In looking for ways to change the world, I became incredibly interested in social justice. Being both a woman and a person of color, I was particularly interested in feminism and anti-racism. My views on both of these things have changed dramatically since the beginning of the year, and this is evident in my work. Take the first thing I ever wrote for English as an example. In this piece, I talk about a classmate telling me that I talk “white”. I go on to say

“Apparently intelligence is a white trait. I was offended, as a black person, because that was one of the most racist things that I had ever heard in my life. She wasn’t the only black person to say something like this to me, I’ve heard it countless times from countless people”

Looking back on this piece, I laugh at how naive I was. My classmate was simply pointing out the cultural differences between me and other black people, and I chose to interpret it as her being racist. The change in my views is evident in my Language Autobiography. In this paper, I write about the same incident:

“This isn’t what she (my classmate) meant. I know that now. She was referring to my language. I don’t speak in Ebonics, Black Vernacular, African American English, or anything of the sort. But, probably due to some internalized racism, I associated speaking in Ebonics with being dumb, and (indirectly) I associated being black with being dumb.”

It’s really interesting to look back on these two pieces because they illustrate my transformation.

I’ve also changed my views on feminism and what it means to me to be a feminist. In January, we did our Lit Lens project. In this project, we had to choose a “lens” through which we would view the novel we were reading (Their Eyes Were Watching God), and re-enact a scene. My partner and I chose the feminist lens, and we decided to take a more parodic approach. In my reflection, I talk about what feminism means to me.

“The dictionary defines feminism as “the advocacy of women's rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men.” I couldn’t have said this better myself (which is why I used the dictionary)”

This is something I don’t agree with anymore. I believe that feminism is about the women , and only her. If we continue to look at women in relation to men, then we will continue to be oppressed. I wrote about this a lot on my journals, which can be found here and here

As I sat at the Country Ruling Elite table, defending a cause I would otherwise totally oppose, I created defenses that were valid in my eyes. I heard the arguments of each other group, and I could not believe it. To my amazement, everyone was somewhat innocent, yet hugely responsible. It was the perfect example that we are all products of our environment.

https://docs.google.com/a/scienceleadership.org/document/d/10RaFC1SquQqNKKlDqPg6XjLFbsIxp5WhDTOkGGxjCrY/edit

And this was the point I leaned on - If you are in a position of power and there is no one opposing your wrongdoings, what would be the motivation to change? In History, we had a unit on Revolutions. We focused on the Arab Spring and how people mercilessly fought for their rights. Some were successful, but other countries were not and were defeated. I studied the revolution of Yemen:

“Because of political instability in Yemen since getting rid of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, this country suffers from insecurity of food supplies, impoverishment and the threat of violence from Al-Qaeda and other Islamist militias due to extremism. Many of Yemen’s historical sites have been abandoned and destroyed due to the low maintenance of the country. The country faced a series of attacks from Southern Yemen, which advocates separatism and independence from Northern Yemen.”

https://vimeo.com/59340019

Back to the trial, my team was hit with questions similar to “If you are supposed to lead the country, why are you not providing for your citizens?” Because the world has taught us that money is more important than people. Some leaders are more cold blooded than others. A perfect example is making a comparison of America’s and Haiti’s government, in which we studied.

For 29 years, Haiti was under the dictatorship of  Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier and his son, Jean-Claude, or "Baby Doc". Ten of thousands were killed during this period. The country thought they would see a brighter day once former priest Jean-Bertrand Aristide was elected, but he was quickly overthrown by militia. This sort of brutality is not directly seen in the United States, where our society is built off of “democracy”, giving more rights to citizens.

Economic disparities has placed strain on countries with these brutal governments. In the “Global Inequality” unit, we analyzed our personal responsibility for the advancement of multinational corporations and manipulation of third world countries. The introduction to this unit was the reading of the poem “Are My Hands Clean?”

“I wear garments touched by hands from all over the world

35% cotton, 65% polyester,the journey begins in Central America

In the cotton fields of El Salvador

In a province soaked in blood,

Pesticide-sprayed workers toil in a broiling sun

Pulling cotton for two dollars a day.”

