Nile Ward Public Feed
"You're so well behaved." — Nile Ward
"You're so well behaved." I felt like I've heard this so many times, I don't even realize these are even words any more. I was one of few black kids in my class that went to a mostly white school; all white teachers for the whole nine years.
That one sentence... In the first few months of second grade, I distinctly remember my parents having to talk to my teacher, not because of my grades or bad behavior. In fact, he was trying to make it seem that I was the worst student ever when... I wasn't. It seemed like he was poking at me to find something that he knew I'd snap about. Like the time we had indoor recess… or art class – I don't know. Whatever it was, I was always first in line to get a piece of paper and utensils for transcribing my imagination from brain to paper. But then that teacher, adamant to break me, told me that I would have to complete some writing sheet. Apparently, I missed that assignment – but I just did it, while he stood over me for the whole ten minutes it took me to complete it, while everyone else got to draw and build towers and such. He asked me why I thought the answer was right for each problem where a word was misspelled or the punctuation was wrong. I answered "because we learned this in writing class." I handed him the completed sheet.
He snatched it out of my hand while staring intently over his glasses at me, smirking, and I felt nervous, like I'd done something wrong. He read over it about five times. He told me that I'd passed. About time you'd say that. It was the same sheet he gave us three days ago in writing class that I remembered doing!
"Darn," he must've thought. "Still didn't break." I never would. He probably realized this after winter break – he did a complete 180 flip, complimenting my hard work and my "great behavior." Still unaware of his motives, I just said thanks.
Of course, I later realized what he was doing this for, and why all of my teachers told me "you're so well behaved." Sure, this isn't necessarily a bad thing, but, scratch the surface, and – surprise! Mostly white school – so seeing a black kid probably was shocking. Especially when that kid smashes the stereotype of "getting in trouble all of the time."
AUTHOR'S NOTE
For the most part, I tried to make this sound like the character were telling the story rather than it being written down. To an extent, I drew some inspiration from Margaret Atwood's writing style – specifically the voice and the character trying to remember what happened. For example, Atwood has Offred asking herself where she was or what she was doing. I did the same, where my character asked which class this situation took place. But for the most part, I wanted this to sound natural, partly to give it more dimension, but also because the basic setup of the story is personal.
Advanced Essay – One Goal and Conflicts of Interest
Introduction
In this essay, I wanted to learn about how even when a group of people have a common goal, there are still separations. In this case, I look at activists' ideas during the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements – ideas from Dr. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X – and see how they shaped their identities based on one goal. Additionally, I wanted to find out how these identities were destroyed by an even bigger force – the government itself. I am proud of my analysis – this is an area that I usually have a harder time doing in other essays. In my next essay, I will try to be even more specific and focus more on certain people or in a more specific point in time. I would also like to write better conclusions and make them less abrupt.
Advanced Essay
In the United States, the fight for Civil Rights has been a continuous fight. From the fight for citizenship of black people after the Civil War, the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Power Movement – each of these fights led to changes in the way society viewed black people. Black people wanted to have justice and equality. However, in a society where white power has dominated in the government of this country, these calls for rights were turned to deaf ears. Each of these struggles showed how this society prevented black and brown people from belonging in it and creating identities for themselves – culture, governments, and education.
The 1960s and 1970s saw the Black Power Movement. During this time, black Americans were fighting (again) to have justice, freedom, housing, and education. Black people felt that the black power movement would help create a new identity for black Americans – an identity that involved self-sufficiency and the celebration of black culture. This movement was created in response to not just the major political and social issues during this time, but also in response to other Civil Rights leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose approach to gaining Civil Rights was peaceful protests. In fact, Dr. King condemned the ideas of Black Power as a solution to the issues regarding Civil Rights. In a document by Dr. King, titled "It is not enough to condemn black power" in October 1966, he talked about the dangers of using the ideas of Black Power in gaining Civil Rights. October 1966, importantly, was also when the Black Panther Party was founded by Bobby Seale and Huey Newton. "The slogan was an unwise choice at the outset. With the violent connotations that now attach to the words it has become dangerous and injurious." This quote represents the fears of going to, what seemed to be, extreme measures in fighting for civil rights in the 1960s and 70s. Dr. King felt that using the "Black Power" term would have changed the way black people were viewed by society – that black people would have been viewed as violent people rather than peaceful people. He felt that using violence was not and should not have been used to win the civil rights struggles because it would tarnish his ideas of how black people should craft their identities – peacefully and civilized.
