AP Language

In my AP Language class, after reading Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson, we conducted research on Social Justice issues of our choice to create argumentative papers and creative tasks. For my topic, I chose hate crimes in America because I know that there is a possibility that I could face one any day and I would like to think that one day I won’t have to worry about not receiving justice, should one ever happen to me. Throughout my research, I discovered that most hate crimes are committed in areas of low population density. They are committed in small towns with one specific race of ethnicity The most interesting thing that I found was the mentality it takes to commit one of these crimes . These people really believe they are doing the right thing and often times they have no remorse for the likes they stole as seen in the Charleston, SC church shooting in 2015.. We were also visited by Natalyn Archibong, our Atlanta City Council Representative who shared some insights on how these issues are affecting our city and what is being done about it.

After research was concluded, we wrote in depth argumentative papers on the subject. My final position for the paper was that due to certain laws and rights given to the people of the United States, it can make it hard to fully prosecute the people who commit these crimes, specifically in Georgia. I supported this position by arguing that Georgia doesn’t require data collection on hate crimes nor do they have hate crime laws, an example in which no one was prosecuted for the hate crime committed, and citing research such as The United States Department of Justice, The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein, and various facts about the Tulsa Race Massacre from History.com. The paper was interesting to write, and the most challenging thing was properly conveying everything I wanted to say in the way I needed to say it.

To complete the project, we were tasked with creating a STEAM product that represented the concepts in my paper and my position. I chose to create a painting of a burning church with people hanging in it, because I felt that church shootings against the African American community are one of the most personal types of hate crimes. While most of them aren’t committed on a mass scale they are very personal because they take the lives of many in an important place in the African American community. The purpose of the painting is to evoke not only a feeling of rage because of the injustice committed against a specific group, but also fear and understanding because the same things that happen to people around the world can happen to us at any moment, but some people don’t care until it directly affects them. I wanted my painting to cause people to think about their actions more. I incorporated STEAM skills by using my skills learned in art to express myself and my feelings through my artwork.

Spanish