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Taj Walter Public Feed

Taj Walter Capstone

Posted by Taj Walter in CTE Senior Capstone · Ugworji/Walker-Roberts · Wed on Sunday, May 9, 2021 at 5:29 pm

As I was brainstorming my capstone project over the summer of 2020 I often found myself watching NBA Basketball games while looking through the current news of the world on my phone. I suppose the world of politics and sports being on my mind for months lead to the creation of this project. I wanted to do something that could answer why the sports world was becoming so involved in politics. I settled on wanting to work on something that would allow for my thoughts to flow and create discussions after the audience listens to it. I created a podcast series called The Political Sports Podcast. In this podcast, I discuss the different events where politics and sports have crossed over and come together. I don’t try to answer any questions with definitive statements because I want the audience to think about their own opinions. I believe I have learned a lot about the specific scenarios where sports and politics intersected. I have also learned about why these events are happening more often and what this means for the future as I discussed in the podcast. I have learned that politics have been involved in the sports community for decades, but now it is becoming more commonplace for athletes to become involved in politics. I really enjoyed working on this project and I hope everyone who listens enjoys it too.

TheUndefeated. “Colin Kaepernick Protests Anthem over Treatment of Minorities.” The Undefeated, The Undefeated, 3 Sept. 2016, theundefeated.com/features/colin-kaepernick-protests-anthem-over-treatment-of-minorities/.

Jenkins, Sally. “Perspective | This Is Why Colin Kaepernick Took a Knee.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 30 May 2020, www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/05/30/this-is-why-colin-kaepernick-took-knee/.

Ellis, Ralph, and Steve Almasy. “NBA Players Protest Racist Talk Attributed to L.A. Clippers Owner Donald Sterling.” CNN, Cable News Network, 28 Apr. 2014, www.cnn.com/2014/04/27/us/nba-team-owner-alleged-racist-remarks/index.html.

Zucker, Joseph. “Clippers Owner Donald Sterling Banned for Life from NBA for Racist Remarks.” Bleacher Report, Bleacher Report, 26 Sept. 2017, bleacherreport.com/articles/2042902-clippers-owner-donald-sterling-banned-for-life-from-nba-for-racist-remarks.

Hill, Jemele. “The WNBA Can’t Keep Kelly Loeffler Around.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 11 Jan. 2021, www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/01/kelly-loeffler-doesnt-belong-in-the-wnba/617632/.

MarcJSpears. “’Black Lives Matter, People’: How the NBA’s Social Justice Efforts Dominated the Season.” The Undefeated, The Undefeated, 14 Oct. 2020, theundefeated.com/features/how-the-nba-social-justice-efforts-dominated-the-season/.

Stein, Marc. “Led by N.B.A., Boycotts Disrupt Pro Sports in Wake of Blake Shooting.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 26 Aug. 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/08/26/sports/basketball/nba-boycott-bucks-magic-blake-shooting.html.

Parks, Miles. “NBA Arenas Are Becoming Voting Centers. Will They Draw The Same Crowds?” NPR, NPR, 30 Oct. 2020, www.npr.org/2020/10/30/929470574/nba-arenas-are-becoming-voting-centers-will-they-draw-the-same-crowds.

Blakemore, Erin. “How the Black Power Protest at the 1968 Olympics Killed Careers.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 22 Feb. 2018, www.history.com/news/1968-mexico-city-olympics-black-power-protest-backlash.

Sheridan, Chris. “Sports And Politics Are Mixed Forever; Get Used To It.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 29 Aug. 2020, www.forbes.com/sites/chrissheridan/2020/08/29/sports-and-politics-are-mixed-forever-get-used-to-it/?sh=5b02312e6a54.

Tags: #Capstone, #Todd, #2021
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Room Two Podcast (Taj, Jackson, Carol, Sarah)

Posted by Taj Walter in College English · Pahomov · B Band on Sunday, January 17, 2021 at 3:53 pm
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By Any Means Necessary

Posted by Taj Walter in English 2 · Pahomov/Rhymer · E Band on Monday, March 25, 2019 at 3:16 pm

Taj Walter

Ms. Pahomov

English 2

26 March 2019

By Any Means Necessary

Violence seems to be the natural state of mind for humans. The mentality of “by any means necessary” is a natural thought process for mankind meaning that humanity will want to win no matter what the consequences are. War often resorts to humans wanting to win by any means necessary. This often causes war crimes which are defined by Merriam-Webster as “a crime (such as genocide or maltreatment of prisoners) committed during or in connection with war.” These war crimes being agreed upon by the international community have happened since the inception of war and continue to happen today, but why? With the knowledge of war crimes being inhumane the world still commits them. Lord of the Flies by William Golding explores these questions greatly without giving an absolute answer to any of them. The events in the book draw interesting comparisons to the real world, specifically the Vietnam War.