From the perspective of the Black Power Movement and activists such as Malcolm X, Huey Newton, and Bobby Seale, they felt that the peaceful approach to gaining civil rights in the United States would not be enough to force lawmakers and society in general from changing its views on Civil Rights for black Americans. They felt that the identity that Dr. King wanted to create – peaceful protests leading to social change – was being taken advantage of. They felt that this identity would just be brushed to the side, and that the fight for civil rights would not be as productive as if they became more forceful with their protests. The ideas of the Black Power Movement represented a more aggressive tone, to show that they would not be taken advantage of and pushed around. The ideas of this movement influenced other organizations with the same aggressive ideas to take shape such as the Black Panther Party, which performed community service and armed patrol of police in black communities. A document from the Black Panthers lists out all of the things they wanted, and all of the things they would fight to be changed. "We want education for our people that exposes the true nature of this decadent American society. … We want bread, housing, education, clothing, justice, and peace." These initiatives showed how the fight for rights took a turn following a whole different approach. While the initiatives of activists like Dr. King were to have integration, where black and white would be equal and work towards gaining civil rights together, the Black Panther Party wanted black Americans to be able to sustain themselves.
These goals changed the national attitude towards the Black Panthers and black Americans, as they no longer were just protesting. They were working towards these goals, regardless of the criticism from a society built on racism. This progress was not met with widespread approval. In 1956, the FBI launched a counterintelligence program called COINTELPRO, aimed at investigating "'radical' national political groups," according to PBS. A year after the Black Panther Party was formed, COINTELPRO shifted most of its attention to investigating Huey Newton and the Black Panthers. Also according to PBS, out of 295 documents outlining actions against black groups, 233 of those documents specifically targeted the Black Panthers. As a result, the organization began to lose its footing, and officially closed in 1982. The swift action of COINTELPRO in shutting them down showed how the deep-rooted racism influenced the government and their institutions. It showed that the identities that black people wanted to create for themselves during these movements were not socially accepted because of their race.
One group of people with a common goal create different identities based on their general ideas of how society is run and how it should be changed. In this case, the identities that were created by those who followed in the footsteps of Dr. King and the identities of those following the footsteps of Bobby Seale seemed to be conflicting identities. They were working towards a common goal – to have Civil Rights – but there was disagreement on how that goal should be achieved. Nonviolent activism was an identity that was accepted by some black people, but unaccepted by other black people, and vice versa.
Sources
“The Black Power Movement.” The Black Power Movement | DPLA, dp.la/primary-source-sets/the-black-power-movement.
“Black Power.” Ushistory.org, Independence Hall Association, www.ushistory.org/us/54i.asp.
Rethinking the Black Power Movement, exhibitions.nypl.org/africanaage/essay-black-power.html.
Black Panther Party | The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed, www.blackpast.org/aah/black-panther-party.
“The Black Power era.” SocialistWorker.org, 13 Mar. 1970, socialistworker.org/2011/10/25/black-power-era.
PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, www.pbs.org/hueypnewton/actions/actions_cointelpro.html
Advanced Essay #2: Manipulation
In this essay, I want to bring light on how education, business, and media, play a role in the manipulation of the general public. I am proud of my analysis, but I would have liked to use a better scene.
Most evenings, while I am upstairs doing homework, I hear the inaudible sound of the news playing on the TV downstairs. And in some of those evenings, there is some breaking news that causes my parents to turn up the volume to get all of the details that the reporter is telling the viewer – or, in some cases, the details that the news wants the reporter to tell the viewer. In these cases, I can hear my parents saying things like, "That's a lie!" or "This didn't happen!" There are times when I decide to go downstairs to see what's being said on the news, and, when they finish telling whatever news story, a discussion follows talking about all of the blaring issues about the story the news told its viewers, or the blaring issues not told.
