From the very beginning of the semester I was curious to see what direction the class would take. I think the most memorable unit of the semester would have to be unit I. I noticed that Unit II took a more personal turn for me and this is what made me more interested in the class. I always find that personal topics lead me to be more engaged. A highlight for me was definitely the Ted Talk. I felt like it was important to give my Ted Talk on mass incarceration because it is something that is often overlooked. Most people trust the judicial systems ruling of “criminals” but I do not especially when it comes to sentencings that involve African-Americans. I don’t want to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but I do believe that the government does sometimes associate negative depictions with African Americans. We see this with the basic stereotypes of the brute, Aunt Jemima, and the infamous welfare queen, a term started by former president Ronald Reagan. That escalated into associating African Americans and Latino’s, but mostly African American with crack-cocaine in America. We often see in the media that African Americans are not granted justice. Let’s not forget Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Sean Bell and even Emmett Till (1941).

Choosing to research mass incarceration was challenging and shocking at the same time. Most of the primary research I found was statistics. One stat that really struck me was “African Americans now constitute nearly 1 million of the total 2.3 million incarcerated population.” How could this even be possible, but I believe I found the answer to that question when I learned that former Nixon domestic policy chief, John Ehrlichman, said that “the war on drugs was created as a political tool to fight blacks and hippies”. How is our government to be trusted?

The only other class that I am required to do research for at the moment is my English Textual Studies class for our final paper. He is not requiring us to do as much research as we did for this class, but overall the class has helped refresh some of my research skills. Everything I have been required to do in the class as far as research is something I have done before.

The food politics unit definitely opened my eyes to plenty of things. It has affected me so much that I even threw away the Tyson frozen chicken breasts I had in my freezer. I realized that the taste was artificial and I just could not fight it anymore. I find myself always examining the color, size, taste, and smell of my foods especially from the specific industries that were discussed in the movie. Looking at certain foods now even make me nauseous because of the thoughts that run in the back of my mind. I was also shocked to learn how many of the owners of these companies have some sort of relation to the government. Again, how is our government to be trusted? I am sure they are aware of what these producers are doing, how they are recruiting illegal immigrants and how dangerous working in slaughter houses is. As long as they receive a percentage of the profit they will continue to turn a blind eye. My social controversy justified my thoughts about the United States government, this institution is not designed to protect people of color, especially African Americans. There will always be a law or institution put into place to limit the opportunities and freedom of blacks. Some succeed don’t get me wrong, but that number does not compare to the many successful whites. It was also shocking to learn that more whites are using illicit drugs, while more blacks are arrested on drug charges. I think too many ignored to comments made my former Nixon aide John Ehrlichman. If he admits that the war on drugs was a tool to target minorities, why isn’t anyone listening?

If I could continue to work on any piece, it would definitely be my mass incarceration piece because everyone needs to be aware of the society we live in. We live in a country where Presidents can openly target specific groups of people. We live in a country where African Americans are less likely to finish high school, go to college or even succeed in life overall. We live in a country where Presidents fund prisons, which creates the space for more people to be behind bars. Many of these politicians we vote for own private prisons and make money off of working citizens and criminals being in there. I’m not entirely sure what I would do with the piece this topic requires a lot of research and I only focused on certain things there is way more to be found. One option would be to turn it into a book, but who would read it? I can’t think of a creative way to get the message across.

If I could share any piece it would be my TED Talk on mass incarceration because it is something of interest to me and I am curious to see how others would react. Based off of the comments that I received after I presented the TED Talk many were unaware of the issue so I am sure that others are unaware of this as well. I would expect outsiders to be shocked because I was even shocked at what I discovered. I would not just want to share it with one person I guess I would share it with a group of my friends first because those are the people I am usually around. I’m sure they would feel the same way that I do we are all socially conscious and stay up to date on current issues especially those surrounding people of color.