Survey & outreach
I surveyed 50 people who were all mostly in high school or the 8th grade going into high school. The ones who took my survey were African American males and some Latino American males as well, who all talked about their different experience with the topic.
In question four asked what did they think a mentor does a response was, "Someone who fosters and assists another person to achieve success academically, professionally, and other endeavors." What I got from this is that the person who answered this really understands what a mentor is and what they do. This tells me that they must have one in their life
Then in question 7 I found out that 43% the participants believed that they were only discriminated in the class only sometimes then 29% said that they felt that thy always feel that they are discriminated against. then this made me realized that the ones who do not realize it all the time are the ones who are not aware and do not realize how our society views them.
There were five points that stood out to me in the survey and one is for question 5 and 76.1% of the participants answered yes saying that they feel that they are racially profiled while they are in school. Then for question six it asked if they saw any African American Male teachers/ mentors at the their schools and, 40% of the people said that they do then 36% of the group said no. I found this interesting because it is very exciting that students realize the people who look like them are helping them out in school. They serve as allies in a school system that is design for us to fail. then the no's needs to improve. In question 42% of the participants did not know what the school to prison pipeline was. When finding this out it made me question if they really do not know what it is or they do not realize the system that is put in place for African American males. The reason why having a mentor who looks like you really come in handy.
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Outreach
Every year at my high school the Social Justice Academy hosts an annual Solidarity Fest. The Social Justice classes plan different activities and display the teachings that we have been given to the rest of the school. This is where we educate the rest of the students on campus about the different social issues that is going on at the time, and what has been going on for years. The senior class has to present their quest project to everyone, We have a table that is shared with other seniors who has a quest project that is similar to mine. This way it is easier to present our project to everyone. We all needed to do a cultural piece and a symbolic piece. My cultural piece was to talk about my project in front of everyone. I talked about how there isn't a lot of African American male teachers or mentors in our school to help guide the youth. Then I said because of this it is up to us to be that mentor figure to the generation after us and help each other to be the kings that we are. My symbolic piece is that I made a pledge for people to become a mentor in their own communities.
In the slide show down below has pictures from the event and a sample of my symbolic piece.