The idea of the media twisting stories, even just the slightest bit, is essential for the citizens in our society to be misinformed. In James Baldwin's If Black Isn't a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is? he described how different languages in one region can affect the power dynamics. "It goes without saying, then, that language is also a political instrument, means, and proof of power." (Baldwin) In the United States, language, along with other factors such as race and gender, have been used as a way to give advantages to one group of people while creating hardships for the other groups.
Education gaps has been a major issue that affects families and individuals and how they view and interpret news. Socioeconomic class is one major factor in the quality of education. According to the Economic Policy Institute, students who are in lower social classes struggle more with reading than students in higher classes. Lower reading levels then results in students, eventually growing up to adults, who are less prepared for interpreting all of what is thrown at them. Lower education means students who are not able to, or do not want to, dig deeper into the meaning of, for example, a news story or a post on social media about an event. The education gaps, mostly put up against lower class citizens, is what allows for the manipulation of people. Most families will enroll their kids into public school, and public schools deal with being underfunded and generally having lower quality education.
For the school system to give lower quality education to students in a lower social class means these students are easier to manipulate by means of media. When students are taught less content, it is more difficult for them to be able to connect the dots when it comes to analyzing the world. Analyzing news usually requires background knowledge, or at least the ability of fishing for what is correct and what is incorrect – or what is "real news" and what is "fake news." The use of misinformation and lack of student support in schools sets up students for not being able to distinguish between right and wrong. Certain media, such as social media, conspiracy theorists, and even some news networks, use this lack of student education to their advantages in order to "sell" their news to those viewers.
The news, in some ways, could be seen as a business. On television, there are promos to watch certain people at certain times, which usually are tagged with catch phrases such as "The best news," or "Trusted by viewers." The business factor of the news is another factor that affects the way news networks present news. Certain news networks cater to their own audiences. According to the Pew Research Center, "those with consistently conservative views" watch Fox News, a conservative and right-leaning news network. Most viewers who have more left-leaning views turn to CNN, MSNBC, or New York Times, which are more left-leaning news networks. This means that Fox News will more likely choose stories that are more critical of the left in order to retain its viewers, and CNN will choose stories that are more critical of the right to retain its viewers. However, there is more diversity in the political views of the viewers that watch networks like CNN or MSNBC, while 60 percent of Fox News viewers are strongly conservatives. News networks, in order to appeal to their audiences, usually choose certain stories to make public, or will cover certain stories with different lights. In the 2016 presidential election, for example, right-leaning media covered left-leaning candidates – most notably Hillary Clinton – far more critically than left-leaning networks. However, they covered right-leaning candidates with very little criticism. This meant that those who view right-leaning media strongly disliked Clinton, or any other left-leaning candidates. Left-leaning media was critical of the right-leaning candidates, but also not as critical of left-leaning candidates.
The use of education and business has been a way for the general public to be manipulated by media and the government. Our sources of information are usually divided on political views, therefore changing what information is presented to viewers and how that information is handled.
Works Cited
- Baldwin, James. “If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me What Is?” The New York Times, The New York Times, 29 July 1979
- Mitchell, Amy, Jeffrey Gottfried, Jocelyn Kiley, and Katerina Eva Matsa. "Section 1: Media Sources: Distinct Favorites Emerge on the Left and Right." Pew Research Center's Journalism Project. October 20, 2014. Accessed December 2017. http://www.journalism.org/2014/10/21/section-1-media-sources-distinct-favorites-emerge-on-the-left-and-right/.
- “Early Education Gaps by Social Class and Race Start U.S. Children Out on Unequal Footing: A Summary of the Major Findings in Inequalities at the Starting Gate.” Economic Policy Institute, www.epi.org/publication/early-education-gaps-by-social-class-and-race-start-u-s-children-out-on-unequal-footing-a-summary-of-the-major-findings-in-inequalities-at-the-starting-gate/.
Advanced Essay #2: Manipulation
Introduction:
In this essay, I want to bring light on how education, business, and media, play a role in the manipulation of the general public. I am proud of my analysis, but I would have liked to use a better scene.
