Mine Kiyat
EDU 202
Field Work Paper #2
Due: May 13,2012 The Conference I attended on April 27 2013 was organized by the Youth that attended Bronx works Betanies Cornerstone Community Center to bring awareness of what the youth are learning/the struggles they go through every day as young adults in their community. The workshop called “My Movement, Our Voice” was held at their community center in Bronx, Ny where they spend most of their time after school and during the weekends, a place for them to stay safe, learn and have fun with councilors and staff. I enjoyed this workshop because the staff was just a part of the audience and the youth were mainly stating their opinions and problems they face. The staff and students, mainly Puerto Rican and African American had an introduction first with a keynote speaker who told her struggles as a teen growing up in the Bronx and how she educated herself and her “Movement” as a young adult was to finish college and give back to her community, and she did. She stated that she still lives in the Bronx and has her Masters that she received from Hardvard. She gave the microphone to three students from the audience and asked for their “Movement” and the students said they wanted to finish college, two wanted to become Teachers and one wanted to become a Criminal Investigator. It was a great to see the goals of the youth. The first work shop I attended was Muevete Justice, The movement for Justice. The workshop had students sitting in a circle and we all were given questions on what Justice is and facts/questions on prison-Jail. They spoke about the different age groups and how young children see violence and become a part of the violence in the streets because they don’t know any better. The students stated a lot of facts on the ages of violence and the very young age (as young) as 10 year olds getting arrested for violence, and how their future (young children getting arrested) wasn’t so bright and they would just grow up and end up in prison and jail. The difference with Prison and Jail was, Jail only being a place where they stay up to 12 months to wait for their trial. Prison was a longer period of stay for those who convicted crimes and they can stay till life sometimes. The students also stated facts on the minority and how there were more “nonwhite” (Hispanics and African Americans) people getting arrested and convicted of crimes, they feel that a lot of police and government workers are racist and pick out the minority even if they are not doing anything. I agreed with the students because I’ve seen this take place, where a cop will stop an African American/Spanish person for no reason and let a white boy just walk by, we see this on subways and the streets. The students stated that many of the African Americans who do violent things are because of the idea that everyone puts them in as a “black kid” or a “Black man” and how the white kids have a advantages because they are white, they get into less trouble. I saw the comparison with Cornel West’s article “Race Matters” pg. 139 when West states “ Whites have often failed to acknowledge the widespread mistreatment of black people, especially black men, by law enforcement agencies which helped ignite the spark”. The comparison I saw with the article and what the students were saying were true. Many of the “black” men getting in trouble were being sparked by the police and etc to act the way they do. In Peggy McIntoshs article she states “I can choose public accommodation without fearing that people of my race cannot get in or will be mistreated In the places I have chosen, page 157 Article “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack”, interpreting that white people have a privilege because of their skin color to not get singled out vs. an African-American/ Hispanic person. The students mentioned how they were lucky enough to have a community center where they weren’t out on the streets like a lot of teens their age