This Is Your Country On Drugs

This is Your Country on Drugs

 

 

Assignment/Activity Title— Racism Essay

Year— Junior Year

Skill— Writing, research

Portfolio Category— Critical Reasoning

 

            For this assignment, we were instructed to critically examine racism in today's society. But not just racism in general, we had to focus in on a specific expression of racism and propose a solution. I decided to focus on incarceration rates and drug laws that unfairly target minorities, since that's one of the most prevalent ways racism is expressed in society – through the legal system. I proposed reform in the way we classify marijuana as a drug, legalizing the substance, and cutting federal grants to local law enforcement.

            This assignment really opened me up, and engaged me in a way most research assignments don't. I thought I knew how bad it was for minorities, and I really didn't. As a white upper-middle class male, I obviously have more privilege than others. What I didn't realize before this assignment, however, is the extent to which I'm protected. Whereas before I thought of racism as having a human element (a policeman pulling over a minority youth based on racial bias, for example), after conducting this research I realized that the issue is inherent in the legal system itself. It's not just the people who enforce the law, the system is designed to incarcerate and punish minority youth. Researching and writing this essay helped me understand the corruption evident in the very foundations of society, and understand my place as someone with more privilege.

            In proposing a solution to help fix today's racism (as much as one can 'fix' it), I was challenged to express myself convincingly in writing. Because this issue is so large in the U.S., my proposed solution had to be even more comprehensive than anything I've ever written before – and, I had to present it more convincingly than before in order to persuade the reader that it's a plausible solution. The assignment forced me to hone my writing skills more sharply than I'd done before, and taught me to express myself through writing in a clear and concise way.

 

            I honestly think this assignment could be placed in either the social awareness or the critical reasoning categories. However, because of the extensive work I did drafting and perfecting the essay to make it convincing and clear, I placed it in the critical reasoning category. While the research I conducted did make me realize the extent to which I'm privileged in ways I hadn't before, it also served as somewhat of a confirmation for what I already expected. For that reason, I believe that the assignment forced me to sharpen my critical reasoning abilities more than my social awareness, and is a portfolio-worthy assignment.