In Degand’s article, he discusses the perspectives of social success of the individuals from his study and how the media influenced and shaped each student’s definition of success. In Algorithms of Oppression, Noble addresses how google search algorithms suggest racist searches and information, arguing that they can further influence the biases and stereotypes that people have about people of color. “Interest Driven Thinking” argues that students comprehension can be supported through fun and interactive methods like the video-game program. In “Can we trust numbers?” all speakers argue that statistics and algorithms are very useful in terms of what information to trust, but we should still be wary of how we are using the information.

I sometimes come across negative or stereotypical comments about a group of people when I am searching something on Google, but I have always been the type of person to just ignore it. Since I just ignore it, I kind of expected everyone else to too. After reading Algorithms of Oppression, I realized that these algorithms can have influence on people who already have those underlying biases or stereotypes about people of color or certain groups of people. I feel like younger individuals who are surfing the web easily believe anything they see on the internet, so they are especially vulnerable to these algorithms. Once young individuals have been exposed to these algorithms, the information can easily stay in their minds and influence their current views which they’ll carry into the future.

When you were in school, would these algorithms pop-up during google searches? Did you pay any attention to them?

I still haven’t gotten a respond from the only other person in my guild, but the good news is that I was able to use her as an aid for my city. I tried helping her with some tasks but it showed that everything in her city was fine. I wish I would have chose another guild with more people because I honestly don’t know what I am doing in my current one and my guildmate isn’t helpful at all.

I actually got the hang of building in my city and managing my currency. I built the courage to spend some diamonds and ended up gaining 100 in return so thank you Professor Degand, I trusted you saying that in order to get more diamonds you have to spend some. I know that there could be some adjustments to this game that would make it more academic and interesting for a social studies class, but I just haven’t carefully thought about the changes. I think i’ll continue playing Forges of Empire even after this class.

In “My Pen Rides the Paper,” Preston takes specific lines from different songs on the album and discusses their significance. In this break down, Preston reveals that a lot of songs have literal, metaphorical, and oral meanings, they don’t just have one meaning to them. In the Christopher Columbus protest song, the article discusses how what is shown in the video (slavery and the oppression of Native people) was rewritten to ignore all of the genocide that is behind Americas “discovery.” “The First Nations,” tells the story of how Indigenous Americans arrived. It uses both auditory and visual representation to tell the story. In “The Last Emperor Secret Wars” video, the creator raps a description of a battle between the superheros.

I found the last video interesting because it somehow reminded me of static shock. I remember watching static shock with my brothers every Saturday morning and even though this video only has the cover of a marvel comic book, the rap reminds me of theme song to the show. I find it really interesting how you can rap about almost anything and make it interesting for an audience. I admire the dedication and detail that is put into every line of a rap song.

Do you think history be more interesting if you could write rap songs instead of writing essays? How so?

Although there is said to be a decline in racism today, “Rap Music, Race, and Perceptions of Crime” argues how there are now other policies that are racially discriminatory towards the African-American population. In this article, rap music is perceived as a way for others to create anti-black attitudes by relating it to crime (e.g., the Knox case). In Connor’s news article, he argues that in order to like rap music, you have to pay attention to the musical and textual variables of the song. The poetic, verbal, and metric accents are all natural emphases that can be found when closely listening to the flow of a rap song. In The Birth of American Music, Hannah-Jones talks about the evolution of music in America from the lyrics and meanings to the instruments used in the song. In Dissect’s S2E1, the narrator discusses Kanye West’s music journey and how his career progressed (e.g., albums, awards) and took part in shaping hip-hop sound with “Through the Wire” launching his career. In episode 2, Kanye’s production style is explained. It follows hip-hop production where sampling from old sounds/ beats are used to make new pieces. It was popular in the 80’s and coincided with the rise of hip-hop music as the fundamental element. Episode 2 also discusses the circumstances of “Through the Wire” and how it increases the listener’s connection to the rapper, encountering the perceptions of hip-hop and rap that people had at the time (violent, aggressive, criminal, etc.).

I grew up in a family that listens to a lot of rap and hip-hop so I really enjoyed these readings/ podcasts. I actually grew up listening to Kanye West’s “Through the Wire” because a lot of my classmates were really into his music. I personally never viewed rap as a violent and aggressive genre of music because I grew up in a community of color and I feel like this music spoke the truth, but when reading the first article, I saw a different perspective. Of course African American rappers would be viewed as violent and criminal through their music because they’re already categorized under those stereotype. Without truly understanding the oppression and adversity that these rappers and their communities of color face, it is easy for people with anti-black notions to continue to foster these attitudes.

Do you think rap and hip-hop would be a good art course in the high school curriculum? Why or why not?

1. I am honestly unsure how to play a guild so I YouTube’d it and I still don’t understand what I am supposed to do. I also think that there’s only one other player in the guild. When I was choosing what guild to join, there was only two teams or the option to build my own guild but I didn’t build my own because I don’t really know how to play FoE. I tried messaging the person who created the guild (the only other player) and they haven’t replied. I also tried messaging the world chat asking for guidance and no one has replied.
2. I actually like playing the game now since I kind of have a better idea of what to do. I don’t play a lot since i’m really busy throughout the day, so I just got to the iron age. At first I was relying on the “story” to tell me what to do, but now I just focus on building as much as I can. I still think this game is too leisure for a classroom since it doesn’t really have an academic aspect to it (aside from the story). I feel like it would be more interesting and academic if you as the player could have a constant story and communicate with the teller.