The Vietnam War is a terrible conflict mainly fought by the United States and Northern Vietnam. The war lasted from November 1, 1955, to April 30, 1975. During the war, both sides started to get more savage in their approach to winning, but as the scales started tipping more and more into Northern Vietnam’s favor, the United States started to adopt the ¨by any means necessary¨ state of mind. This caused the war to be much more violent than it was at the start and also began to destroy civilian lives at a much quicker rate than it had in the beginning. One of the most devastating operations was titled Operation Ranch Hand. “During the Vietnam War, the U.S military engaged in an aggressive program of chemical warfare codenamed Operation Ranch Hand.” As stated by history.com, the U.S. sprayed twenty million gallons of herbicides between the years of 1961 and 1971. This very deadly warfare method lead to countless deaths in Vietnam. The particular chemical spread that will be focused on is Agent Orange. Agent Orange was one of the many chemicals used during the war. It was the most widely used of the chemicals accounting for two-thirds of all the chemicals used during the war. This is a very destructive chemical that caused untold damages to the country and its people. The ¨by any means necessary¨ approach caused this to happen. If the United States’ military thought of the consequences of their actions, this would have not happened. This did not even win them the war. Millions murdered for nothing just because the U.S. thought that this strategy would win them the war. This is similar to the approach Jack took at the end of Lord of the Flies.

Lord of the Flies is a story about a group of boys that crash land on an island. They range from 7 to mid-teens years of age. They have to try to save themselves and survive on the island, so their natural first idea is to decide on who should lead them. They have two choices between Ralph and Jack and Ralph wins, becoming the leader of the boys. From this point forward, Jack makes small comments and actions about how he should have been the leader and that Ralph is not fit to be a leader. When the opportunity comes for him to leave Ralph’s group and take some people with him effectively having a coup, he takes it. He succeeds and starts his own tribe separate from Ralph’s. Fights happen between the group and some switch sides which eventually leads Ralph to be by himself. He is being hunted by Jack and his savages and is managing to avoid them and stay alive. So Jack believing that Ralph is worth everything decides to set the forest on fire. Ralph puts it perfectly by saying, “Now the fire was nearer; those volleying shots were great limbs, trunks even, bursting. The fools! The fools! The fire must be almost at the fruit trees--what would they eat tomorrow?” (Golding 154) He decides that the best way to get Ralph is to burn everything that they have and destroy it all to get him. He believes that he must get Ralph by any means necessary. This approach is similar to the United States’ during the Vietnam War. This demonstrates that it is a natural way of thinking for humans. When at war man must succeed by any means necessary. If done in a war by the U.S. military who has plenty of people keeping it in check does it and a Savage who has nobody to keep him in check does it, then it is clearly an ideology that is natural for the civilized and the savage.

Stated by the Washington Post waterboarding “is an enhanced interrogation technique that simulates the feeling of being drowned. CIA medical staff determined that the process was dangerous enough that they required resuscitation and medical equipment to be placed in interrogation rooms where waterboarding took place. On at least one occasion, a detainee required resuscitation.” This is a technique that the U.S. has used in the past. This technique shows a complete and total lack of care and respect for the victim. As long as the U.S. gets what they want from the individual and leave with what they want, they do not care how the victim feels. Taking the victims to the point of needing resuscitation is dangerous and treats the victim as of their life and pain do not matter to the U.S.

In the third paragraph when I mentioned that some people switched from Ralph’s side to Jack’s, I was referring to two characters named Sam and Eric. They are twins who were on Ralph’s side the entire time, but when they were separated from him they were tortured by Jack and his tribe. They tortured them for information and forced them to join Jack. Sam and Eric say "--they made us. They hurt us--" (Golding 147).  This shows Jack’s complete and total disregard to the people he is torturing. He does not care and does inhumane actions because of this lack of care which is similar to the U.S. and waterboarding its victims. The torturing of victims by Jack and the U.S. leads me to believe that the natural thought of humans is to get their task done by any means necessary.

Jack and the U.S. act similarly when in states of war. They lose all care for their actions impact as long as their goal is achieved. Jack tortured Sam and Eric and burned down the forest to get to Ralph. The U.S. waterboards its victims and releases chemicals to win a war or get information. These two entities tell me that they will win by any means necessary. One being a kid and the other being an entire military operation show me that no matter how many people are in charge or how old they are that the natural state of mind for humanity is to win no matter the repercussions.














Works Cited:

Golding, William. Lord of the flies. Penguin Books, 2006

Editors, History.com. “Agent Orange.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 2 Aug. 2011,   

www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/agent-orange-1.

Golding, William. Lord of The Flies. yoanaj, www.yoanaj.co.il/uploadimages/userfiles/352.pdf.

“War Crime.” Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster, www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/war

crime.


