In my first blog post, I talked about how there is colorism within the Latino community. I talked about how the media only shows a specific “type” of Latino. They show the ones with light skin and straight hair. While they don’t show the ones with dark skin and kinky curly hair. I also talked about the common phrase “mejorar la raza” or “fix the race.” I got most of my information from the internet and from my family’s experiences with discrimination. As I was researching, I wasn’t completely satisfied with the information I got. I knew that there was more to learn and understand. So, I did my own research to get more information on people’s personal experiences.

At first, I wasn’t sure how I was going to do this. I couldn’t exactly interview one specific person about this issue because I wanted multiple experiences that people have dealt with discrimination. I came up with doing an online survey and they would fill out with questions I had for them. I made the survey on google forms so it would be accessible to them. I started brainstorming questions for my survey. I knew I didn’t want them to be yes or no questions. They needed to explain their experiences and make it personal. These are the questions I came up with:

• Have you ever been discriminated against because of how you look by other Latinos? If so, how?

• Have you been discriminated or “made fun of” because of your looks by family members? If so, how? What did they say? What were they talking about?

• Have you ever seen anyone be treated differently because of their skin color/looks? Latino to Latino? What happened, where were you, and how did both parties react or respond? (quick summary).

• Have you ever realized that there was colorism within the community? Do you remember the first time you noticed colorism? Explain your experiences.

• Have you ever heard of the phrase “mejorar la raza” or “fix the race?” If so, by who, where, and why did they say that, and to who did they say that too? Please explain.

Pie chart showing that everyone who took the survey is Latino

I needed to get my survey out to Latinos of all different backgrounds and ages. I sent it out to kids in my school, outside of school, and a few family members. I got 10 responses, which is a good amount considering the specific group of people I needed to send it to (Latinos). When I got my results back, I was expecting for them to understand where I was getting that and know about the Colorism in our community. I was also expecting for them to say that they have been looked down upon for their dark skin. My expectations were based on articles I read. The one article I read was about how the one Latina’s group of friends would treat someone in their own community, who would also be Latina, different because their skin would be darker. I only heard about  discrimination within the community towards the darker skinned Latinos. This one video I watched was about darker skinned people talk about experiences where they have been discriminated against. The one Dominican woman talked about the phrase “mejorando la raza.” Which means to “advance the race” or to marry someone and have kids with someone who is lighter to make the race “better” because they are lighter.  My survey didn’t exactly reflect this.

As I looked over the responses I received, they didn’t align with all the articles I read and the videos I watched. It was the opposite. Someone responded to the question “Have you ever been discriminated against because of how you look by other Latinos? If so, how?” They responded with “Yes, I have been told I was too white.” While another responded with “I'm a pale Puerto Rican. My Latino peers sometimes never take me seriously because of it. Some think I'm lying and others think I'm so out of touch with my culture because I pass as a "gringa.” They were being teased and looked down upon for their lighter skin. With my previous knowledge and research, they only talked about discrimination to darker Latinos. These peoples’ experiences are telling me that they aren’t dark enough or “Latino” enough.

Responses to the first question on the survey

How would I change this issue within the Latino community? What would be my agent of change? I don’t have an answer or a definite way to change this problem but I have been brainstorming. I am going to inform people. We need to right our wrongs. Members of our community must change how we speak and talk about others. We should all embrace one another for our differences. That’s what makes us all special and unique.

Annotated Bibliography

You can check out my first post HERE. In my first post, I talked about the role the price of higher education plays when students are in the application process. In my first post, I also talked hypothetically about how this could go on to affect the individual's life and any future careers. However, since my last post, I have done some further research mostly from interviewing. During the early stages of my original research, I conducted a questionnaire with the MIT admissions office and they provided me some informational and interesting answers to some of my questions. When I was conducting the questionnaire with MIT’s director of admission research and analysis, Rachel E. Kay, she gave me a set of links to various sources with information on my topic. One of the links I ascertained from Rachel led me to a page dedicated to MIT admissions there I learned that students from the class of 2021 who applied for aid in family income that was up to 90,000 dollars annually typically paid nothing when it came to terms of tuition. Rachel’s link also informed me of the percentage of students who graduate debt-free which is 72% of MIT entire student body and 91% of MIT’s student body receives financial aid. Over the course of my research, I learned that MIT participates in a program called questbridge in which the predominant idea is to recruit students who want to pursue higher education, I was also informed about how MIT awarded 97.1 million dollars in scholarships to undergraduates in the previous year alone. I was also provided a demographic of the 2021 class (HERE)  (HERE{for exact numbers}).

