What's up?

Hi! My name is Alex, and I go to school at John Carroll in Bel Air, Maryland. I’m in 9th grade. The reason this blog is here is so that I can talk about racism. Some of the stuff on the blog includes 5 note cards to talk about some sub categories of racism, a book review of the book Black and White, which I read over the summer and a letter to my pen pal.

The book that I read over the summer, called Black and White by Paul Volponi was all about 2 star basketball players. One was white and the other was black, which is how the book got its title. They are both really good friends. Basically, the main issue in the story was that when senior dues came around, the two main characters, Marcus and Eddie had spent their money on new basketball shoes instead of keeping some aside for senior dues. So they start to look for new ways to make money and Eddie finds a gun in his attic and they use it to pull stickups. They accidentally shoot someone and the rest of the book is how they both go through hard times as they each have to go to court.

The main issue in my book was racism and how it is applied in our society today. I selected it because I have always been interested in our justice system and also racism and I never really understood what racism was. it's a pretty general term but I managed to narrow it down to some smaller sub topics. I gathered information for this topic by using Grolier, infotrac, and some other really good sites that I plan to use throughout the school year for other projects as well.

A letter to Marcus

Dear Marcus,
My name is Alex and I go to John Carroll School in Bel Air. I am really enjoying high school. Where did you go during the summer? I went to Maine and climbed a mountain. My brother and sister swam in the ocean. I also hiked to the top of a mountain in a thunderstorm. My family and I got some great pictures and panoramas of the ocean and the mountains. I also went free climbing, which is rock climbing but with no ropes. Do you like climbing and sports like that? I think they are my favorite. Did you try any other sports besides basketball or did you just basketball from the start and never try anything else? I really enjoyed reading your book. It showed that you should always stand by your friends, even if they are not thinking of you or only thinking of themselves.

I think you handled your situation very maturely and well. You seemed resigned to going to jail, but you still did not betray Eddie. I think you should have just told the police what Eddie did because Eddie was only thinking of himself and his college chances even though you gave up all your college chances but still didn’t tell the police that Eddie shot the gun.
I think if I was in your situation I would have told the police what my friend had done. I would never have spoken to that person again. Also, when Eddie found out he was accepted to St.Johns, you should have told the police, because it’s not right or fair for someone who had such an important job in the robbery to get to go to college.

I really like the author’s writing style because you can see this sort of event happening in real life. You see stories about armed robbery on the news often, and explains the crime in a way that makes sense. He explains ways that the main character deals with situations and you can envision yourself handling the situation that way.

The loyalty you show Eddie is one of the best things about the book, but the disloyalty and selfishness Eddie shows you is one of the worst things about the book. You could have told the police at any time and all his hopes and dreams could have been destroyed, but you stayed loyal to him, even though he wasn’t very considerate of you.

The author’s writing style slowly changes as the book progresses, showing your resignation for jail and Eddie’s guilt about you getting caught and Eddie not saying he had a part in it. Did you and Eddie try to forgive each other or did you just avoid each other. What went through your mind when you found out that Eddie hadn’t spoken up and taken the blame with you? Do you think that if you had gotten bail, that there had been a mistake and that you didn’t have to go to jail, that your friendship with Eddie would have survived? Do you think when Eddie asked you not to tell anyone about his part in the robbery, and you attacked him, would have done differently if you could do it over? Do you think you would not buy the basketball shoes and avoid this whole mess if you had a second chance?

I think telling people about the book would help raise awareness for the issues spoken about in the book, and writing reviews and posting them on the internet would be good too. Making discussion groups to talk about the issues in the book would also raise awareness.
My advice to you would be to stay out of trouble and maybe get out on parole. Talk to Eddie, maybe you guys can forgive each other and become friends again. Be careful of who you make friends with though, to try and avoid this again. Try to make the best of it, and maybe it won’t be horrible. You can always make friends while in jail too.

Sincerely, Alex

Picture of me and maine

my book review

Black and White
The book I read over the summer was called Black and White. It takes place on Long Island. It was about two kids in high school who have saved their money for senior dues, but new basketball shoes came out, which the two boys in the book call “kicks”. All the money for their senior dues goes to the new basketball shoes, so they have no way to pay the money.

