This graph shows yearly homicides that date back to 1960

Sources say the main cause of increase in gun violence is the pandemic. Numbers of homicides and shootings in Philly have skyrocketed since the start of the pandemic, causing one of the most violent years in history. Experts say the pandemic likely drove much of last year’s spike in shootings and murders. They suspect that trend will continue for much of 2021, even as cities slowly inoculate residents against COVID-19, as they only see gun violence rising as the city goes into lockdowns. “The Philadelphia Police Department recorded 50 homicides in January, a 32% increase over last year, the deadliest in three decades.”, just goes to show how much the pandemic is effecting gun violence.

Researchers found that after Philadelphia closed non-essential businesses, there has been an increase in gun violence. Unemployment and distress in poor neighborhoods is what’s causing more violence throughout the city. Researchers say, “The pandemic, and its economic and social fallout, have highlighted many longstanding systemic issues, including inequities in employment, health care and housing”. Governor Tom Wolf and senators have proposed a new idea to make communities safer. For example, one of these idea were a senate bill that would report lost or stolen guns to authorities, but if there is not a change soon gun violence due to this pandemic will put a serious dent in our communities in Philadelphia.

This map shows the neighborhoods being affected by gun violence

These shootings are proven to have long term effects on people including paralysis. Dozens of people are affected from paralysis each year, and the number doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon. Experts say, “For each gun homicide, there were four survivors who sustained gun injuries. These injuries can cause significant long-term health effects, including paralysis”. Not only does this affect neighborhoods and the city of Philadelphia, it leaves people with disabilities making it harder to provide for their families.

This graph shows percentages of shooting victims with a gun related hospital visit

Community activists want to see change happening soon due to the increase of gun violence in Philadelphia. Activist feel like there is no sense of urgency, and hey thing some of the main causes of this crisis are narcotics, no food, and sexual abuse.

My research has given me evidence and important information that I can use when fighting against gun violence in Philadelphia. I wonder what city leaders will do in the future to compact gun violence and how soon will it be until it happens. I question the origin of gun violence and I look forward to learning more about it

My annotated bibliography is here

Police brutality is an ongoing problem in America. Recently, we’ve witnessed more and more tragic examples of this with people such as Nicolas Chavez, Patrick Warren Sr., and here in Philadelphia, Walter Wallace Jr. This is such an important issue because of how much harm it has caused. It feels like almost every day we hear about another person who was killed by police. My focus on the subject is police reacting to mental health crises, and how we can prevent harmful situations.

Writing on a sidewalk in New York City “Stop Murder by Police”

The question is, how can we stop this problem? A shocking demographic shows that “People who have untreated mental illnesses are 16 times more likely to be killed during a police encounter, and those who have an untreated severe mental illness are involved in up to half of all fatal police shootings.” An incredible amount of people are hurt and even killed in police encounters that are meant to save them. A possible way to help fix this problem is through health care workers working with police. Many areas have begun using this method. One example is a program called CAHOOTS in Eugene, Oregon. This program has been around the longest, for 30 years. This program has been the inspiration for many others.

A CAHOOTS bus in Eugene, Oregon

But what do these programs do? These programs implement a very nonviolent approach that has been saving countless lives. For 911 calls about mental health crises, officials will send a trained professional to defuse the situation and get them the help they need. These health care workers will be unarmed, and in cases of possible violence, will be sent with a police officer. They will also respond to calls on smaller things, such as a homeless person in need of help, clothes, etc. In New York City, they will also be implementing this method in the two neighborhoods with the most calls related to mental health crises. “Making healthcare-only teams the default response will reduce the number of times police respond and ensure that people get the physical and mental health care they need quickly.” This can be beneficial for everyone, including police, who can focus on real crime.

A police officer standing in Times Square

Why are police not handling these situations properly? “A 2006 report from the Justice Department found that police officers typically receive about 111 hours on firearms skill and self-defense — but just 11 on cultural diversity and human relations, eight on community policing strategies, and eight on mediation and conflict management.” This is a problem. Police spend their time training for fighting, but not nearly enough in other subjects like racial sensitivity and handling mental health crises. When a police officer is in a potentially dangerous confrontation, their racial biases emerge and this often causes harm to innocent people. “This doesn’t speak just to how little police are trained to handle racial bias, but also all sorts of other situations they take part in — mental health crises, interactions with the LGBTQ community, and domestic and sexual abuse cases, as a few examples. Police just aren’t well-trained to handle a wide variety of sensitive, difficult areas.” In addition to this, why should police be the only resort for any problem? Police should be meant for real crime and violent situations. “We should be asking ourselves why it is that law enforcement has become the default system to handle situations related to mental health, addiction, poverty and homelessness, and what public safety should really mean for our most vulnerable neighbors.”

Researching this topic has taught me how much of a problem police brutality is in America, and how much mental health crisis situations are mishandled. The reality is that police aren’t trained for defusing situations that are non-violent or have to do with a psychological episode. Nor is this the intended function of the police. This is why we need programs such as CAHOOTS, to handle these situations so that they can stay peaceful, successful, and beneficial for everyone.