This directly relates to the issue I brought up in my previous post about the cost of tuition scaring graduating twelfth graders from applying to certain colleges/universities. MIT tries to challenge this issue by not accepting their applications based on what classes the individual took in high school but rather they accept their students based on what they know. So in my previous post, that student with the straight A’s and 3.9 GPA would be able to go to MIT without having to pay tuition if he gets into MIT. Besides my interview with MIT, I also interviewed my sister who is currently enrolled in a private university. I asked her a various amount of different questions such as did you ever think of studying abroad to if you had the option would you cut military spending to increase the U.S investment in education. Overall one thing that kept reoccuring in both of my interviews was that both the institution and the student believe that there are opportunities for those who cannot afford higher education. These interviews really added to my understanding of my issue because I now know that the issue isn’t there just waiting to be solved but rather it is being recognized and is on the process of being solved by institutions and individuals such as MIT and my sister. After this research, my opinions have differed from my original opinions for I thought that the colleges/universities didn’t really care and the individuals didn’t really either too. However, when you see different institutions going through the process of trying to revamp their tuition to make it more affordable for poorer students. It gives hope when you see major schools such as MIT awarding students with over 97 million dollars in aid so students can further their education without worrying about debt. One question still leaves me wondering and that is when will the U.S department of education effectively try to make the issue of the pricing of higher education a priority or will they ever try to do so? Not only does this question resonate in my head “what can the U.S do?” but also what can I do to change this issue? The answer to this question is fairly simple and that’s why for my agent of change I’m going to be contacting heads of government from Pat Toomey to Donald Trump I will try to solve this issue as best as I can.

Annotated Bibliography

Audio Interview

As you read in my last slate post, I basically summarized why the WNBA should be expanded and why the players are being underpaid. Due to some further research, I’ve found out that it is more complicated and easy achieving this. I am posting again to give further explanation.

According to a recent blog post on Swish Appeal, there are many reasons why expansion could be a good or bad thing. One great outcome from expanding the WNBA is a more expanded viewership. For example, the WNBA partnered with Twitter in 2016 and ever since they joined forces, the WNBA’s views launched up. The more popular the WNBA is the more people will want to partner with them. Another reason why the WNBA should expand is because we are losing WNBA culture. When I say culture I am talking about legacies, talent, and history. For example, when the WNBA was at its peak it had 16 teams. They lost 4 teams because there started to be a lack of interest in the ownerships. These teams had extremely talented individuals and were extremely talent as a team. One of the old teams, the Houston Comets, were the only team to win the WNBA championship four consecutive years! They also were the only WNBA team that was invited to the white house. If we keep these teams alive and expand the franchise the WNBA could be bigger than the NBA one day.

The reasons why the WNBA shouldn’t be expanded are fair but can be solved problems. It’s no surprise that money is an issue. This source says that only half of WNBA teams actually make a profit in any season. These six teams are owned by people who also own a NBA franchise. There is also the wage gap the WNBA has to make up. There are too many underpaid players in the WNBA, expansion will make money tighter. The second problem this source lists is international competition. Players have been forced to go overseas to play for international teams so they can provide better for their families. International teams pay way more than the WNBA does, because they are in a better place financially. For example, Phoenix Mercury guard Diana Taurasi missed the whole 2015 season to play overseas. They paid her $1.5 million.