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Hey I have to talk to you about something

Posted by Taj Walter in English 2 · Pahomov/Rhymer · E Band on Thursday, November 8, 2018 at 8:20 pm

Hey, I need to talk to you. I have something I need to get off my chest to you. You’re one of my closest friends and I need to tell you this. Is that cool? Okay, so I wrote some poem type thing.

 

This is the story of

Me myself and I

Now before we start

I have to tell you one thing

I am a love machine

The best of all time

Now let's start my story

With my most recent love

I remember the day like it was yesterday

I handed her a silver platter of happiness

It had a few side dishes

Love, care and the most important said

I'll make all your dreams come true

You know what she did?

She turned around and said  

"Hey, no way"

And stormed out the room

Saying at the top of her lungs

How much I had hurt her

But that was all a lie

She got off Scott free

She didn't have to pay a fee

I wasn't Scott and I had to pay a fee

The fee was my love machine

Because She had broken it

Now it wasn't all her fault

She wasn't the only one to leave scratches

She was the finale

Now I search for the encore

My encore

The one to fix me

The one to fix my love machine

When I see her

I will have to tell her

About all my scratches

I will say this is

Number 1 number 2 number 3 number 4

And this is CR

She will ask why this one has initials

I will say because this is the one

That broke my love machine

But when I find my encore

She will make my love machine a factory

An encore is all I am looking for

Cause she will find the missing pieces

Of my broken heart

And put them where they belong

This is my closing statement

I wanna leave this with you

Love is a hospital

We will always need it because we wouldn't be here without it

It will always be there but we won't always be there

It will both heal and hurt

But we will all make that call

That "hello 911" call

We will be rushed to the hospital

Then all we can do is wait

And see if this is pain or if this is aid

See if this will break you or if this will make you


Thank you for listening to that. You are one of my closest friends and you deserve to know where my head is at right now. I wrote that in February. I was thinking again about where I am in life. How I feel. And am I okay. I’ve noticed a change in me. I feel so disconnected from this poem now. I’ve seen CR walking down the hallway and my heart doesn’t skip a beat anymore. I don’t feel like they are weighing me down anymore. I don’t feel like she controls me anymore. I feel like I am finally in control of my own life like I can do anything like I can change the world I feel unstoppable. I feel happy. I am happy. My life is going in a good direction and I can’t wait to see where it leads. I haven’t felt like this in years and I finally got that feeling back yesterday. I got up with a smile on my face today and I think you have something to do with that. Recently I’ve been feeling something more than happiness because of you. This is something I’ve never felt before. We’ve been friends for what feels like forever, but something deep inside me wants to be much more than that. I think you’re my encore. Oh okay. That’s fine. I guess I’ll see you around then.


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How to emulate Malcolm X

Posted by Taj Walter in English 2 · Pahomov/Rhymer · E Band on Thursday, October 25, 2018 at 12:52 pm
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CCE

Posted by Taj Walter in CTE Video 10 · Shagin/Ugworji/Walker-Roberts · Y Band & x1 - Mon on Monday, October 1, 2018 at 9:58 am

Charismatic, creative and energetic. These traits have more or less defined me as a person throughout my life. Friends, family and teachers have all described me this way for years. The traits have also helped me much in life up to this point and I believe they will continue to help me in the future.

Charisma the savior

My charisma has helped me much in life especially at Science Leadership Academy. I have been able to make great friends at SLA because of my charisma. The students at SLA have become some of the greatest friends I have ever had. Without them I would not be the person I am today. Without them I would have gotten much lower grades on a few essays. These friends have allowed me to vent to them about the stresses of life and have helped me work on ambitious projects with them. I can’t wait to see how my Capstone turns out because I will need all the help I can get. My charisma has also allowed me to be offered many opportunities that I would have not gotten otherwise. I have a position at UrbEd in part because of my charisma. Without my charisma I would not be nearly as successful as I am right now. My charisma will help me collaborate greatly with people in DigVid and have a great time doing it.

Blindingly creative

Creativity is my strongest trait. Without my creativity none of the projects I have ever committed to would have turned out as good as they have. Examples of this are my first and second projects at SLA. My first project I had to make a self portrait that described me and who I wanted to be. I decided to take a silhouette picture holding a briefcase, camera and wearing headphones. Each of these things represented something essential to my life. The headphones represented my interest in listening to and making music. The suitcase represents me goal of becoming a lawyer when I am older. The camera represented my interest in pursuing a filmmaking career also. If I wasn’t creative I think my portrait would have been less original and not as interesting. My second project was a mini magazine about myself. The most. Creative part of this project to me was the soundtrack I made to go with it. My creativity will help me make creative scripts, ideas, and many other things for the films we make with DigVid.

