Social Justice

Social Justice:

Observing My Neighborhood:

I have recently moved into a new neighborhood. Within the first month of living here, my brother and I discovered a basketball court only two blocks away. My brother convinced me to take him to the court even though I am terrible at basketball. We played for ten minutes or so until a boy who looked the same age as me asked if he could play with us. Let’s call him Jeff. For the next hour we played an intense game, my brother and Jeff against me. Needless to say, they beat me. Jeff made sure my seven year old brother got some action by passing to him and stopping me from blocking his shots. Billy wanted to ride his scooter and I needed a break, so the Jeff and I sat on the bench. Jeff then reached into his bag and pulled out a blunt. He didn’t offer it to me, he didn’t give me a sample, he didn’t even mention he was smoking, he just asked what school I went to. We talked for another few minutes and he told us stories about the teachers at his school and laughed at mine. However, in fear that my brother would question him about what was between his fingers, I called my brother over and we went back to the house. This was not the first encounter with marijuana that I had expected. While, I understood that not all encounters would be like this one, and that I stay away from experimenting with drugs myself, it made me question how people who do experiment are treated. I don’t think I would have played basketball with Jeff If he had walked into the park blowing smoke into the air. Maybe I shouldn’t. I am still undecided on this issue and am not sure which side to take on this issue. My neighborhood has welcomed my family and I, even if we are a minority. Although SOME of them may have questionable habits I believe that in my neighborhood everyone is treated equally. I wonder if I need to work on how equally I treat people.

Quoting a Lyric:

“And Lord knows she's beautiful

 Lord knows the usual Leaving a body sore

 She take the little change she make To fix her nail cuticles

Lipstick is suitable To make you fiend for more

She play Mr. Shakur

That's her favorite rapper

Bumping ‘Brenda's Got A Baby’ While a pervert yelling at her

And she capture features of a woman

But only 17, the 7 cars start honkin'

She start running like FLo-Jo Don't care if they Joe Blow

If they got money to blow a blow job is a sure go

And sure enough don't see a dime of dirty dollars

She give all to her daddy but she don't know her father, that's ironic See a block away from Lueders park I seen the El Camino parked In her heart she hate it there, but in her mind she made it where Nothing really matters, so she hit the back seat Rosa Parks never a factor when she making ends meet”

-Kendrick Lamar

This is a quote from, “Keisha’s song,” by Kendrick Lamar on the album Section 80. The purpose of this song was to tell a cautionary tale of a young woman who turns into a prostitute in Compton. After he had finished recording the song he played it for his eleven year old sister, this way his way of warning her to never become a prostitute. The line, “She play Mr. Shakur That's her favorite rapper bumping "Brenda's Got A Baby" While a pervert yelling at her,” tells the listener a lot. “Mr. Shakur” also known as 2pac had a song entitled, “Brenda’s got a Baby." This song is about a girl who was murdered as a prostitute after being shunned by her family at a young age, another cautionary tale. The fact that Keisha plays that song shows that she knows of the danger but feels as if there is no other way to go and has to resort to prostitution. The line, “Nothing really matters, so she hit the back seat Rosa Parks never a factor when she making ends meet,” is also an important line. Rosa Parks stood up for equal rights and refused to sit in the back of the bus, Keisha throws her rights and the window and settles into the backseat to do her job. By the end of the song Keisha ends up dead and raped in the street. It is a heavily impactful and tragic ending. Was Keisha treated equally? Is it justified to treat her as a sex object? No, yet a large portion of the hip hop community may think differently. However, you can see from songs like, “Brenda’s got a baby,” and the one which I have quoted today that not all rappers and hip hop fans feel this way, and are taking a stand against misogynistic activity towards women.       

Interview:

To get a view of the younger generation I interviewed my seven year old brother, Billy.

If you could change the world, what would you do?

“I would make the world bouncy”

Why?

“It’s fun to bounce”

If you could change our neighborhood what would you do?

“I would turn our neighborhood into ice cream”

What is your opinion on the wars going on?

“War is bad because people die and babies cry”

What do you think about Martin Luther King?

“Oh my god, Sam! Did you know that Martin Luther King is the best person ever? It’s true. He changed the black and white just by talking! He talked to the black, he talked the white and everything worked out. And then they got used to each other. If it wasn’t for him I wouldn’t know my best friend.”

Changing the World:

I decided to ask my dad, a teacher.

How long have you been teaching?

13 years

How many students have you taught?

Nearly 1000

How do you change the world?

Every teacher has a story of helping a child realize their potential. By doing this you change the world, more importantly you change the child’s world.

One example of a child my father helped took place in east New York. My father had one student who was very wild. She would get into fights, disrupt class and throw things across the room. She received a failing grade on her ELA and math state tests. For this her mother held her back and made her repeat 6^th grade. Her mother loved her very much, however her mother was addicted to drugs. Her family (including her, her mother, and her three younger siblings) lived in a shelter. She had to get the kids dressed, make them breakfast, take them to school, and bathe them when they got home. She had to be the adult of the house. In her second year she was determined to improve. My father made a plan with her; he worked with her during lunch and prep periods. That year she got a 3 on her ELA test and a 4 on her Math test. She has recently called my father saying she was the first one in her family to make it to college and that her 2^nd 6^th grade year was a turning point in her academic life.  

Article:

The article, “The Scars of Stop and Frisk,” talks of a young black man who has been stopped over 70 times. He said, “If you are young and you’re black, it doesn’t matter what you are wearing, you fit the description.” He has been taken in because he asks why they are stopping him. Hey says that they keep you for 8 hours and then at 4:00 in the morning they let you out the back door. One man said that he had a checklist he went over every time a police car is behind him. He thinks of what he is doing, where he is keeping his hands, what he is going to say to the officer. This means this man is scared of the police. This is the most unjust thing about stop and frisk, It has made innocent people afraid of the police. If you are innocent you should feel protected by the police. If you are innocent you should not be in constant fear of being arrested. This is the most degrading and terrible aspect of New York City.