The Bay Area is trying to make a change for the league. The Bay Area’s NBA team, the Warriors, are currently building a new arena. They are expected to move in this arena in the 2019-2020 season. The co-owner of the Warriors, Joe Lacob wants to make a WNBA team for the Bay area and host their home games at the Warriors current arena. This is great because that will be more people drafted in the WNBA each year and more publicity for the franchise. This is a beginning for the expansion for the WNBA.

My original plan for my Original research was going to be an interview with either the head coach of the New York Liberty’s, Katie Smith or the assistant coach, Herb Williams. I emailed both the Manager of fan development, Brett Tessler and the Director of communications, Vincent Novicki. When they both didn’t get back to me I tried contacting the coach of Imhotep's girls basketball team. Due to the fact that they are preparing for states, he was not able to do the interview. As a late result I decided to interview someone in my community who knows a great deal about the WNBA. I interviewed Diamond Wallace. Diamond gave me a different insight on the topic. She explained more problems that the WNBA faces, which made me realize that it isn’t entirely their fault that the league is so small and there is wage gaps. Diamond said “The only reason why I think they are doing bad is because there is not a lot of entertainment. A lot of people look for 360 dunks and crossovers and the WNBA doesn’t really offer that.”That is something I didn't even think about. I appreciate her cooperation and the knowledge she gave to me about my topic.

This is an image from my interview with Diamond Wallace.

I am not sure what I want to do for my Agent of Change. Diamond gave me the idea of creating a website to explain what I’ve learned and what everyone can do about it. I was also thinking of writing an email to various NBA teams to try to do an act like Joe Lacob is willing to do. I am open to ideas so please comment below if you have any.

For further information, please look at my Annotated Bibliography.

The War on Violence

Here is a word cloud of gang violence. Image source

Imagine hearing gunshots not blocks away your own home. For some people this is an everyday occurrence. Gangs are organized social groups who commit crimes. Some gangs partake in violence to receive social status, partake in theft, vandalism, murder, etc… to receive respect from their gang members that they probably haven’t received or earned in their own lives. Gangs are very passionate about respect, so passionate that they will do anything to protect their own members or their turf, this is where the violence part comes in. Out of passion, gangs inflict violence on each other to maintain respect. Not only is this problematic because of the deaths it is causing in gangs, but it is also harming innocent people who might just be pedestrians or bystanders. This issue is growing, because now it is affecting whole neighborhoods and branding them as “bad” or dangerous neighborhoods. This leaves a bad reputation on the neighborhood, the people who live in the neighborhood, and the entire city.

This is a photo of the streets of Kensington. Image source

I live in Kensington, gang violence is a huge problem there. I have a personal connection to gang violence because it could affect the way I live or harm me. Not only me but my friends, family, and neighbors could all suffer from gang violence. I don’t want to see my neighborhood have a bad reputation or be dangerous. My neighborhood isn’t the only neighborhood with this problem. People need to be informed if they want to be safe or to have a positive effect on their neighborhood. Making a change to make your neighborhood a safer place is not hard. You can make a change in a big way or small way. It is important to have safe living conditions for our generation growing up and the next generation to come.

Poster against gang violence. Image source

Gang violence is something that has a long history. Sadly there is a lot of facts to back it up. A statement from USLegal says that “Gang violence means criminal and non political acts of violence committed by a group of people who regularly engage in criminal activity against innocent people.” This source is a negative towards gangs but it can still be true. This means that gangs can and do that stuff. That it why it is important to be aware and be safe. Another statement from NCBI says “During childhood and adolescence, the formation of groups or gangs is a normal part of the growing process. Playmates, school friends, Boy and Girl Scout troops are each examples of the natural inclination to form group attachments that provide a stable social outlet.” this source is important because it is explaining how gangs start and what to look out for. It is important to be educated in subjects like gang violence which are very dangerous and can affect your safety and security.

Poster for victims who suffered violence. Image source

Through extensive research about gang violence, I have concluded that gang violence is not just a two-sided topic. Gang violence is something that has been completely stereotyped, but stereotypes are stereotypes for a reason. I do not understand the pride that gangs need to maintain. I question the reliability of the opinions of those who are not victims of gang violence or gang members. Going forward in research I hope to find a simple way to improve this solution.