Contagious energy

The energy I leave my house with is unmatched. I am always excited to see a new day and work on new things in the world. This energy seems contagious. The people around me will eventually pick up this energy after spending sometime with me. This is great because people who don’t enjoy the work they are doing or just having a bad day can have their mood improved because of my energy. This will be extremely helpful in the more boring parts of making films in DigVid.

CTE DigVid

My charisma will make me a great collaborator in the filmmaking process. I will be able to work through any disagreements with ease. My creativity will help me come up with great ideas for films that will make my films stand out from the bunch. My energy will be able to pick anyone up and lighten their mood.

By Taj
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SEPTA struggles

Posted by Taj Walter in English 2 · Pahomov/Rhymer · E Band on Friday, September 21, 2018 at 3:01 pm

“Okay everybody, here is your benchmark project instructions.”

The day after Ms. Gasser gave us the project, we brainstormed some more ideas and came up with two inspirations for our city. We were going to take some inspiration from Philadelphia and Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors. We chose Philadelphia because that is where we live and we wanted to use its street systems to help us design our own. Elon Musk was going to help us with naming our city and its buildings/streets. We had two weeks to finish this project in its entirety.

On January 9, 2018, we decided to walk around center city after school to look at the street system in Philadelphia. We were gonna take a few SEPTA buses around center city and take some notes on what we noticed. Our first bus trip went almost flawlessly and we got some great notes on how our cities streets work. On the first bus, we rode up and down Market street a few times to make sure we didn't miss anything on our notes and then the bus broke down. The person next to us was really angry. He was a twenty-something-year-old guy in business attire. He shouted at the top of his lungs.

“I’m late for my interview dammit!”

After what felt like forever, they let us off the bus and a tow truck came and took it off the street.

Our second trip went worse. When we got on the bus, it wasn’t very crowded, but after the first two stops it felt like the entire city was on the bus.

“Hey stop bumping into me. Thank you,” someone said.

“It’s not my fault this bus is so crowded,” they replied.

It was impossible to take any notes on there because we couldn’t see and we didn’t have enough room to pull out our phones to take notes on. At our last stop, we decided to get off and walk back to the original stop.

In the freezing cold temperatures, it was a painful walk back. Every few blocks we had to jump inside a store for a few minutes, but we made it back to the stop alive and now we were going to get on our final bus for the day.

This was the worst trip out of the three. Mostly because I got us lost, but partly because it was still cold outside. While waiting for a bus to take us back to SLA, it started snowing, then we saw a bus come down the street. I told Ari and Matthew that it was our bus and they followed me on without checking the bus number. It took us maybe 10 stops before we realized that we were on the wrong bus. We hopped off the bus urgently and tried to figure out where we were. Our phones came out of our pockets without hesitation. We found out we were only a 15-minute walk from SLA so that’s what we decided to do.

The snow, wind, and temperature made the walk brutal.  When we finally got back to SLA we were freezing cold and covered in snow, so we took a break and decided to warm ourselves up before we looked over our notes.

The most important note that we had was that there were no unnecessary streets. Every street was used and helped the flow of traffic get through the city quickly. Also, most of the smaller streets flowed into bigger streets to direct traffic to the main streets. So, when we designed the road system of our city project, we used a minimalist approach. We used as few streets as possible and we only had a few main streets, but every small street led into the main street.

Even after getting lost, the freezing temperatures and the broken down bus studying the street system in Philadelphia allowed us to create a beautifully designed city for our project. The journey around Philadelphia allowed us to prevent the problems we faced when we designed our city. We created a street system that would, in theory, prevent people from getting lost, long waits on broken down buses, and overcrowded buses.


Tags: Systems, english 2, Essay
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Printmaking

Posted by Taj Walter in Art - Freshman · Hull · e2 Band on Wednesday, May 30, 2018 at 10:26 am
IMG-3703
IMG-3703

My element is Radon (Rn). The atomic number is 86. My element is a toxic substance that was discovered in 1900 by Friedrich Ernst Dorn. It was known as Niton until its name was changed in 1923. It is primarily obtained through radium decay. It is used in cancer treatment.

I got my idea from the toxicity of Rafon. Gas masks that filter out toxins need to be used when near Radon. So I drew a gas mask.

We researched our element and then we came up with 3 ideas. Next we copied our best idea on to copy paper and the copied it onto a foam board. Then we used paint to print it onto another paper.

If I could do anything different I would make sure my drawing and words was more indented in the foam.

I enjoyed the printing part of the project when we used the paint. It was the most fun to me and I enjoyed doing it. It was when we put paint on the foam and copied it onto paper. I liked putting the paint onto the foam the most of the entire project.


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Starting the Change

Posted by Taj Walter in English 1 · Giknis · Y Band on Friday, May 18, 2018 at 11:37 am

In my First Post I introduced the topic of racial microaggressions and defined what they were. Racial microaggressions are degrading statements that target a specific race, they are usually jokes or stereotypes. I also addressed the fact that the best way to stop racial microaggressions, in youth, is by raising awareness about them.

