In this TED Talk, Deval Patrick, speaks about his definition of patriotism, that of not only from a Black individual but also someone who was raised to believe that through the right processes, justice and equality will eventually come to everyone. He speaks of how his patriotism isn’t defined just by a love for America, but a belief that “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all” is true and every American holds that value in their mind, especially so when at the team of this TED talk it was in the midst of the BLM protests and movements against the “caging” of children from their parents. He talks not only of that but the history of America, and how they’ve been one’s to always take those seeking asylum from any sort of persecution but will forever remember the time they didn’t and it will always be a mark on America’s reputation. He will go on to give more examples, not just of America doing the right thing, and in his opinion patriotic, but also how the system itself is somewhat flawed towards its own citizens and that “we cannot be great without being good.” He repeats that phrase […]
EDUCATION: Why is it so hard to escape poverty?
Poverty is a cycle that affects not just those in the US but those around the world. In a TED Talk narrated by Ann-Helén Bay, she describes the poverty cycle with detailed images and scenarios to demonstrate that the cycle is not something that is easily escapable, but also hard to stay out of once done. From the beginning she paints the viewer and listener a picture that you’re a single parent receiving benefits from the government to cover utilities, rent and food but you also don’t have a job nor are “well off enough” to afford luxuries and only necessities. And just as you thought it wouldn’t get better, you receive a response to a job application and are hired, thus landing you a job and the ability to turn things around. However, the catch is now you just make barely enough over the benefits program qualification and those are now taken away from you, but there’s also more setbacks now. Not only do you have to pay for your own utilities and such but you must now also pay for transportation to work and childcare for while you are there. And that does not sound like a very […]
RACE: When Hip-Hop Was Young
This New Yorker article is about a photographer, Sue Kwon, who was able to get a rare glimpse into the lives of some of the greatest Hip-Hop artists to ever to exist. What allowed for Sue Kwon to stand out was her ability to understand how those artists’ felt at the time and make connections with them, those she focused on “were still learning how to dream.” The artist she photographed and capture were some that weren’t focused on becoming the next star, but rather superheroes to their communities, they were “imperious one moment, vulnerable and down-to-earth the next, never far from the neighborhoods that made them.” She focused on what made them true and authentic to themselves, rather than the labels and record deals they had dreamt of. Kwon focused on rap and hip-hop stars for two decades, from 1988 to 2008, and some of the pictures that stand out the most in her collection, are the ones of rappers not by themselves but with their children or creating some hilarious faces. She has published many works: “Rap Is Risen: New York Photographs 1988-2008” and “Street Level: New York Photographs 1987-2007” All of which argue that cities and the people […]
CLIMATE CHANGE: The state of the climate crisis in 2020
In this TED Talk, the climate crisis and standing of 2020 is discussed in order to review. Countries across the world met up in Paris in 2015 to order to discuss actions and goals that countries wish to reach in 2025, such as to limit the increase of the global temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius. However, since that meeting in 2015, the earth has increased in 1.1 degrees Celsius and there is roughly 80% of greenhouse gasses currently in the atmosphere. There has been multiple failures that support and lead to this, such as countries first not setting emissions goals for themselves in order to properly meet the goals from the convention in Paris. Regardless if countries were to set these now, it would be too late as the worlds temperature would increase 2 more degrees in 70 more years and further on past that. Another failure that leads to the increasing temperature of the earth, is governments who had set goals (falling short of actual change) still don’t enforce nor make sure that the goals are being met. This sort of reckless abandonment won’t lead to any actual real change being done. Instead, if one wants to even […]
WOMEN: How the US medical community fails Black mothers
In this TED talk, Wanda Irving talks about the striking and large difference between White and Black mothers mortality rate. She emphasizes at the beginning that Black mothers are 3-4 times more likely than White mothers to die while giving birth. As well as stating there has been no difference to change this for 6o years, more importantly it has not decreased. “The medical community is failing Black mothers in America. For decades, Black women have been dismissed, ignored, disregarded, or at the very least, they have been not taken seriously in their interactions with the health care system,” Irving describes. She later goes on about her own daughter who faced discrimination and bias by the medical community, despite her many accomplishments both through education and society. Irving’s daughter was dismissed even when she brought up her concerns following the birth of her child, only for “her cries for help” to not be heeded and leading to her eventual death in 2017. Irving moves from there to tell the audience about how not only when a mother dies, especially at birth or following shortly after, their child/children are left without a bond that cannot be replaced. She tells accounts of […]