Annotated Bibliography

In Africa, African Wild Dogs used to range to 500,000 in 39 countries. But now because of issues like roadkill and destroying habitats, there are only thought to be about 6,600 left. Seeing that big of a change in the world is quite upsetting, especially when there are tons of other endangered animals out there. Just from seeing those few sentences I can tell that there are some people who would already like to read more into this topic and how much of an impact this has in the world.

Personally I feel connected to this topic because I love animals. I know it seems like such a basic thing to say but it’s really is true. I haven’t had any real pets besides from a turtle if that counts but if or whenever I see a pet in public I take any chance I can to pet them and be all over them. I think this topic on endangered animals and protecting their habitats is something others should know because besides from them being needed for loving and caring for, but as a source of inspiration. From what I heard from The Wildlife Conservation, protecting animals and their habitats lets us protect the planet as a whole. There are so many things that we can still learn about them. Plus, they haven't done anything to us, there just species living on the Earth same as us. So there's no reason to hurt the space they live in in any way, shape, or form.

Now, for those wondering what some of the issues going around are, there's a lot. But I picked out some of the worst ones I saw. Starting with small wild cats very little is known about them but that's what makes it much of a problem. Of all the unique different types of animals out there if you can’t say much for just a simple cat then there's the problem right there. But from what was gathered these small cats are being threatened by loss of habitats, killing, and conflicts with humans, livestock and domestic animals. They can be found in parts of South America, Asia, and Europe.

Moving onto another animal that is in need of help is the Ethiopian Wolf. These wolves are one of the rarest and most endangered canid in the world so that on it’s own speaks for itself. But ironically another thing that stops the wolves from thriving is the growth of the human population. With more and more humans in the Ethiopian highlands it forces the wolves out only into domestic dogs that carry diseases. As a result of these diseases three out of four of the wolves die. Now with only 500 left to remain in the wilds of Ethiopian people want to do anything they can to find a place for these animals and to get them treated for their diseases.

Nobody likes poopy water so I wanted to know how to avoid being in the situation where I have to drink the poopy water. So for the you and the word project, I am focusing on green vs grey infrastructure, and how all of the bigger cities have outdated sewage systems and pipes. It’s a really big problem that I had no idea about. Throughout the states the storm water management is mostly comprised of pipes that lead to bigger pipes or “grey infrastructure.” This is only a problem when there's just a little too much rain for the sewers to handle. So when that happens there is a backup which causes the mixed waste and rain water to overflow into the water sources. Just a reminder that's where we get our our drinking water from. This is a big enough of a issue for the EPA to address it., and so , that gave the cities some time to fix it. Philly, in particular is very far ahead in our green infrastructure with green roofs and  other things like that to help slow down the stormwater runoff as much as possible. The Philadelphia Water Department (PGW) has great explanations of their visions that they have for the city that you can check out here.

The general idea of green infrastructure is pretty simple actually. We all know that plants are living things, and they consume water just like we do. So green infrastructure is just using that to slow down the stormwater, not necessarily to catch it all in the soil, more like giving the sewers enough time so the storm water can get through without overflowing everything. It’s really smart if you think about it because usually it only rains hard for 5 or 10 minutes. With grey infrastructure the sewers will overflow pretty quickly but that wouldn’t happen with green infrastructure. The plants would soak in and hold up the water long enough so that the water that fell onto the streets and roofs can get down the drain fine without overflowing. Then the water in then soil will get released and there would be no problem with there being too much water for the sewer to handle.

Although bad drinking water can be disgusting and undesirable from the city you live in, that's not the only problem caused by stormwater overflow. The other big one in cities would be flooding streets from extreme backups in the sewer. Other than that there can be really bad for outcomes for wildlife around the area or even downstream. Wanting to improve the city's stormwater management for our purposes is a perfectly good reason but there are other life forms suffering from polluted water coming into the city's watershed. The Delaware river is Philly's watershed, meaning we use it for our drinking water but it is also home to other living animals. The Delaware river is one of the most polluted rivers. Most of the pollution comes from dumping toxic chemicals in waterways that lead to the river but other than that when the sewers overflow with the waste water that is also going into the river.