In my Second Post, I explained all the progress I had made since the first post. I interviewed six individuals. I summarized every interview in the post and also attached the full interview done with each person. Most of these interviews told me that racial microaggressions happen commonly in SLA, but more commonly on social media. I also started to figure out what my Agent of Change would be. An Agent of Change is the part of the project when we make our change that we have been building to.

For my agent of change, I did a presentation in my English classroom, to an audience of SLA students willing to learn more about this cause. I decided to do a presentation because I found it to be the easiest way to get my information out to a large audience. I made the presentation by using the knowledge I gained from my research, taking my previous interviewers feedback  and changing it for the better.

This presentation was a success. I raised awareness of racial microaggressions to about thirty students and many of them said that they learned how to have a conversation about race from the presentation. That is exactly what I wanted to accomplish and I think I did it to the best of my ability.

Me at the start of my presentation.

The video was split into two seperate videos, but they can be found here and here.

Part of my audience at the end of my presentation


The focus of the presentation was to tell people to not be afraid about race and explain to them how to have the conversation. I started my presentation by explaining what racial microaggressions are and how they are commonly jokes or stereotypes about it. Next, I explained that they come from a place of comfort if there are jokes, stereotypes or serious statements Lastly, I explained that the best way to have the conversation is to inform and to look to be informed, not to judge the person you are talking to. The presentation was inspired by the American Psychological Associations feature by Tori DeAngelis. One thing Tori said was, “She was acting with bias—she just didn't know it.”There was a part of my presentation that focused on ignorance to race and what Tori said was the inspiration for that. Sometimes the aggressor may not even know that they are acting with bias or being racist because it may be all they know. My hope is that students will see racial microaggressions and stop them by following my idea for how to have a conversation with others. I hope to continue raising awareness on this subject throughout my years of high school.

I enjoyed this project because of two main things. One of the first reasons being that I loved how it allowed students to be creative with their work and what they wanted to do for their agent of change. The second reason being that the project was made to help the world in someway. I never really had any problems during this project and everything went well. This has lead to students doing things that have benefited their community considerably.

This project has given me the tools and the will that I needed to make a change for something that I care about. Here is a link to my Annotated Bibliography.




































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Negative Space cut out reflection

Posted by Taj Walter in Art - Freshman · Hull · e2 Band on Friday, April 27, 2018 at 7:56 pm
1. Negative space is the background of a drawing. Everything that is not the focus of the drawing.
2. I found negative space by cutting out the original house and then looking at the left over space.
3. They can see what their shape is with just an outline and if they can't do that they may want to change their shape.
4. No it does not. I think from a viewers perspective the art remains the same in negative and positive space.                                                  
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The Bird Talk

Posted by Taj Walter in English 1 · Giknis · Y Band on Monday, April 9, 2018 at 12:00 pm

The Bird Talk


Taj: We have recently finished Maya Angelou’s first autobiography.

Nasir: Today we have a lot to discuss about “I Know Why the Caged Bird sings.”

Karima: We have recently finished the first autobiography by Maya Angelou.

Taj: So how did you all like the book

Karima: I honestly loved the book, because I’m just the type of person that loves books that are based on true stories.

Taj: Nasir?

Nasir: I read this book in 8th at first I thought it was good but I wasn’t really interested in it but reading it a second time and understanding the book more I actually started to really like it and I understood everything that was going on in her life. Not only she talked about her life but she talked about society back then and what it meant for her to be black during a time where racism occured.

Taj: I think it was a very well written book. I would recommend it to anyone who likes these types of books, but this is not my type of book. I enjoy fantasy and dystopian future writing. So I did not enjoy the book very much. I have no problems with the book it is just not my prefered genre.

Taj: What do you think the themes of the book are?


Nasir: I think the themes of the book were to always be who you are and racism. I think the theme always be yourself was a theme in the book because maya couldn’t figure what she was as a person. She always questioned things about her like her sexuality and and her womanhood. But going towards the end of the book she figures out who she is. The other theme, racism, was in the book because in the book she talked about a lot about racism.


Taj: I think the themes are growing up and racism. The theme of growing up is very relatable to me. Since I am only a few years away from being an adult and soon I will have to mature and prepare for adulthood. Maya discusses the problems with her and her brother growing up. I may have some of these problems growing up. When it comes to racism I have only encountered one racist person in my life, but I am bound to encounter more. So I can learn from her mistakes.


Karima:I think one of the themes is to just be who you are no matter what, and also like Taj and Nasir said Racism was a big part of it as well, it was one of the main themes. I can’t really relate on racism, but I can kinda relate to the not being myself back in elementary school I moved to the U.S and I didn’t really know any English or anything like that and my where I came from was really really different so I always tried to be like the other girls and I always just tried to fit in with them, I changed how I dressed how I talk and everything.