Eddie finds a gun in his house and comes up with the idea that he and Marcus use the gun to get the money needed for senior dues. The two boys are extremely talented at basketball, and hope to use that to get into college. The guys use the gun a few times and begin to think they will get away with it. But then they try to steal money from an old man, and the gun goes off. They both run, but later in the book, the man who was shot recognizes them and Marcus has to go to court.

Black and White is a very good book and I would read it again. It was written in a way that I could understand, the way the characters thought about what they were going through and the verdict of the judges all made sense and were very realistic. You can see this story happening in real life. I would definitely recommend this book to people who enjoy nonfiction because this book is about as realistic as you can get.

Paul Volponi's biography

Paul Volponi is the author of black and white, and has written many other books about racial issues. He has won many awards for his novels, such as the IRA and ALA award. He has 2 other jobs besides a writer, a journalist and a teacher. He taught teenagers to read and write on Rikers island. He also taught teens in drug treatment centers. He began working at riker's island jail because he worked so close to it. When he first walked Into the jail, he saw that "99% of the people in the jail were black and Hispanic. Paul Volponi's favorite authors are Mark Twain, John Steinbeck, and Flannery O'Connor. Another book that Paul Volponi wrote that is similar to Black and White is called the Rucker park setup.

My issue statement

My topic for research is racism. It is a broad topic that I don't know much about and I hope to learn more about it. Racism sounds to me like it's not just about race, but about any physical characteristic. It seems like the hot topics about racism are skin color and ethnicity, but it could just easily be hair or eye color too.

This is a picture of Black and white's author,Paul Volponi.

Note card 1

Racism

Work cited

Gerzina, Gretchen. "Racism." Encyclopedia Americana. 2008. Grolier Online. 28 Sep. 2008 http://ea.grolier.com/cgi-bin/article?assetid=0327115-00. John carroll

• Racism is a belief that physical characteristics such as skin color, ethnicity, or religion affect how a person acts or will act.
• Two broader terms and subcaterogories are racial profiling, hate crimes, individual racism, and institutional racism.
• Individual racism is the belief that a racial group is not as good as you are. This the racism that you here about most often.
• Institutional racism is when systems such as a government contribute to racist results.
• Some examples of institutional racism is when people in the system show a preference to a worker, not because of skill, but because of religion, or ethnicity or skin color.

Note card 2

The untouchables of India.

Work cited
Oldenburg, Philip. "India." Microsoft® Student 2007 [DVD]. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation, 2006.
Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2007. © 1993-2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

• The untouchables of india are a group of people who are on the lowest rungs of society. They are not allowed to worship at temples, walk into schools, post offices and courts, and they are not allowed to walk on the roads.
• They are not allowed to go into villages without permission. They may not walk on roads to close to someones house.
• India is broken up into castes, which you are born into at birth. There are 4 castes of India.
• The untouchables are so low in society that they do not even have a caste.
• India's constitution has since outlawed the idea of being untouchable, but the group of people who were once untouchable now face discrimination against getting jobs and housing.
• They performed tasks that higher castes thought polluting, such as slaughtering animals or leatherworking.

Quote

Discrimination against lower caste members, including the Harijans or former Untouchables, is still a problem in India.

Note card 3

Racial profiling

Work cited
http://www.sirs.com/ 2008 september 28 racial profiling

• Racial profiling is the belief that one race or ethnicity is more inclined to be involved in misconduct or criminal activity then another.
• After the september 11 attacks, airports began to check arabs more intensively then any other ethnicity, which is an example of racial profiling.
• There are many examples of racial profiling, such as whites believing that blacks commit more crimes or when whites harass blacks.

Quote

On May 14, 2001, three young African-American males were pulled over by the Indianapolis, Indiana, Police Department. According to one of the passenger's stepfather, the stop was a blatant example of racial profiling.1 According to the officers on the scene, it was a legitimate traffic stop for failure to signal a turn.