African Americans are lazy. At least that’s what everyone says. But what is really going on within the African American community? Why are white people and other POC doing better than African Americans and what is the African American achievement gap? There are 4 factors that play into the lack of achievement in the African American community: Home life, school, mental health, and the history of African Americans. This topic is often ignored by not only white people/other POC but also by African Americans themselves. I think this ignorance comes from a lack of understanding and that’s what I hope to provide.

Growing up, I was fully surrounded by African Americans. In my predominantly African American public school, it was basically falling apart. Not only were grades on a decline but also the behavior of the students. It felt like I was the only one focused on success. I even grew apart from some of my peers. Why did it feel like everyone in my predominantly black public school was failing and didn’t care? I didn’t know anything about the achievement gap and I even thought sometimes that they were throwing their lives away. But their failure wasn’t entirely their fault. I mean, how were they supposed to thrive in an environment where books were falling apart, physical violence was an everyday thing, and parents just sort of… gave up?

History matters. When speaking of African American hardships, it feels like it’s almost impossible to not mention our history. The NAEYC says “African Americans have been exposed to generations of legal and illegal measures to deny them basic rights.” Schools are still highly segregated and not to mention that segregation ended in 1964, meaning my grandparents went to legally segregated schools. Thinking that the effects of segregation are not still very apparent is silly. Predominantly black districts are more likely to be underfunded than predominantly white districts. How can our environment affect our level of success? Well, our environment can create toxic stress. The Economic Policy Institute says “characteristics such as excessive litter, vandalism, deteriorated and overcrowded housing, graffiti, noise, public drug and alcohol use, and conflict with neighbors in close quarters—can exacerbate children’s toxic stress response to frightening or threatening events and impede parents’ ability to protect children from that response.” Kids may have to already deal with this at home but also imagine these things occurring in school. I know that I’ve witnessed all of this by middle school and many other African American children. So how are we supposed to succeed in a school with that environment? Almost impossible to not to give in to that stress.

How many frightening experiences 1,007 kindergarten kids have had are displayed. The results are split by race and family income.

Many may be asking, what about the African American kids in a better situation? The Atlantic says “Even black children in the middle class are more likely to backslide into a lower class or stay middle class.” They also go on to say that parents in the top 50% regarding income, also backslide in their adulthood. This just goes to show that even when success is reached, it is not guaranteed to stay. Based on my experience with middle class African American kids my age, we do a lot of backsliding due to wanting to be “hood” or at least what they perceive as hood. That has to do with how people think an African American should act. Black people have expressed time and time again about how their community calls them “whitewashed” when they don’t exhibit stereotypical traits like: listening to rap, talking “proper”, or having straight hair.

Comparison of the income quantiles of white and black people in America.

The toxic stress put onto African American is already a lot to handle. Now think about the mentally ill Black Americans. One reason being black and mentally ill is stigmatized because of how expensive it can be. NCBI says “Differences in access to insurance and other mechanisms to defray costs, in levels of illness or patterns of symptom expression, in health-risk behaviors, and in beliefs, preferences, and help-seeking traditions can also explain disparities.” when referring to the lack of mentally ill representation of the black community. Black kids on TikTok even share their experiences with telling their parents that they are mentally ill. A lot are met with “no you are not”. How can ignoring mental health affect our achievements? Things like depression can leave a child with no motivation to do school work. Why not just seek mental help? “One study of clients discharged from State mental hospitals found that African Americans were substantially more likely than others to be hospitalized again during the ensuing year” and “In another study of treatment for depression, African Americans proved similar to whites in response to psychotherapy and medication, except that African Americans had less improvement in their ability to function in the community”. So is treatment even working for African Americans? Not to mention that a large number of black students are being suspended over and over instead of mentally evaluated or given real help. They tend to be punished more than helped.

Now the main question is how do we close this gap? I found that black representation could help this gap (something that African Americans have been fighting for for years!). Chalkbeat Philadelphia says “Black teachers, in particular, are necessary to help black students develop a positive racial identity and ensure they have the tools to combat all of the negative images and messages they receive about them, their people, and their community,”. Representation benefits African American students and White students as well. Chalkbeat Philadelphia also states that White kids need to have diversity in order to see the different viewpoints and culture of POC.

I was only able to touch on a small portion of this topic. There is a lot more to it that I won’t be able to to put into words. But I want to bring awareness to this gap so that we have more solutions to fix it. It takes a lot of digging to even find articles on the achievement gap. I’ve come to understand my old peers a lot more. I now understand that I was lucky enough to thrive through the madness and some may never make it out. I’m not even sure how long until we are able to make progress on closing this gap. But I do know it won’t be quick and a majority of African Americans will continue to fail before we can succeed.

Annotated Bibliography

Anti Semitism and its effect in America.

Hi, welcome to my project on anti-Semitism in America. My goals for this project is to inform the reader on this topic and shed light on its deep crack in US history. So let’s begin.