I still haven’t been able to join a guild, I need to research Smithery technology first. When I logged on I was able to complete two different research and attain about 6 men for my army, but now I have to wait until I gain more coins i’m assuming.

The pace of the game is extremely slow if you’re not spending real money on it. If you have a lot of spare time, you can produce tools every 15 minutes, but if you’re like me and are super busy you probably just choose the “1 day” production so that by the time you log back into the game, you have coins to collect. I feel like other games are very fast and you can level up right at that moment if you’re really good, but in this game you can’t. There’s nothing else to do but wait if you’ve already completed all of the steps in the “story.”

In “Culturally Relevant Pedagogy,” Ladson-Billings discusses how academic success, cultural competence, and sociopolitical consciousness are constantly changing depending on the “evolving needs of dynamic systems.” Understanding these pedagogical choices that coincide with theoretical frameworks can help all teachers help all students achieve success with support from philosophy. In Toward a Restorative English Education, Winn argues for the use of literature as a way for students to “seek justice and restore peace” beyond their classrooms. Instead of promoting an environment where students are constantly being watched and labeled as ‘delinquents,’ schools should be using literature as a way to give students a voice against injustices and think of solutions for their communities. In the “Maker Movement” vimeo, Buechley discloses that in the maker movement, people are encouraged to display their creations and hard work but there is 0 representation of people of color. Buechley argues that the statistics don’t represent what the organization promises, it only continues to support the people who already have a voice and access to most opportunities. In order to promote that everyone has the chance to create and participate in this social movement, underrepresented populations need to actually be given the opportunity to showcase their innovations. In “Can Restorative Justice Save the Internet?,” Sackton argues that in order for restorative justice to happen, we need to find other interventions that will help people, not cause them more harm. The same goes for restorative justice online, we need to find better ways to understand and work with them to change their behavior.

The last podcast caught my attention because I can agree with what the speakers are saying. We can’t decrease crime rates or ensure people’s safety by punishing people who engage in these acts. The only way to actually fix something is to help the person understand why it was wrong in the first place, otherwise they’ll never see what the problem is and they’ll most likely engage in it again. This happened a lot during grade school where the “bad” kids would be given detention or be expelled. It was like a cycle because on the first day back at school they were still acting out and would be expelled or given detention once again. I truly believe that the only way to improve a community is to help people understand why something may not be appropriate and what they can do to improve their actions.

What forms of restorative justice, if any, did you have in k-12?

It is pretty difficult to redesign my city when I am using my laptop because it takes forever to press on one feature at a time and then you have to wait for them to load. It is also more difficult to move buildings around when you are on a laptop because you can’t just click on the building and move it, first you have to click on the “move” icon and then you click on the building that you want to move.

At first my battle experiences were bad, I lost my entire army about 3 times. I think I know how to navigate my battles now. I managed to make an army of 6 and ended up winning a battle and gaining a providence. I still don’t know how to navigate the continent map because it only shows the province that my city is in (I don’t really know what to do with this information). I also can’t access the guild expedition until I have researched Smithery technologies (I am almost there in both of my worlds).

In The New Jim Crow, the author discusses how mass incarceration and race are interrelated issues. Alexander uses Jarvious Cotton to show how African Americans were repeatedly kept from voting and even though they have more opportunities today, they still face oppressing factors that try to keep them marginalized. Instead of using more obvious forms of racism, society uses other ways to discriminate against minorities, specifically African American individuals. The author argues that the criminalization and marginalization of people of color is the new Jim Crow because it still allows for a racist caste system to exist (just in another less obvious way). Although there is racial justice programs and civil rights organizations that raise awareness to the injustice that people of color face on a day-to-day basis, there is still a lot of progress to be made in an effort to diminish the large caste of racism that still exists.

I wish these topics were discussed during grade school. Instead, these topics were considered inappropriate or too sensitive. I feel like in order to stop people from participating in acts of oppression, they need to be taught about its effects at a young age. I come from a marginalized community so I have some experience with knowing what it’s like to not have a lot of opportunities, but our opportunities aren’t as limited as the opportunities of African Americans. A lot more people need to be educated on mass incarceration and who is considered a target and why they are considered targets. This would be the first step in changing the way people view minorities in today’s society.

When do you think is appropriate to teach school-age children about our current society’s forms and effects of racism?

Whenever I click on the story lines, it just asks me to build something new or to create a new invention. I feel like the story line is repetitive and is only there to make you spend as many coins/ diamonds as you can. The daily tasks are also very repetitive, you cannot do much without spending real money. Instead of waiting 15 minutes or an hour, I have all of my buildings produce tools for 24 hours that way I can check my progress every other day and i’ll have something to collect. The archaeology event was pretty interesting since it was different than the repetitive currency collecting, it reminded me of a scavenger hunt/ maze. It is also very interactive so you have to constantly be changing tools to reach the rewards.