Most evenings, while I am upstairs doing homework, I hear the inaudible sound of the news playing on the TV downstairs. And in some of those evenings, there is some breaking news that causes my parents to turn up the volume to get all of the details that the reporter is telling the viewer – or, in some cases, the details that the news wants the reporter to tell the viewer. In these cases, I can hear my parents saying things like, "That's a lie!" or "This didn't happen!" There are times when I decide to go downstairs to see what's being said on the news, and, when they finish telling whatever news story, a discussion follows talking about all of the blaring issues about the story the news told its viewers, or the blaring issues not told.
The idea of the media twisting stories, even just the slightest bit, is essential for the citizens in our society to be misinformed. In James Baldwin's If Black Isn't a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is? he described how different languages in one region can affect the power dynamics. "It goes without saying, then, that language is also a political instrument, means, and proof of power. (Baldwin) In the United States, language, along with other factors such as race and gender, have been used as a way to give advantages to one group of people while creating hardships for the other groups.
Education gaps has been a major issue that affects families and individuals and how they view and interpret news. Socioeconomic class is one major factor in the quality of education. According to the Economic Policy Institute, students who are in lower social classes struggle more with reading than students in higher classes. Lower reading levels then results in students, eventually growing up to adults, who are less prepared for interpreting all of what is thrown at them. Lower education means students who are not able to, or do not want to, dig deeper into the meaning of, for example, a news story or a post on social media about an event. The education gaps, mostly put up against lower class citizens, is what allows for the manipulation of people. Most families will enroll their kids into public school, and public schools deal with being underfunded and generally having lower quality education.
For the school system to give lower quality education to students in a lower social class means these students are easier to manipulate by means of media. When students are taught less content, it is more difficult for them to be able to connect the dots when it comes to analyzing the world. Analyzing news usually requires background knowledge, or at least the ability of fishing for what is correct and what is incorrect – or what is "real news" and what is "fake news." The use of misinformation and lack of student support in schools sets up students for not being able to distinguish between right and wrong. Certain media, such as social media, conspiracy theorists, and even some news networks, use this lack of student education to their advantages in order to "sell" their news to those viewers.
The news, in some ways, could be seen as a business. On television, there are promos to watch certain people at certain times, which usually are tagged with catch phrases such as "The best news," or "Trusted by viewers." The business factor of the news is another factor that affects the way news networks present news. Certain news networks cater to their own audiences. According to the Pew Research Center, "those with consistently conservative views" watch Fox News, a conservative and right-leaning news network. Most viewers who have more left-leaning views turn to CNN, MSNBC, or New York Times, which are more left-leaning news networks. This means that Fox News will more likely choose stories that are more critical of the left in order to retain its viewers, and CNN will choose stories that are more critical of the right to retain its viewers. However, there is more diversity in the political views of the viewers that watch networks like CNN or MSNBC, while 60 percent of Fox News viewers are strongly conservatives. News networks, in order to appeal to their audiences, usually choose certain stories to make public, or will cover certain stories with different lights. In the 2016 presidential election, for example, right-leaning media covered left-leaning candidates – most notably Hillary Clinton – far more critically than left-leaning networks. However, they covered right-leaning candidates with very little criticism. This meant that those who view right-leaning media strongly disliked Clinton, or any other left-leaning candidates. Left-leaning media was critical of the right-leaning candidates, but also not as critical of left-leaning candidates.
The use of education and business has been a way for the general public to be manipulated by media and the government. Our sources of information are usually divided on political views, therefore changing what information is presented to viewers and how that information is handled.
Works Cited
- Baldwin, James. “If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me What Is?” The New York Times, The New York Times, 29 July 1979
- Mitchell, Amy, Jeffrey Gottfried, Jocelyn Kiley, and Katerina Eva Matsa. "Section 1: Media Sources: Distinct Favorites Emerge on the Left and Right." Pew Research Center's Journalism Project. October 20, 2014. Accessed December 2017. http://www.journalism.org/2014/10/21/section-1-media-sources-distinct-favorites-emerge-on-the-left-and-right/.