Taj: Compare society from her life to society today.


Nasir: Life in society back in her day wasn’t as good as today even there are some dark spots in today society. I’ll say society during her time was so crucial because there were a lot of lynchings happening and segregation was on big thing that happened back then. Now if you look at society today it got a little better but it gets worse with mass incarceration and young black kids dying. But, I’ll say back then was worse than what is happening today  

Karima: I think one big part that’s the same from both Society is boys taking advantage of teen girls, like reaping them and stuff like that, Another thing is racism racism is still going on in today society. 43 `

Taj: Maya’s society was completely different than today’s. In Maya’s time racist were much more of a problem than they are today. Same with sexists. Both problems still exist today, but on a much smaller scale. In Maya’s society any questions that she had she had to ask her parents or guardians, but in today’s society everything can be found on the internet. Maya would have never talked to her mom about being a hermaphrodite if she could have googled the answer.

Taj: Any other questions today?

Karima: No

Nasir: No

Taj: Ok then. Goodbye goodbye goodbye from the bird talk.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVaZVsmLpyI&t=3s
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Conversation

Posted by Taj Walter in English 1 · Giknis · Y Band on Sunday, March 18, 2018 at 4:40 pm

My first post is a long read and if you haven’t gotten a time to read it I will summarize it in this post. If you do want to read the post you can find it here. My original post introduces the idea of racial microaggressions. Racial microaggressions are racist things said or done that are rarely meant to be offensive. After introducing what they are I present and explain statistics showing how they affect individual people. These statistics come from a variety of sources that are all on my annotated bibliography found here.

Since my first post, I have interviewed six individuals and added two new sources to my annotated bibliography. I am going to breakdown the basic information given in each interview.

Horace Ryans is a sophomore and student advocate at Science Leadership Academy in Center City. The interview. The first question is “Have you seen any racial microaggressions in the SLA community?” His response is saying that racial microaggressions happen all the time. His example was normalization of the N-word. This gives insight into racial microaggressions in the SLA community and what students think about them and if they notice them. The next question was have you experienced any microaggressions personally? His example was in freshman year in African American History class people made jokes such as “slavery was not wrong.” The third question was do you think these microaggressions are common? He says that yes they are common in SLA, but only because they are common in the real world. The fourth question was have you reported these aggressions to any form of authority. He says no. The follow up question was does he regret not reporting these. His response is that he is using these experiences to learn and better himself as a person. The next question was what can be done to help stop racial microaggressions and he responded by saying was you always need to educate and advocate. He also said you cannot change someone mentality, but you can always educate them. The next question was how do you think the administration can help stop racial microaggressions in the SLA community. He says SLA is a community where students can take a problem and attempt to fix it themselves without the help of a teacher. He also says that teachers can be there to facilitate a conversation. This interview tells me that Horace has seen and experienced racial microaggressions, but he uses them to improve himself as a person instead of trying to get an adult to punish the student.

Londyn Edwards was the second person I interviewed. The questions and answers were typed out and they can be found here. The questions are the same as before. Londyn describes microaggressions that are much more personal. She describes when a classmate was discussing whether white people or black people get colder faster. When Londyn attempted to share her opinion the classmate responded with, “Well you’re closer to white anyways so your opinion doesn’t count.” This classmate was clearly talking about her lighter skin tone. This situation is a great example of what a racial microaggression is and why they need to be talked about. She has not reported the aggressions to any authority because they all happened with different people. She also says that she often questions the actions of non people of color in SLA. She then says she wants a gathering of the school to educate students on what racial microaggressions are why they are a problem. This is similar to what Horace said in his interview.

The next person I interviewed was Deacon Mackin, found here. Deacon is a student at SLA center city and a freelance artist. He has seen racial microaggressions in the SLA community and the worst has been the use of fake statistics to prove a point. Like one student claimed that mass incarceration is a myth. He says he has not experienced racial microaggressions in the SLA  community because he is white, but he has witnessed a lot of racial microaggressions in the community. His example is one of his black friends were asked what it is like to live without a father even though he has a dad that he lives with. The aggressor then made a fake statistic that most African Americans do not have a father at home. Deacon believes that these aggressions are common in the community. He thinks students can fight against these aggressions and call people out about these aggressions. He thinks that when aggressions are reported that the administration of the school acts well on the problem. So far all my interviews have led to very similar data. They all believe that microaggressions are a problem and that they need to be stopped in some way. Deacon is the only person so far to say fight against the aggressors instead of educate the aggressors.

