Artifact 2 Description: Ray's Biggest Research Paper (Ever!!)

Ray’s Biggest Research Paper (Ever!!)

Last school year, I had the opportunity to receive honors credit in a few different classes.  I took honors in Science, Math, and US History.   First off, my US History Honors research paper is about where in Africa most of the slaves brought to the United States, and to the British Colonies that preceded them, originated.  I chose this topic because I had often wanted to know more about just what tribes in Africa can African people living in diaspora throughout the Americas trace their roots to.  Around this time I was also very interested to generally learn more about the influences and histories of Native American Indians in the US.  I was torn between these two topics for a little while.  In fact, what helped me to decide in the end was that I had to find a fictitious book to read about my topic.  I decided to research African-American origins in this instance due to the fact that I had already read a book roughly four years prior that I largely remembered quite well on the topic of the Middle Passage called Slave Dancer.  I took advantage of this fact and therefore decided it would probably work better to research African-American origins than it would to research about the Navajo Code Talkers.  The only novel on the Navajo Code Talkers, if I’m not mistaken, is the one and only memoir of these people, namely the book “Code Talker”.  This concludes my list of reasons why I chose my topic of research.  

 I used data based both off of modern DNA studies and slave ship records information.  In this research paper, I had to both find real information about this topic and compare it to information out of a historical fiction book. The findings of my research most supported the overall majority of African Slaves being from Southeastern Nigeria, namely from the Yoruba and Igbo tribes.  Learning of this link between the Black People of the United States, and the people of Southern Nigeria was very enlightening indeed!  I enjoyed the process of researching the material especially, as well as to a lesser extent the challenge of organizing all the information I gathered into a report.  This was, however, a true test of whether I had really mastered writing as much as I thought I had that year.  I was successful in writing my paper to the level of not having any noticeable errors after a lot of editing!  Furthermore, both Sue Schwartz my English teacher, and Audrey Southern my US History Teacher at that time found my research paper to be quite interesting!  This all goes to show that I did a very good job of writing an essay.  

This artifact most aligns with the school-wide outcome of “Communicators.”  I feel this because it is one of my best pieces of written work ever and “Communicators” specifically means people who demonstrate a knowledge and mastery of skills with the English Language and use it effectively in order to convey ideas and perhaps especially ideas to make the world a better place.  Furthermore, in continuation to the last point, I hereby submit this artifact as an academic artifact due to the way that it is perhaps my only real honors work artifact from high school, as well as just generally one of my best pieces of written work ever!              

Actual Poem about Equality in America

Equality in America

Someone once told me America is the land of Freedom, Justice and Equality for all. But I responded: Not until…

Not until all the Natives are not confined to the reservations, and are able to play a prosperous role in our society; having the final say over land that is rightfully theirs and contributing their divine knowledge of the Natural World to build a healthy society…

Not until all African Americans have fully equal chances of excelling in America as Whites do and are not confined to the ghettos…

Not until all people living in trailer parks have a good chance of rising out of poverty and are not called trash for being poor…

Not until all non-European immigrants are given fully equal treatment to European, and Euro-American immigrants in these United States of America…

Not until any and all obsession with Whiteness in this country is long gone…

Not until Islamophobia is no longer tossed around on news networks like Fox News…

Not until anti-Semitic jokes are no longer made…

Not until White people as a whole group are not shoved under the bus for crimes that only some Whites are guilty of both now and in history…

Not until people with disabilities are no longer discriminated against or assumed hopeless by society…

Not until women are paid equal to men across the board-and are no longer mistreated and thought of as objects anywhere…

And last but not least, not until all Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender people are given fully equal treatment to non-LGBT people…

Not until then can we say that America is a country of Justice, Equality, and Freedom for All!!  

Description of "Artifact 1: a Poem about Justice"

Artifact 1:  a Poem about Justice

This past January, I wrote the poem, which you see here in my Senior Graduation blog called “Equality in America” for the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Art and Poetry Competition which takes place in Ithaca and Tompkins County during late January in honor of Martin Luther King’s birthday.  I wanted to draw attention to all the inequalities that still go on in America today.  This is why I named it “Equality in America” because I wanted to describe what I believe true equality in America would look like.  This poem touches on issues of social injustice ranging all the way from the most well known about issues of racism against African-Americans and Native American Indians, all the way to issues of ableism being directed against people with disabilities.  This poem absolutely aligns to the schoolwide outcome of “visionaries”.  It aligns to this school-wide outcome for two key reasons: first, it is a vision for the kind of society, or multiple societies that I would like to see arise out of this current civilization of the United States of America.  Second, the rhythm and power  with which my poem conveys my ideas for a better society make it all the more visionary.  Finally, another visionary aspect of this project is the fact that I decided to enter it into this Martin Luther King jr. day Competition and with that, share it and all my ideas in it with the rest of the people in Tompkins County who read the Ithaca Journal.      

Details of the Poem:

The poem begins with, “somebody once told me America is the land of Freedom, Justice, and Equality for all.”  This is because I feel that there is an illusion of the United States of America being a fully equal society to everyone--which it isn’t these days!  I then communicate this by saying “But I responded: not until…”.  Then, I go on to start listing the different issues.  I start with the issues of racism and oppression of African-American people, as well as the Native American Indians because I feel that these people have certainly faced the worst atrocities in United States History.  I feel that the rights of the First Peoples to come to this continent are most important, seeing as to how they were the ones here first; a society that treats its Indigenous People worse than any other group of people can never be a country of true equality! Ultimately though, beyond the issues facing African-Americans and Native American Indians which seemed most serious, I did not really have a specific order in mind; I just wanted to get all the issues of discriminatory injustice in this country addressed and recognized.  The rest of the story behind this poem should tell itself to one when reading it. This artifact relates to my future because I really want to fight for Social justice throughout my life, even if it's not what my core career is about.  For instance, if I'm working on the nuclear waste issue, predominantly from the lense of Science and Engineering, I will still be sure to get myself involved in standing up for those who are affected by the egregious crimes committed by the nuclear industry. Standing up for a better world is lifelong focus of mine!

   

Introduction to Blog

      So yeah, here's my Senior Online Portfolio Blog.  It has a lot of my top work completed during my time at New Roots Charter School.  These are the artifacts I have placed in here, and they all align to one or two of the school wide outcomes (SWOs) set forth by New Roots Charter School.  In my blog, one can find everything from my picture of the Milky Way Galaxy, with a red golden ratio spiral which I superimposed over it, all the way to the briefing paper for my Capstone Project on Environmental Education which I completed for Public Policy Class.  So, to the teachers assessing whether this blog is sufficient for me to graduate from New Roots, I hope it is far more than just sufficient; and, to everyone else as well as the teachers, I hope it's also really entertaining to read and look at the different parts of this blog!  Enjoy yourselves!                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                               -Ray Vanek-Johnson