When this project was introduced, I knew I was meant to choose child sex trafficking. There was one class in English in 7th grade that made it so. We watched a documentary called Very Young Girls where my teacher knew a lady who helped with the program that was shown in the documentary. The documentary took about two class periods to finish and afterwards, we had two projects pertaining to this topic. In the project we focused mainly on African American exploited girls. This time, I wanted to show statistically how many and what kinds of children are prostituted in the United States. I found the information presented horrifying, but what really spoke to me was what little was being done to help these children. Many children are arrested for prostitution, and many go right back to doing it after being freed. Officials may think that because they return to that life, then they want to be there, but Very Young Girls shined a light of what mentally goes on in the child's head. The documentary focused on about 7 different girls stories, so they can’t really speak for the entire population, but here is what I've gathered.

• Pimps are very persistent

• They look for girls who are most vulnerable and need help.

• It's better for a pimp to take a low-profile girl because nobody will come looking for them

• Once he’s helped you out of whatever problems you have, then he starts to force you to go out on corners and help him with his business.

• Many girls feel like they owe their pimp something because he gave them what their parents couldn’t  

• They help him because they think that if they don’t, then he will leave them and they will go back to being homeless, or unwanted in their homes, or whatever the case may be.

• Many Pimps also threaten them saying that they would find them wherever they are and kill them if they ever leave.

• They don’t see a way out. So they stay.  

• After leaving a life where you are sold 4-6 times a day, it’s very hard to adjust.

Like I said, these points are just some things I thought of while watching the documentary. It may not necessarily be what you gathered. In addition, these are points from many different stories, not just the account of one girl.

Once I refreshed my memory on what I saw in seventh grade, I started to do even more research on a broader plane. I looked into a Huffington Post blog which more or so focused on the statistics and found that there are 2 million children are victims of child sex trafficking each year across the globe and 300,000 of those kids are in America. America still isn’t the most common place for children to be trafficked. Children are constantly being pursued by predators. They showed that there are many online predators looking for children. The blog states, “ The number of children being contacted by sexual predators online is disturbing and astounding at the same time. Approximately one out of every seven children is sexually contacted, or solicited, by a predator while online.” The documentary showed girls that were pursued in person at random times in the day, but this blog shows that there are many other ways that predators hunt for kids and they are relentless.

Furthermore, I decided to get information on the type of kids predators look for. I looked into the website Thorn, which is devoted to teaching people about various problems in the world. I found there study on child sex trafficking and found some interesting statistics. Kids who are homeless or runaways, LGBTQ, African American or Latino, and youth interacting with the child welfare system are more vulnerable to this type of exploitation. 52% of child arrests relating to prostitution are African American Children. Runaways and homeless kids are at an even greater risk of being exploited. 25% of children sampled for a survey admitted that they felt the need to trade sex for money or food. In another study, 86% of the children were in the care of social services or foster care. These statistics support some of my findings from the documentary because they show that low profile children are at a higher risk for child sex prostitution.

Afterwards, I looked into the impact of child sex trafficking physically and mentally on the exploited children. I read through a article on a site called Ark of Hope for Children. Where I looked specifically into the section titled Physical and Mental Consequences of Trafficking for Victims. Victims of child sex trafficking struggle significant problem, physically and mentally. Of course, the physical comes from having sex involuntarily many times daily. They may catch STDs, pelvic pains, rectal pains, and urinary difficulties. Mentally, they can suffer from a variety of problems. Depression, self-hate, shame, eating disorders, PTSD, fear, anxiety, difficulty sleeping, drug addiction and many more. Prostitution is ruining the lives of thousands of children. during and many years after the crimes are committed.