- “Early Education Gaps by Social Class and Race Start U.S. Children Out on Unequal Footing: A Summary of the Major Findings in Inequalities at the Starting Gate.” Economic Policy Institute, www.epi.org/publication/early-education-gaps-by-social-class-and-race-start-u-s-children-out-on-unequal-footing-a-summary-of-the-major-findings-in-inequalities-at-the-starting-gate/.
Advanced Essay 1: The Experience Puzzle
Introduction
My goal in this essay is to understand what having experiences can do to shape a person and their passions. I am most proud of my analyzation to my scene, since I actually found this most difficult to create. An area for improvement is possibly more expansion and making more connections to themes.
The Essay
While looking through my bookshelf in my bedroom, I spotted a subtle shining object behind the generations of old, dusty books. It was a trophy, which read "UYRS (Urban Youth Racing School) 2010 Participation." And on top, there was a depiction of a racing driver driving a go-kart. The day when I first boarded the tired-looking yellow school bus with a broken head gasket was when I experienced first-hand what it would be like to think and drive like the racing drivers you see on the television. In the weeks leading up to this first day, we attended classes, where we learned about the most important aspects of racing, like finding the best driving line, ultimately leading to faster and more efficient driving.
Now, just four classes of sitting at a table, we would convert those lessons to reality. I went through the doorway to the briefing room, where we put on our neck braces and racing helmets. We were then given a run-down of the first lessons, where a "pace kart" would drive around the track so we could learn the track. We were led out to the cold warehouse-like building where the track was located, and though it was a relatively small space for the job, there were still tight chicanes, fast bends, and everything in between. Finally, we were sent out on our own. The first race came, and I started in the fifth position out of about seven or eight other drivers. The noisy lawn-mower engines echoed wildly on the walls of the warehouse when the green lights lit up. My kart's wheels struggled to get traction on the slippery, polished concrete floor, but I eventually adjusted to the driving characteristics. One by one, I overtook one driver, then the next. I held a steady second place as I started to pass the first place driver on the fast left. Then, all of the sudden, the back wheels lost all grip, the kart spun around, and I found myself facing the drivers coming up from behind. The back of my kart finally hit the tire wall with a thud. The yellow flag waved in the air, and one of the instructors rushed out to check on me. I sat in complete confusion. It all happened in a blink of an eye. It wasn't until after the race that I realized I was pushed by the driver behind me, fighting through to get to first place as well.
In my first actual experience in go-kart racing, I faced both the highs and the lows of motorsport. Sometimes you enjoy these first experiences, and other times you wonder how you even decided to take the risk. In my case, I enjoyed the go-karting experience. The thrill of high speed, wheel to wheel driving still resonates with me now. Even after having the crash, despite the fact that it disrupted my race, I knew that I could refine my driving in the future races. When you get to say, "I did this thing for the first time," you find something new about yourself. You may find that this experience falls right in line with your passions, or you may find a whole new passion altogether. Or, you may find that these first experiences do not fit your passions.
These unfitting puzzle pieces, however, can give you more chances to find the pieces that do fit. When you have these "unfitting" experiences or experiences that you may not have enjoyed or found interesting, you will keep searching for the experiences that fit. When solving a jigsaw puzzle, you keep looking through the pile of pieces, setting the ones aside that don't quite solve it, putting the ones in that connect seamlessly. Each experience is a new potential piece to solve your jigsaw puzzle. When you pick up a piece and it doesn't fit, you set it aside and look for the next piece. In the case of my go-kart racing experience, it was a piece that fit. This allowed me to find more pieces that connected to my passions for cars. A few of those pieces were ones that held my interest in engineering. This piece connected directly to my interest in cars, since in order to build a car, from the simplest of cars to the Formula One machines, you need engineering. When you take the opportunities to do something, you may find that in some way or another, that experience will open new doors to getting the chance to further your career.
Supporting Leaders – Nile Ward
E2U4 La Lucha por Derechos – Nile Ward
Yo vivo en Mt. Airy, y he vivido aquí por dieciséis años. Me gusta esta barrio a causa de la locación en Filadelfia. También, hay eventos de comunidad, entonces todo el mundo están juntos. Este aspecto del barrio es significativo porque todo el mundo está consciente de nuestra país, de su lugar en la sociedad, y la historia de por qué es así. La conciencia que la gente tiene de su lugar en nuestra sociedad significa que se sabe cómo lidiar con dificultades y retos. Dificultades y retos de derechos civiles y sistema de justicia.