My fourth interview is with Zoey Tweh, found here. I recommend listening to this interview if you only listen to one. It is the most insightful interview. Zoey is a junior at SLA center city and is also the president of the Black Student Union of SLA center city. Zoey says she has seen microaggressions. She is the first to mention the diversity of SLA and the intentional diversity of the school. She also says that since there is a lot of diversity there is also a lot of diversity in perspectives. She gives an example that some students believe that police brutality is not real. She says that she has not personally been attacked by a racial microaggression, but she has been offended by someone's lack of open mindedness. Zoey says she doesn’t tell teachers or staff about racial microaggressions, but she does ask for these topics to be brought up in class or discussed in class in some way. She says that SLA students often have difficult conversations and talk about problems with race and that's how you can stop racial microaggressions. Zoey also says that if the administration continues to strive towards having discussions about racism in class then they are doing a good job.


Two people having a conversation to understand each other. An example of what Zoey is talking about.
Two people having a conversation to understand each other. An example of what Zoey is talking about.

My final interview was with Ella Burrows and Kaamil Jones. Two seniors from SLA center city campus. Kaamil says social media is a major part of racial microaggressions. His example was in freshman year Harriet Tubman was proposed to be on the twenty dollar bill and a student said on social media “Harriet Tubman doesn’t belong on the twenty dollar bill she belongs ironing my clothes.” Ella agrees that social media plays a major part. She adds that outside the classroom racially insensitive comments are made. Kaamil says he has never experienced a racial microaggression in SLA. Ella says she has experienced racial microaggressions at SLA like “it’s cause she’s white.” She says she has never taken offense to the comments. Kaamil says that they are common, but they are rarely meant to be harmful. He says this is because people become too comfortable with what they say. Ella agrees that when people get too comfortable they say things that are not appropriate. Neither of them have reported anything to any administration at the school. Kaamil wants people to have a conversation about race to try to understand other people's perspectives. Ella agrees that conversations have to be had. They both say that many people do not like talking about race and that is a problem. They agree that the SLA administration does a great job with handling these topics by trying to get the students to have these conversations. This interview talks the most about why racial microaggressions occur. This is another interview that I think is great to listen to.


Major social media platforms.
Major social media platforms.

All these interviews have told me that racial microaggressions are common in the SLA community, but most common on social media. Most agree that a conversation is the best way to stop racial microaggressions. They all agree that the school administration does a good job handling race by having conversations.

The final part of this project is to make some change about my topic. Since most of the people I interviewed agree that conversation is the best way to stop racial microaggressions I will attempt to start multiple conversations in the community about race. I will add more to this idea when I get a firmer grasp on my idea.


Tags: English 9, You & the World
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Stop Racial Microaggressions Now

Posted by Taj Walter in English 1 · Giknis · Y Band on Thursday, February 22, 2018 at 6:19 pm
“In 1966, 44 percent of American teens thought racial discrimination would be a problem for their generation. Now nearly twice as many—82 percent—feel the same way.”
“In 1966, 44 percent of American teens thought racial discrimination would be a problem for their generation. Now nearly twice as many—82 percent—feel the same way.”
Rochester racism awareness campaign.
Rochester racism awareness campaign.
​My projects focus is on Racial Activism and racial ignorance amongst the youth (Racial Microaggressions). Racial Activism is the act of saying racially insensitive things in an effort to make these seem like facts to others. Racial ignorance is doing things racially insensitive, but not for the purpose of being racist. Just being ignorant of racial problems in America and ignorant to racial identity. I want to start a conversation about race with a fishbowl conversation and making clothing that focuses on topics we need to talk about.  
This topic interests me because of students I have seen have been known to fall into these two groups. I think these are problems in our school that need to be addressed. If these are ignored they will spiral out of control years down the line. Studies were done at that relate racial issues with depression. “We investigated the relationship of racial socialization experiences to the depression symptoms of 160 Black adolescents, including lethargy, low self-esteem, cognitive difficulties, social introversion, irritability, guilt, pessimism, sad mood, instrumental helplessness, and overall depression.” This is very important for the mental health of minorities. Studies from Newsweek show a large increase on how teenagers view racial discrimination. “In 1966, 44 percent of American teens thought racial discrimination would be a problem for their generation. Now nearly twice as many—82 percent—feel the same way.” This is important and needs to be talked about. If these problems are not addressed then the current generation will not be as mentally stable as they need to be. If they are constantly discriminated against then they will not grow up with a proper mindset. People around these problems need to know about it because it can be an important learning tool for teenagers. 
        The importance of this subject is massive. If it is ignored then this generation may not turn out the way that they are needed. If the country ignores these problems so will the current generation. This will not be safe for the country and its people. Racial issues need to be discussed like on Rochester campus. Students on this campus ran a racism awareness campaign. This is not an aggressive movement it just wants to start the talks about racism. I don’t know what these talks lead to because I don’t attend Rochester, but I believe they lead to some change from the administration of the school.
        Racism has evolved and each time it has gotten more secretive. The American people need to be educated about this new beast. The PBS Newshour talked about this. The entire system is built to be racist, but not everyone knows this. Some people even believe that racism does not exist in the present day. “Americans think of racism as Bull Connor or the Ku Klux Klan, but today, racism is far more likely to be embedded in institutions.” Many Americans think that racism is the brutal oppression of minorities, but that just is not true. This new breed of racism is not the open oppression of minorities, but instead the secretive oppression and manipulation of those groups. Current racism hides in the shadows and it needs to be shown to those in light because they are the ones who can make a change. Starting a conversation about racism and how it hides to prey on those who do not know where it hides will help many people. Racism will be stopped because we have to stop it. We have to educate. Bibliography
Tags: English 9 You & The World
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Driven to Death