In the trial, American consumers pleaded that they will buy what is readily available to them and if it produced by laborers with terrible conditions, that is not their fault. Our environment can make us torturers without even trying. We once did an assignment where we watched the video where a man believed that he was shocking a man with direly high voltages, but because he was pressured by a man and told that he was not responsible, he continued on with the experiment. We continue on doing villainous things when we convince ourselves we are not to blame.

(Picture)

Sometimes we are taught, by the environment around us, that who we are is not good enough. In my Language Autobiography, I wrote on how I was bullied in elementary school because of my dialect. My father was a businessman, who spoke with, what is believe to be, perfect English diction. Being that I was in his presence majority of the time, I picked up on the way of speaking. But, go to an Afrocentric school meant that Ebonics were heavily used. I did not speak like majority of the people I encountered. Thus, I was asked slurs like “Why do you talk so white?” and even questioned on my ethnicity frequently.

https://docs.google.com/a/scienceleadership.org/document/d/1_rHZLP1Cdro_YTyYmxhASRxgMKBXmiyo31SSszhUs_Q/edit

In english, we had a unit where we analyzed the dialect of different groups in America. While watching a video interviewing people across America, they thought that people from other areas talked weird compared to the way they speak. Our environment forms normalcy in our mind and anything foreign comes across as bizarre. This could be seen in the book our World History class read, Things Fall Apart. When Europeans entered the Ibo tribe’s habitat and learned that they worshiped many Gods, they found this ridiculous because they were taught that there was only one. They proceeded to mock the culture and attempt to convert its people. This actually changed the society because people began following their ideas. If ideas are planted, they are bound to manifest.

Whenever a person is faced with tribulations, they carry it around with them, learning from it and trying to find a solution. One morning in English, I was presented with the question, “What do you wish for?”

"I wish I could do so many things, I don't even know here to start. I wish I could spend time with my dad. And I mean a good time. No complaining, no worry, just having fun or relaxing. I wish drugs weren't misused. I wish they couldn't kill you. I wish I could help everyone who has any time of problem. I wish I could fly and go anywhere for free, just to see what it's like there." (English Journal #10)

The death of my father to this day takes a huge toll on me. I promised myself that I would never use drugs and alcohol to try to solve my problems. I don’t want to continue the cycle of negativity in my family by carrying around bitterness from what I’ve had to endure. My environment has made me who I am by showing me how to not to deal with my problems and it has made me a stronger person.

Through it all, I’ve learned that who you are is a tug-of-war between taking what are you are taught, assessing it, and deciding what is personally right for you. No matter how much everything around you pushes you to be a certain type of person, if it does not sit right with you, you will not choose to continue on that path. The most accurate depiction of the message I am trying to portray can be interpreted through a quote by Buddha:

"Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense." (History Journal #13)

Your environment makes you the person you are. You either choose to follow the path you are given, or oppose. Either way, it has an impact.

I went through a lot of struggles and some of the work were challenging for me throughout the year. Although that has happened, I still managed to work very hard in class and I tried my best I could possibly do to complete my work on time. I can confidently say I have learned a lot and experienced through many obstacles this year, but 10th grade was a great year for me.

I have learned and experienced a lot in both English and History classes. We have learned a lot inside and outside of school, but the two major things I think I really enjoyed most from each of these two classes are the researched on prisoners from history class and the Hidden City Project from english class. The prisoners researched has taught me that the government spend more money on prisons than they put money for  education expenses. One of the things I learned and see as an inspiration is from the Art in the Open dance because it has taught me more about acting,  what goes through an actor mind, and how it is in their way of seeing and using the space in different perspective than a normal person.  When someone examine something closely new information and perspectives emerge.  

The things I notice while I was researching about  prisoners is that the government spent more than $33000 for one prisoners and only $11000 for one student. That is a huge differences and that is one of the main reasons why there are more prisoners than students in this country. The government spent the same amount of money in a prisoner's in 4 years and 12 years for students. The U.S. taxpayers spend 32 billion every year on Prisons. The cost for each prisoner is $22,000. The United States spent 45 percent more on prisons than universities and there is no way to proceed into the future. It also says that the government focused more on prison uniforms than than they do on caps and gowns for graduation ceremonies. We need more education and less war because if you are educated there is less chance for you to commit a crime. I think that’s how we can decrease the crime rate of this nation. 