Also, in the documentary, the girls who spoke out about how their lives were like were all apart of this program called G.E.M.S which stands for Girls Educational and Mentoring Services. This program had directors who really cared about the girls and wanted to really help them out of their situation. So went to their official site. They’re purpose is to empower girls and women, ages 12-24, who have been victims of sex trafficking and help them exit the commercial sex industry. They are centered in New York state. The founder is Rachel Lloyd who started this program in 1998 because she had been sexually exploited as a teenager and she wanted to help others like her. They want to focus on building girls up and showing them that they are beautiful and have potential for future success.

Fraternity Brothers aren’t real brothers

I was walking home from school one day when I got a call from my mom saying that one of my friends was in the hospital, I asked why and my mom said that when he was going into college he decided to join a fraternity and was hazed. He drank to much beer and had to go to the hospital where he could have died. My friend is also my neighbor so this hit me pretty hard. Ever since then I have been very serious about the end of fraternities.

Hazing is an “initiation” to a fraternity using sexually humiliating, physically abusive, and/or forcing alcohol types of strategies to the hazing victim to show brotherhood to the fraternity, but it is really just torture. Hazing consists of the other fraternity members handing the person being initiated so much beer that it could be lethal, and some fraternities paddle whoever they are hazing which leave very explicit marks on the victim to such an extent that the victim can die from that as well. Hazing is a huge problem because hazing occurs 76% of the time when somebody new joins a fraternity which is 3% more than in gangs.

http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/file.php?path=/images/CQ_Researcher/r20040109-whohazesmost.gif - This is an image of the percentage of people who get hazed when they join one of these social groups.

A huge misconception about hazing is that people think that it is a very rare occurrence that doesn’t do much damage to a person or society when it is committed, but in actuality hazing happens a lot, and when it happens it does hurt. As in almost every fraternity hazing happens when new members join, most times that this happens the victims get sent to a hospital, and at least one hazing related death per year with seventy deaths since 2000, so hazing is getting worse. Somebody named Timothy Piazza who was a member of the Beta Theta Pi Fraternity died because of hazing last year. Timothy  was given eighteen beers in 82 minutes, Tim fell down the fraternity houses stairs, fractured his skull, went through irreversible traumatic brain injuries, had his spleen ruptured in multiple ways which caused extensive internal bleeding and hemorrhagic shock. Tim then died after being left at the bottom of the stairs for twelve hours. This incident not only killed Timothy, but ruined every other fraternity “brothers” life because themselves and the Beta Theta Pi fraternity have been charged with 850 charges including involuntary manslaughter. The shocking part bout this case is that the fraternity that Timothy joined was a “reformed” fraternity, which means that it has a strict behavioral policy, a no alcohol policy, and adult supervision with security footage. This was shocking to me not because they weren’t supposed to do these things, but because nobody knew this was happening, not even the adult who was supposed to be supervising the fraternity members. After I researched this case and others like it I became shocked because I thought that what happened to my friend was the worst that it could get, but I became scared and thought about “what if that happened to my friend?” I would have been devastated if my friend died, which made me devastated when I heard that many other people have died and made me hate fraternities even more.

https://www.unilad.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/111007_brandbox_americanpie.jpg.CROP_.rectangle3-large.jpg - Picture of students being hazed or “running the gauntlet” at a fraternity.

Fraternity deaths are getting more numerous which makes fraternities get more known which reveals more of the horrifying truth about fraternities to the world. Right now people are considering shutting down fraternities because of all of the deaths that fraternities have caused and the side effects of fraternities that affect the members, such as, being more likely to become a rapist, alcoholic, drug abuser, and much more.

Help fraternities get noticed so all of the deaths and ruined lives can stop. Fraternities are very close to coming to an end such as Timothy Piazza’s fraternity, and some schools are already banning fraternities from their campuses. We can help shut fraternities by working together and maybe even getting into contact with schools. Stand up against fraternities!

          http://s1.ibtimes.com/sites/www.ibtimes.com/files/styles/embed/public/2017/05/15/timothy-piazza.PNG - Picture of Timothy Piazza, the person who died at the hazing incident at Beta Theta Pi Fraternity.

If you would like to see my annotated bibliography, click here.