I’m posting my reflections to the blog so I can have a URL for the final project!

Week 1:

We met with two girls today. One of them was really talkative, and she had so many stories to tell. I found it interesting that she instantly went to stories about the police. I think that’s pretty telling, as far as what that means about the impact the police had—and have—on her community. She loves to play basketball and wants to visit New York someday. She told a story about a time she left home with a knife and was just walking around after dark when she was approached by the police. The officers escalated the situation, but one thing that shocked me a little was the phrase “By this point I had the knife out,” which she included as an aside. I can’t tell if she was tased or not. Kalia, the other girl, loves singing and sang at her mom’s funeral- gospel songs. She once was chased by her brother with a BB gun and he shot out her tooth. When they went to the doctor, the police asked her who did it and she said herself to protect him. The other girl threw rocks at people who made fun of her brother and laughed while she told us. She told it in a funny way, but for me, that would have been so traumatic. I guess that’s my biggest takeaway from tonight—the way they used humor to soften the impacts of these extremely traumatic events and the way the events seem normalized.