Posted by Taj Walter in English 1 · Giknis · Y Band on Thursday, January 25, 2018 at 6:23 pm

Driven to Death

  Answer Key

Duncan “Dismayed not this our captains, Macbeth and Banquo

Macbeth “From this moment the very firstlings of my heart shall be the firstlings of my hand.”

Malcolm “Let us seek out some desolate shade and there weep our sad bosoms empty”

Donalbain “What should be spoken here, where our fate, hid in an auger-hole, may rush and seize us?

Lady Macbeth “They met me in the day of success, and I have learned by the perfect’st report they have more in them than mortal knowledge.”

Banquo “If you can look into the seeds of time and say which grain will grow and which will not.”

Fleance “The moon is down. I have not heard the clock.”

Macduff “What concern they? The general cause, or is it a fee-grief due to some single breast”?

Lady Macduff “He had none; his flight was madness. When our actions do not, Our fears do make us traitors.”

Lennox The night has been unruly. Where we lay, Our chimneys were blown down.”

Ross “Your castle is surprised, your wife and babes savagely slaughtered.”

Mentith “The English power is near, led on by Malcolm, his uncle Siward, and the good Macduff.”

Angus “Near Birnam Wood shall we well meet them”

Caithness “Great Dunsinane he strongly fortifies. Some say he’s mad”

Siward “This way, my lord. The castle’s gently ‘rendered. The tyrant’s people on both sides do fight,”

Young Siward “No, though thou call’st thyself a hotter name than any is in Hell”







Rules:

  1. Nobody is allowed to reveal their character until the time of that characters departure from the game announced by the moderator.

  2. The players have to tell the Moderator their character based on their quote and if they guess wrong they are out of the game.

  3. Everyone in the game has to follow the timeline read by the moderator.

  4. The goal of the game is to guess who Macbeth is. If you guess wrong you will die. If you guess right the game is over. You report your guess to the moderator. If Macbeth guesses wrong the game is over and the other players win.

  5. Once a person is out the game they will announce their character.

  6. Minimum players is 10 in addition to the moderator. Maximum players is 17 moderator.

  7. Ages 12-99

  8. Reading or watching the play is heavily advised.

  9. Macbeth, Siward and Macduff will carry a sword at all times during the game.  

  10. The dots on the cards mean how hard the quote is.


By Camren and Taj Walter 
IMG-2681
IMG-2681
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389767EB-5584-4E8A-B074-C5D27BA9A101
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Tech Presentation-One Slide

Posted by Taj Walter in Technology - Freshman · Hull · e1 Band on Thursday, November 16, 2017 at 12:53 pm

I learned that I could do more research about the design about my slide. I could mess around with the theme and colors for my text. They also asked why I chose my font. I chose my font because most lawyers use Times New Roman and I want to be a lawyer.

The changes I made was changing the theme and color. I made the theme a basic black background as to not distract anything from the text. I also made the text red instead of orange since it is my favorite color combination and it contrasts well with the black background. Lastly I centered the words instead of having it off to the left. 


My research told me that using few words in a slide is valuable, but I feel as though for a slide about me I can not be described in few words. I decided to have my name as the center piece since the eyes will go to my name first and then move around to the rest of my slide. 


I used sources such as businesstutsplus.com and pcworld.com to help me understand how to make colors pop and what colors to use.

Tech Presentation (3)
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E1 U1 (How spanish is used outside of class) Taj, Abel, Kyree, Karima

Posted by Taj Walter in Spanish 1 · Hernandez · C Band on Sunday, October 29, 2017 at 4:07 pm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lFbPWDHWu4&feature=youtu.be
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Home Network-Taj Walter

Posted by Taj Walter in Technology - Freshman · Hull · e1 Band on Thursday, October 5, 2017 at 9:05 am

1.My local network enters my house through an xfinity coaxial wire. It wirelessly connects to a laptop, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, two iphones, computer, 4 smart TVs, a computer, a firestick and Samsung Galaxy.


2. I discovered that my internet enters my house through a coaxial wire.


3. I would tell people that if your internet is connected with a wire it is faster.



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