Advertisement:

This is a recent ad from britney spears for candie, a clothing company.

It has been edited so that she appears thinner than she actually is. Also spots on her leg have been removed. This makes a standard that is nearly impossible. No one can hope to be as thin and as perfect as the women in these ads. It creates a false standard that girls can live up to, as a result girl’s self-esteem is lowered, and because they want to be like the women in the ads the girls buy the products the photo shopped women are advertising. It is social injustice to lower someone’s self-esteem for a profit.

Watching the News:

Today in the news I heard of a hearing in Manhattan. The hearing was on racial profiling allegations at Macy’s and Barneys. Apparently multiple black men have been stopped after buying designer shirts and ties. Barneys and Macys made public statements saying that they do not racially profile anyone and do not base who they accuse of shoplifting based on their race. If I was a Macy’s representative I would be very concerned about what happened. I would fire whoever had given the order to stop the men. I would be upset that this had not been stopped the first time it had occurred.    

 Social Justice in movies:

Teens are represented differently throughout the movies. I chose an average movie that included, “average,” suburban American teens. I chose Grown Ups 2. In Grown ups the teens were diverse; there were both black and white teens. For the most part suburban teens acted as they normally do. the movie hid some aspects of teen life, such as experiments with drugs or sex but this was a kids movie and supposed to be family friendly. If you want to see these aspects of teen life there are many movies that do so. I feel like the film industry has come a long way by becoming more diverse and by not discriminating anyone based on their race. In addition, there are many movies that tell the uncensored stories of teens in my generation.     

Ned Vizzini

I have just began, "teen angst? naaah..."an autobiography by Ned Vizzini and i have already fallen in love in the main character. I am so interested in this character because I can relate to him. I can relate to him as a New York City teen, and as a NYC student.

Ned talks about his experiences at Stuyvesant high school. Right of the bat I can sympathize with him when he begins to discuss the commute to school. He talks about riding the subway and managing his time while waiting for the train to pull into the station. Considering talking to the passengers after all reading is out of the question, you could start to lose your balance and bump into some uptight business lady. These are all experiences i have had before.

Ned also explains his role as a student in the impressive school that is Stuyvesant. He takes a quote from one of his teachers who said that you could live two of three options at stuy, popularity, good grades, or sleep. Ned himself chose grades and sleep. Occasionally I feel this way as well. I feel that my social life and academic life are ripping my personalty and sleep schedule in half.

I love "teen angst? naaah..." by Ned Vizzini and cant put it down. I am so devoted to this book because of the readability. It just feels as though he has lived trough the same NYC teen experiences as i have so far.      

protest of banning books

Dear Ms. Berner, I have heard a rumor that you are considering pulling a few YA fiction books from the shelves in MS51. I sincerely hope you don’t do this. YA Books help kids get though rough times by relating to their problems. For some kids these books may be to intense, if that is so they can put the book down and find another one. YA books don’t just help the kids who are addicted to substances or have been abused by parents but it helps kids that are, “privileged,” with their problems as well. 

Sherman Alexie, author of the great book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian has said his book helped one girl go from being a hopeless teen mother to a woman who was heading to college with a three-year-old child. It inspired her to not give up on her dreams, even if others had. The book can help others know that no matter where you come from you can make yourself a good life doing what you love. There are cases like this all over the world. Many authors have mentioned that their books helped people get though rough times and in certain situations save lives. You wouldn’t want a life saving book of the shelves would you.

I understand there are some students that cannot handle the issues that are exposed with detail in these books. If this is the case they can move on. “If you don’t want your kids to read a book fine, don’t let them, but do not choose what is right for everyone else, says author Ellen Hopkins. If you believe your child should not be reading this book, because it is too dark or too harsh, don’t deprive other kids from an exciting read who needs the help and support this book can provide. The kids who are intimidated or scared by these YA novels will put them down immediately anyway, causing them no harm, the harm that could be caused here is if the kids who need them don’t read them.

I can’t think of many drug addicts or pregnant mothers at our school. So some people may think, “then who needs these books?

” There are many kids who need these books. There may be some that have less obvious problems, but these problems are still important and still can be solved with certain YA books. Sherman Alexie told of how a kid who attended private school with rich parents it would seem that he had a perfect life. Although he too got much needed comfort from Alexie’s book. The book was about a kid who lived in a run down poverty-ridden reservation, although this, “privileged,” child related to what Alexie had written. He related to the main character’s plight of feeling as though his life had been chosen for him.  The boy wanted to be a writer but his dad was forcing him to be in the army. Alexie’s book taught kids to follow their own paths and thus supported children’s issues concerning their future.

Anne Fine, a critically acclaimed English author, made a good point in the article, “Age-rated books: Right or wrong?” She mentioned that there are many other medias that provide this content for the youth. This is important because if you censor books that it could be possible that kids would ignore reading book, and only listen to music or watch movies. If we censor these YA texts, than kids may turn to other forms of media to immerse themselves in a great story. This would result in kids reading less and less and losing overall interest in books.  Therefore, losing the support, hope and entertainment that can be found in YA literature.

You can see that these books are extremely important and cannot be taken off the shelves. I hope you consider this letter in creating your decision, because literature is vital to a child’s education and wellness. This is because these more mature and extreme stories will relate to kids problem and help them get out of their seemingly hopeless situation. YA fiction literature helps everyone get though tough times and kids who cant handle it will censor what they read themselves or with the help of their parents.