Change through engineering

On Wednesday November, 29 I attended the presentation by Liz Gerber. Liz Gerber is a faculty founder of Design for America and co-founder of Delta Lab. Both are innovative programs that seek to solve problems with engineering and creativity. Liz Gerber's presentation focus on her journey to where she is today. Her presentation was inspirational to someone like me who aspires to become some sort of engineer one day. At the end she answered questions that gave insight on how to preserve and make use of our own ideas. Before her presentation I had the chance to meet her personally. We spoke casually about school life and if I had any cool ideas myself. I couldn't remember at the time so I left without sharing my enthusiasm for engineering but I felt inspired to come up with more ideas. After meeting her and watching her present I got to go to the Design For America lab at Northwestern. At Northwestern I saw a lab full of college students working on engineering projects. It was cool to see how small ideas can have a large impact on society. Luckily I was pared with Liz to tour the facility and I got to experience a lot of the lab.

Observing Change

On September 30 my Civic engagement group took a tour of Hyde park, one of Chicago's fastest gentrifying neighborhoods. First we took a tour of the edges of Hyde park on the bus. We carefully observed the residences and the infrastructure of the area. What we were there to observe is what we saw; there were people of color living in isolation in conditions suitable for anyone except white people. Coming from Francis W. Parker the only thing to gain from such an experience was a sense of disparity. I think it is impolite, even disrespectful, to go people watching from a distance. Bringing students into a neighborhood where they will feel unsafe will create internal tension for those students who get to return to a padded life after. This method, though, is effective in getting some students to think of different ways to expose oneself to diverse neighborhoods. These sort of events should be more casual, with the goal of creating empathy with the residences of a less wealth neighborhood.
     After visiting the edges, we drove the more gentrified area of Hyde park. We got out and took a tour on foot and saw a contrast between corporate stores and citizen owned stores. Another growing pain of Hyde park is that chains are taking over independent stores. This is good for convenience, but it is not good for the community. Independently owned shops stimulate the local economy of neighborhoods.
    Our final destination was the chapel at the University of Chicago to meet a Francis W. Parker alumni who had experience with the gentrification and inequalities in Hyde Park. After waiting to enter, we set up the steel chairs in a circle. He introduced himself then we discussed what we had saw. He gave us insight on the power that the University of Chicago has over the neighborhood. From him, I learned that neighborhoods are changing for better or worse. I also observed that in many cases people of color have to fight or conform to change. 

Rally With Angela Davis

As a requirement my Junior year of highschool I chose to go to the National Forum on Police Crimes hosted by the University of Chicago at their International House. I arrived punctually at 7:00pm at the posted location, but soon found out that the event was being held at Trinity Church by 95th street. I arrived twenty minutes later with a friend, hoping they would still let us in. As we walked in I prepared myself for a panel of speakers including policemen. After we took our seats in a row to the side of the podium, I saw that there was only one speaker at a time. Each speaker introduced the next, every person was more well known than the previous speaker. As the speakers progressed I realized that the forum was not specifically about police crimes in Chicago. The forum enlarged into a gathering about the structural implications that can be made by looking at the biases in the United States justice system.

After an incredible poem about Women’s strength by LYRIC, the next to speak was the president of the Texas NAACP chapter named Nelson Linder. He helped me understand that the structural problem that i’ve seen within parker and within Chicago is also a national problem. A lot of the work that the NAACP does is assist criminal cases that are a direct cause of the racially conscious justice system in America. Once Nelson Linder finished his speech he introduced the keynote speaker, Angela Davis. Angela Davis was a powerful speaker who brought out flaws in this country’s and this city’s invisible framework. Much of what she said I could relate to my American Literature class with Mrs. Gibson and my SSDP community connections group. Her wise words solidified my belief that the democratic society we are advertised to live in actually limits the power given to its people. Whether consciously or unconsciously, the structure of this country gives the least amount of its power to poor people of color and the most to rich white people. An example of the outrageous injustices that this country’s structure provides its society with is the prison system in America. She pointed out that privatized prison systems have a two tier profit system for its owners, who are typically center magin people. The other injustice in the prison system is that people of color are the target of incarceration. Once in a prison, prisons induce violence, which perpetuates a criminal lifestyle in people of color.

This public event solidified my understanding of institutional racism and helped develop what I know of structural racism. Social justice will continue to be a problem if the racist structure that this country was built on is not uprooted. Cases of social injustices are just blossomed flowers of an unequal structure. This experience angered me because I have to face this structure at school and I will have to face this structure when I leave Parker. This experience has brought clarity to many issues at Parker and in Chicago. I’ve already become tired of living in such a structure and hope I can find the energy to fight it.