If you don’t know what anti-Semitism is it is the act of hating the Jewish race. It was originality made mainstream in the crusades and with Martin Luther’s reforms to Christianity. This issue is a very pressing matter in the USA. It has run deep into our core and shadows many real-world events that are happing right now. For example, black people of this country for a long time could not attend certain colleges and get loans on homes. That same thing was happing to the jews at the exact same time. In fact, if you look around the country you can find some Jewish colleges such as Brandeis University.

For me, this topic hits closer to home because I am in fact Jewish and wish to fight this injustice. Also, I love to research history, this can include euro-centric things like ww2 or how gran Columbia was formed. And thought my research of America it shocked me of how much anti-Semitism there was. I feel like for this reason that if we look into past parts of anti-Semitism we can see how the future can pan out.

My research so far has shown a new light on this situation. For example, when I was doing my teacher I found that in 2018 it had the highest anti-Semitic activity that was reported since 1970. This along with the recent start of the black lives protests show that white supremacists movements are on the rise again.

Even with my research on this project I still wonder many things such as why is it still around today even though there are more facts on how bad this is or how is social media effect the spread? Is it decreasing it or increasing it? One of the things that I wonder the most about is how can we plug this poison that is sleeping out of America’s deepest cracks?

As with many things I still hope to learn more about this situation. As I all ready stated I wish to learn more about the social media aspect of it and I still want to learn more about where It came from. Finally, I would like to know more about how in wartime how did the Americans treat their jews. In the holocaust did the general public not know about it and did nothing accordingly or did they know and threw them to the curbside? Finally, the last question I want to learn about is the immigrating process of the easternmost jews in Russia into America.

Thank you for reading this, I hope you have learned a lot about my topic and have encouraged you to seek better research and education on the topic of Anti Semitism in America, mabby my questions inspired you to do your own research and questing of your own. Thank you for reading and I hope to see you soon.

Sources - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1u87PatNP1zcnBMsWXXC0apCz-teIm1DT00lulKaJj28/edit?usp=sharing

Suicide eliminates the potential to open a new chapter of life.

Suicide is definitely a problem in our society today and also the second leading causes of death between ages 15 to 24 according to US Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Many people today are or know of someone who has suicidal thoughts and organizations like the Suicide Prevention Hotline would like to help prevent these people from taking their own life. There are many ways to prevent the person from committing therefore we should make a huge effort as a society to make sure these people have the support they need. This is where regular people like me and you come in to support and prevent this cause.

Personally, I have never experienced such thoughts but I think everyone might know someone who does. I would like to bring this issue into light as something very important and allow us to observe our surroundings more. I believe that there’s always someone willing to listen to you and just because your closest ones don’t seem to care, even strangers are willing to listen. This is was a reason why the Suicide Hotline is available for everyone.

The second leading causes of death for some age groups was suicide in 2018 and sadly the ages start from as low as 10 to around 34 years old. In the US, one in five teengaers think about attempting suicide every year and this can be affected by many factors which may include certain life experiences, mental disorders, alcohol and much more.

A chart of the top leading causes of deaths by age groups in the US in 2018.

One of which is ninety percent of people who die by suicide have a mental health condition that may be treatable. In 2016, more than 90 percent of people that took their own life had depression or other mental disorders. Understandably many teenagers feel the pressure and stress to succeed in the future or worrying about things out of their control. As time passes and changes happen in our lives, the more stressful it might seem to make discoveries like what you’re passionate about, high school or college applications, career choices and many more.

TW: THE VIDEO TALKS ABOUT SEXUAL HARASSMENT, SUICIDE AND MORE SENSITIVE TOPICS

A touching story and the journey of Travis, a suicide survivor and how his experience feeling these tough emotions.

Being able to observe your surroundings and communicate with people around you can be difficult but this should not stop you from saving a life. There are many ways you can look out for yourself and your friends by finding warning signs of when someone may be feeling off. One common warning sign is having a mental disorder. This topic isn’t something everyone can openly speak about but always remember to check up on your friends and family to make sure they are okay. There are many ways to prevent someone else from taking their life like therapy.

There’s many kinds of therapy but two types of therapy that I would like to mention recommends others to look into if they are or know of someone who is struggling. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) has been shown to help people who are depressed. CBT can help people acknowledge their negative thoughts and find a positive way to cope with these thoughts so they don’t lead to unhealthy behaviors. Dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) is also helpful to those who are depressed but the therapy makes you more aware of the negative feelings and cope with them kind of on the spot. This can include breathing exercises or meditation.

Therapy is not the only way to prevent suicide. If you notice odd behavior or situations that may cause an individual to feel a negative way, you can always be a support friend and be there for them if they need someone. There are so many ways to prevent such events from happening and everyone should acknowledge the events that may lead up to a bad ending.

Studying more on this topic continues to add onto my mindset of we don’t really know what everyone is going through. The feelings and thoughts suicidal people might experience are indescribable and I don’t wish anyone to feel this way so I think as a society we should make a greater effort to prevent it. I am very interested in seeing the newer ways doctors and researchers find helpful in supporting suicidal behavior and how to notice before things get serious. I genuinely think the suicide should not be so high and wondering if we continue to move on in a society that doesn’t prioritize all lives, how many generations will live on?

Annotated Bibliography