Cortes Trial-

At the Beginning of my Sophomore year at Science leadership academy, I had an English 2 and World history class with Joshua Block, I didn’t walk into the classroom with the same understanding the beginning of the year that I’m walking out of with at the end of year, I walked in with a local understanding and mindset of the things happening around me and my concern for world rights and civil rights weren’t as strong. We’ve covered everything from poetry, to global education.

One of the things I’ve learned this year is poetry is definitely a form of self expression. In English class we covered a poetry unit, expanding on how you write poetry, what’s the meaning of it and what it does to help a person. We did a project called “A Poem a day”... which we made a poem every day for a week. A Riff, ode, I was raised by, Found poem, and an HAIKU poem. Out of every poem that I created. I was most attached to my I was raised By & Ode Poem.

“I was raised by that 100m mark,

The chance to take that Win, for lost, not for the team.. but for yourself”

A quote from my I was raised by poem I wrote during the year, before this year I was never the one to display what I love most, or my environment whenever we had to talk about “ourselves”. I’ve ran almost my entire life and never talked about it, never talked about how nervous it made me, how much it isn’t a team sport, I found this as a better way to express myself.

“It's thin, skinny, like it's been taking Zumba classes.

             Shear dark skin, it's my black best friend.

             I wish It'll spend more time with me, but good times always has an end it.

             My gateway to connect to people, the music it plays are like stories, and I love listening,”

             Describing things weren’t always my best ability to writing anything, especially to the last detail. These are a couple of lines from my Ode poem, describing something that you love, something that you see everyday or someone. Describing something in the most creative way possible, I had to use my imagination to the best standards I could've thought of, I was describing my Iphone in this poem, from what it does and how it looks like.

During the year we’ve learned that it’s always important to Defend yourself with evidence, this year in history class we did a trial on Multinational corporations and third world countries regarding the workers and how poorly they’re treated with the labor handed to them and the poor pay that third world country workers receive, who's the most Guilty? Well we did a trial debating the same question, The poor country Elites? the ones who look over the poor workers, watch them work for outside countries but does nothing about it? Multinational Corporations, the ones who pay these third world country elites to do their dirty work, but claims that they aren’t aware of what’s happening behind closed doors?

“We have no jurisdiction over the country or factories, all we do is make contracts with factory owners”

Multinational Corporation

“You admitted that you with your own two feet walked and applied for these factory jobs.”

Poor workers

“Yes you help the poor countries out of your pockets, but you also contribute to their sweatshop lives”

These are just a couple of quotes from the trial of the multinational corporations, the different perspectives and views of different sides of each story, what you did and said to Defend yourself with Evidence.

During the year we had to keep a track of our thoughts in an english and history journal, but during the year in our English journal #39, we were talking about Freedom, Here’s a quote from my Journal My opinion and thoughts on this journal surrounded around Freedom, expressing how much we need it, when it isn’t given to us, how we live life.

As we were talking about Art, and how art is created. What we do to make art. It’s so abstract, anything could be art. I believe that art is a very effective form of expression oneself, In my Journal #43

“I’m an individual, yeah But I’m part of a movement. My movement told me be a consumer and I consumed it. They told me to just do it I listened to what that swoosh said, Look at what that swoosh did See it consumed my thoughts. This is a song from Macklemore called wings.” (#Journal #35 English ) When I listen to this song the first thing that came to my mind was English and History class. It showed that we can use poetry and fact to make a point. Poetry is the best way to tell people how you feel like my High School poem.  “Being the smoothest guy that you know if you want that girl all you have to do is give her that look and say I want to be with you I think I love you. Knowing that after saying these words she will do anything for you, she like a salve and you’re her master.” (High School) I had to share this show to my class. The people are alway being told what to do and I want people to see that they a plan already for you . But they don’t even know it something. People are always told what to do. We work on an op-ed and mine was about LGBT right. In my op-ed It was about how we are being told what to do and how to be in life. “Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and/or deprived of the right to leave. Look at us now, we worked to get our rights but we still are treating people like slaves. Lesbian, gay, and bisexual people are still being treated like slaves because others are against their marriage.” (Op-ed).