Yo quiero poner un mural en la pared de la escuela secundaria, ubicado en Mt. Airy, se llama Hill Freedman. Muchos de los valores de este barrio se centran en la educación y la diversidad. Por ejemplo, hay muchas escuelas abiertas para gente de cualquier raza. De hecho, hay una escuela que se llama Escuela para Sordos de Pensilvania, que ayuda a educar estudiantes sordos. Este mural ayudaría enfatizar como educación es muy importante a las vidas de todo el mundo, y el mural estar en una escuela puede comunicar mejor este mensaje. Mi mural va a contar la historia de la lucha de los derechos civiles. Voy a poner una o unas activistas de derechos civiles porque va a apoderar a la gente en la lucha actual.
Para expresar un mensaje, mi mural es sobre la lucha por derechos civiles. Quiero hacer este diseño porque yo sé que los derechos civiles siguen siendo un problema en nuestra sociedad. Voy a incorporar imágenes y dibujos de las luchas de derechos porque son relevante hoy. Además, voy a incorporar citas de activistas por los derechos civiles porque son palabras de sabiduría. Las palabras de activistas por los derechos civiles tienen que contar el mensaje que la lucha nunca termina hasta que tenemos que queremos. A pesar de que hay una mayor potencia que quiere oprimir, tenemos que recordar que estamos juntos. La lucha no se puede hacer sin estar juntos.
En fin, mi mural representa la historia de las luchas para los derechos civiles en los Estados Unidos. El propósito de mi mural es para contar la historia de nuestra país. O sea, la historia de los Estados no es completo sin los injusticias raciales.Gracias, Zapata – Nile Ward
Una oda a Emiliano Zapata
Justo, bravo, y revolucionario
Cuando yo te veo pienso en luchando por lo que es correcto
Me haces sentir como yo tengo un voz también
Gracias, Zapata.
Hill Freedman
"Seeing our Voices, Signs of Germantown," por Michelle Angela Ortiz
- Diversidad
- Hablando sobre problemas y conflictos
- Relaciones saludables
- "Maplewood Business" – negocios locales
- Trabajando juntos, todo el mundo están trabajando juntos en este mural
- ¡Muestra que estando juntos es muy importante para un barrio o comunidad ser buena!
"Words Without Meaning" – Nile Ward
Emulation Handbook: Paulo Coelho
Anuncio de la Hillary Clinton – Nile Ward, Andrew Rodebaugh, Boubou Magassa
Nile Ward – Every Step is an Accomplishment
E2 D8 Premios - Nile Ward
E1 U6 Proyecto – Nile, Zahira, Eric
"Soy Nile"
Soy Nile
Yo tengo piel morena de los Estados Unidos
Pero estoy enraizado en la historia de África.
Yo vivo con pasión
Sólo quiero caminar con dignidad
y conquistar mi libertad
Yo veo mercados locales por mi casa
Yo huelo la naturaleza rural de Coatesville
Yo saboreo la comida buena de mi mamá
Yo oigo el viento en los árboles
Yo toco el metal de los coches de mi abuelo
Soy el doctor de computadoras
Tengo un negocio...
Doy oportunidades a las personas...
en el futuro
No somos productos de los Estados Unidos
Vivimos en América
Pero nuestras raices son de la historia de África.
Somos de una región de trabajo duro
Trabajamos mucho
Pero más en los Estados Unidos
Hoy no todos tenemos libertad
Pero tenemos nuestra verdadNile Ward, Waverly O'Neil, Kamil Kielar PROYECTO
Growing up Online - Nile Ward
Nile Ward Reflection and Second Slide
N Ward, Media Fluency
Nile Ward Poema
Soy Nile
casi siempre, soy
muy inteligente y amable.
los fines de semana, me encanta computadoras,
automóviles, y pasar tiempo con mi familia.
No soy deportista,
ni muy artistico.
Yo soy…
¡YO!