

reasons why people say that they have stayed in an abusive relationship

Abusive relationships have serious effects on the physical and mental health of the victims. Some of those can include sleeping troubles, weakened immunity, anxiety or depression, increased risk of heart attack or stroke, etc.

Abusive relationships are quite common. You or someone close to you could be in one and you might just not have realized it yet. I’ve seen people close to me deal with being in an abusive relationship on their own and when they finally told me, I felt horrible. I wish I had realized before so they didn’t have to be in that relationship as long as they were. But I can’t go back and change the past so instead, I’m trying to share what I’ve learned with others so they are not oblivious to what’s happening like I was. If you are a victim of an abusive relationship, you can talk to someone close to you or go to this site for more help. If you know someone that is in an abusive relationship then try to talk to them, but keep in mind, talking about things like that is not easy so be patient. Love is never supposed to hurt.

Annotated Bibliography

I was a selected student participant in a “roundtable” designed to bring together various groups of voices to talk about what the intersections of inclusive, culturally responsive education and digital learning look like for them. I spoke with fellow high school students and district-level leaders about school materials and pedagogy. The information collected was then used by New America to help compile a set of recommendations for educators and district leaders. This is the notes New America took during the zoom session.

Being assaulted could happen anywhere, anytime. Even at work. Being sexual assaulted ins’t just being touched or raped, there’s so much more of sexual assault that you probably didn’t know was assault. It’s best to know what is sexual assault so you know when to protect yourself. This could happen to both men and women, but why don’t we look the percentages shall we. 32% of employees didn’t know jokes could be sexual harassment, and 15% of female educators and 6% of male educators experienced sexual harassment or assault.

More than 25% of women experience sexual harassment in the workplace, and 37% of harassed women reported harassment negatively influenced their career advancement. As you can see by the percentages on (https://goremotely.net/blog/sexual-harassment-in-the-workplace-statistics/), women are more assaulted. But it is important to acknowledge the assault against men too. We all need to protect ourselves, but women have to even more than men. I’m sure you’ve heard of the saying, “What were you wearing?” Well, I have something to completely debunk that. There is an art exhibit that is a perfect imagery to show people who say things like that, that that doesn’t matter at all. It doesn’t matter what the person was wearing, that does not give you permission to touch or rape them. When you watch this 1 minute video (https://www.huffpost.com/entry/powerful-art-exhibit-powerfully-answers-the-question-what-were-you-wearing_n_59baddd2e4b02da0e1405d2a) and analyze the clothes, you even see baby’s clothes up. That just goes to show you that it doesn’t matter what you wear, the problem is with the people doing the raping. People also say “why didn’t they just fight back?” Kids can’t fight off someone so much bigger than them. And women do fight back. There are so many examples I can show, but I’ll just show one.

This man’s name is Kirk Taylor. He held a woman who was unnamed and raped her. She managed to get away and tell the police, but look at him. You can clearly see that she fought with everything in her. But he was too strong. So I’m saying this again, it’s never the victim’s fault. Sexual assault against women is a big issue. Men and women both could be abused, but it is mostly women being abused and assaulted by men. You can see by this on (https://www.webmd.com/sexual-conditions/guide/sexual-abuse-and-assault).

As a woman myself, I even experienced sexual assault, and I’m only 15. Says a lot huh. Some women don’t know the different ways of how they could be assaulted. And that’s important to know so if God forbids someone ever tries something, you could defend yourself or know that you have a right to fight back. The different kinds of sexual assault are inappropriate touching, vaginal, anal, or oral penetration, sexual intercourse that you say no to, rape, attempted rape, and child molestation. There are ways to try to avoid being sexually assaulted, like never leaving your drink anywhere at a party because someone could slip in a pill, and to bring your own drink to the party since the punch could be spiked. You should also always have some type of weapon with you. But sadly, sometimes even after doing all these things, something could still happen. If you were to ever be raped, don’t shower or anything. Go straight to the hospital and they will use a rape kit on you to get any DNA and proof. As I said before, there are ways that women protect themselves. But I didn’t say any. So here are some ways to protect yourself. You can see more here: (https://health.allwomenstalk.com/ways-for-women-to-protect-themselves-against-danger/). Besides using bear spray and your keys or pocket knife, you should study self defense and also be in a group of three or more people. It’s dangerous to be alone. It would also be harder for someone to kidnap you if you aren’t alone. Another thing you need to do is not be too helpful. A lot of people will take advantage of your kindness and could lure you somewhere without you realizing it. You should always check underneath your car to make sure no one is under there. Also, look in the back of your car before getting in. Always be very careful and always watch your surroundings.

If you are living alone, especially if you are a woman, you should make sure your home is safe and to be aware of your home. A couple ways you could stay safe at home is by having a motion sensor outdoor light, securing your garage, using smart locks, and to have a security camera. There are more things you could do listed here: (https://www.safewise.com/blog/9-safety-guidelines-for-living-alone/#:~:text=%209%20Ways%20to%20). It’s always good to have something like theses just to be safe. Sexual assault happens to women between the ages of 14 and 20. They are three times more susceptible than adult females and younger ones in other age brackets to be assaulted or raped. Fifty percent of rape survivors were doing other things or asleep at home when the crime happened. Almost thirty percent were on their way to work or school, doing errands, or shopping. Twelve percent of females were working when they were assaulted, seven percent were attending school, and five percent were doing some other activity. It could happen anywhere, which is horrifying. There is much more to read about these percentages in this article (https://thewebaddicted.com/resources/sexual-assault-statistics-in-the-us/), but here are a few more things I want to mention. 1 out of every 6 American women has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape in her life time.

Males ages 18-24 who are college students are approximately 4 times more likely than non-students of the same age to be a victim of rape or sexual assault. 52.4% of male victims report being raped by an acquaintance and 15.1% by a stranger, and in eight out of ten rape cases, the victim knew the aggressor.

Now, I want to talk about 1 of many experiences with some type of assault. I won’t go into too much detail, but in 7th grade, a guy who liked me lifted up my skirt and tried to look underneath it. Luckily I had shorts on underneath, but he had done that when school was out, and after he had done that, he ran out of the room and I couldn’t go after him because I didn’t have all my things together. I couldn’t do anything to defend myself, and that really messed with me for the rest of the day. I felt disgusted and dirty. Even if it was something “minor”. The next day I confronted him and made sure he knew I didn’t like what he did if he thought I did. He never tried something like that on me again. He apologized to me later on that day, and even though he did change and isn’t like that anymore, it still bothers me. It’s no fun to experience things like this. It makes victims feel dirty, and wish that they could wash it off, but can’t. Sexual assault is a horrible thing, it’s a shame we have to always be looking over our shoulders just to feel safe.