OMG! Have you heard of the new high-rise condos in New York City. They are allowing low-income families to live there, but they cannot use the gym, movie theater, bowling alley and among other things. They even have a separate entrance which is the back door they can go through. They refer to the back door as the “poor door.” The front entrance, which is the main entrance is only for people who pay the asking amount. It is only 50 slots available and they go off their income. That is just crazy to me. Are we back in slavery, with people on designated to go through the back entrance. The wealthy should not be separated from those who are not wealthy. I am just appalled at New York for this to even happen. I would not want to live somewhere I was not welcomed at. The New Jim Crow on steroids and this whole thing separate, but equal needs to be abolish in the 21st century. I am pretty sure out of all those applicants are black and that is not right.

In the article, that I was reading it was saying how it is a struggle for recent college grads to pay back their loans. College is getting more expensive year after year and it is a problem. I know college is a business but can it be a little bit cheaper.  I know people alway say apply for scholarships but even after you do that sometimes you still do not get it. I was shock to see it was going up by 5%, eventhough I get in state tuition I am tired of taking out loans. When my dad went to college it was not that expensive and it was looked at as a luxury, but nowadays everyday is going to college. Having a bachelors degree is not enough anymore, so that means I will have to contiune to keep going to school and thats more loans. I just hope that it will be worth it in the end and I can still make a living and be able to pay back my loans.

The way it is looking, I am so fearful of what is next to come in the upcoming years in the United States. I feel like it is going to get worse and our education system is going to start to fail. I feel like we are stepping back into the 60s with all of this violence and crime. It is like every 48 hrs somebody is getting killed or will get killed by police. Why isn’t the government or the state taking any action to make it worse? This world is spinning out of control and there is no compassion left! Something drastic needs be done such as a revolution, social change movement. Do we need to look back at history and put those tactics into place? Just speaking from an African American standpoint do we need implement what The Black Panthers did minus the guns. Back in those days everybody in the community raised above the violence and actually better there own. We need that sense of community and unity to make it a little better.

Finally, the Atlanta cheating scandal is all over with and the sentencing the judge gave them were harsh. They knew it was wrong no matter what, but at the same time they kind of had no other choice. The lady who started it all died before the trial had even begun to take its course.  I feel like should have all took the plea bargain, because instead of doing 7 years in prison they would only have to do one year.  I know they are going to appeal it, but what if their appeal process ends up doing only 1 year in prison. Why waste all of that time and money when you could have already started their jail time if they took the plea bargain. At the end of the day, it was wrong and they knew it was but why would you want to pass a long a child who is not ready? I understand that there are still cops who have killed unarmed blacks, who have not received any type of punishment. It is just crazy the way our criminal justice system is set up. We should take a long look at our educational system in the inner city. For example, I got held back in the 8th grades because I was one point off in my math section of the CRCT. My grades were good and I still got held back, I never understood the “no child left behind,” if my grades were good and I was getting the material why hold me back? My dad was fighting it, but I told him at one point to just stop.

Lately, I have been investing my time and researching problems in the African American community to further my knowledge about what is going on.  Some of the things I am finding out are not good and makes my heart sad, I want to be able to help and change situations. For a while now, I have been embracing my culture and history more than ever. I have never really paid attention to what is coming on in my race because it never applied to me and I never had to go through any type of struggle going on. So, I guess I come from a place of privilege than other people. Now, I do see struggles of many people go through and the killings of black males and women but more so of the males. It is just sad to think about what is happening in this world. History is repeating itself, I feel like we need a revolution for this to stop. It has just opened my eyes and makes me want to make a difference and better my community as a whole.

Yesterday, Hillary Clinton announce that she was running for President in 2016. I think it will be interesting to see how it all works out. It would be cool to have women in the White House, but on the other side I am a little hesitant to jump on the bandwagon. After reading The New Jim Crow and seeing what rules and regulations her husband made, makes me think and wonder will she do the same? I know she cannot be held accountable for what her husband did, but I am still not sure of her yet. I am just going to keep looking and researching her platforms and what she stands for.

I was reading an article this afternoon and it talked about how the jury process is racist and excludes people of color. Some of the things listed was that if they appear to have low intelligence. That was determined by their hair color if it was dyed or how they walked, that is just crazy and absurd. That is not the way to determine if a person has a low intelligence. Black people are 3 times as likely to not get picked for jury duty than their white counterparts. This is just crazy and something needs to be done! The rules that are in place are not effective and are ridiculous.

 Why are T.V. news channels not being their attention to this?? It is such a horrible thing to see pictures and reading about it. Kenya has been attack once again and this time it has to deal with young students. The killings are done by a group designated by a person named Al-Shabab. They signaled out the Christians and shot them, 500 people got away from it and about 79 were injured. That is just so crazy me to that people are killing other people, because of the religion they practice. The university was only being guarded by two police officers which is crazy and pathetic. This world is just getting crazier and crazier.

I feel like day after day a black male is getting killed and shot at the ends of an officer. A recent incident that occurred in North Charleston in the beginning part of April. He was unarmed and running away from the officer and the officer shot him in the back 5 times and killing it for no reason. The officer was caught planting his taser gun by the victim to make it look like what he said when he called it out on the radio. If it wasn’t for the bystander who had video taped it we would have never known and he probably would have no gotten caught. It is a sad situation for all parties involved, but I am glad he got a conviction and was charged with murder. When will this extermination of black people end?

Today in class, I came across this article about this 10-year old girl name Mikaila Ulmer. Her company is named BeeSweet Lemonade. She started a lemonade business by using her grandmother’s recipe and she was on the show shark tank. An investor offered her 60,000 for a 25% stake in her business. She got the idea when she was stung by two bees and wanted to learn more about bees and also pass on her grandmother’s recipe. Since then, her business has expanded to whole foods and some supermarkets in Texas and some of Louisiana.  That is just awesome, I wish the news would share more stories liek this in the news. She is not the only one.