Alice Goffman's Ted Talk

Alice Goffman, the speaker in this TED Talk, does a great job reaching out to her audience in a great number of ways. Her purpose in this TED Talk titled, “How We’re Priming Some Kids for College, and Others for Prison,” is to grab the attention of all people, but it is directed towards the younger generations, to show them that they have to work together in order for change to be made. The change would be to work together to help end the problem of mass incarceration; to help completely rebuild the Criminal Justice System. Throughout her talk, Goffman uses examples of logos, ethos, and pathos to reach her audience in an effective way, and to inform them of the problems going on with the United States Criminal Justice System.

For my final project I chose to focus on Race and sentencing. The United States is about 5% of the world’s population but when it comes to world prisoners the Unites States is about 25%. In the United States African Americans are incarcerated 5 times more than whites in state prisons throughout the country and also 10 times more than whites in 5 states. In this paper I am going to research and study specific articles and studies that document the rate of incarceration for African Americans and Whites. This is not only a problem state by state sentencing but it is also problem for federal sentencing as well. Not only am I going to look at race and sentencing but I am going to also

The research done for this paper examines different studies of juveniles and their place in the United States’ justice system based on their race, gender, and social class, as well as looks into policing tactics that may be beneficial to the affected youths. By looking at a wide variety of academic journals and books it was clear to see that youths are looked upon and treated differently depending on what their race is, the sex that they were born, or their family’s economic standing. Resulting in the outcome of these youths being treated more harshly than others due to aspects about themselves that are out of their control. Doing further research into the juvenile justice system and how it is structured to help certain youths while neglecting others, it is clear that the treatment of minority youths is entirely unjust and that a reform of this system is, without question, necessary, not only to maintain an even and fair justice system for juveniles, but also to help these minority youths strive in their lifetime rather than fall victim to a life of crime.

Interesting. She started off by showing a picture of a baby, and asking what would most people say is going on in the babies’ head. She said thirty years ago that most people would say not very much but after many years of research developmental psychologist have learned that babies are capable of thinking very complexly and can even think like some of the most brilliant scientist in the world. The first sort of experiment they did was with fifteen-month-old babies and they would give them broccoli or gold fish crackers. They would say yum about the broccoli and then ask the baby to hand them whichever one they wanted and they would hand the one the person said they liked. They did the same test when they are three months older and the babies would hand them the crackers, because everyone likes crackers more than vegetables. The fact that they could learn so much in a short period of time begs the question how can they learn so much?

A prosecutor looking for real justice, Adam Foss demonstrates just how effective rhetorical devices can be to persuade a population to defend the rights of others. When telling the story of how people end up in the criminal justice system, Foss tells “Even in our ‘worst.’ I saw...childhood trauma, victimization, poverty...interaction with the police…”(3:24) Many people tend to see people convicted of crimes as inhuman or lesser than us. However, Foss begins to humanize them. Moreover, he states that the reason these people commit crimes isn’t because of some violent, unfathomable reason, but rather because of their rough experiences earlier in life. To fix crime, people must step up and fix issues that cause crime, not throw people into a broken

The existence of racial disparity and structural inequality within the criminal justice system renders the concept of true justice for all unobtainable. The statistics of convictions and prison sentences by race definitely support the concept that discrimination is a problem in the justice system as well as the insignificantly number of minority judges and lawyers. There are a multitude of circumstances that influence these statistics according to the “Central Eight” criminogenic risk factors. The need for programs and methods to effectively deter those at risk individuals has never been greater and the lack of such programs is costing society in countless ways.

In the TED talk “What does it mean to be Muslim” a speech by Dalia Mogahed. The 9/11 attack had proven that “Not only had my country been attacked, but in a flash, somebody else's actions had turned me from a citizen to a suspect” (Mogahed). This proves that if any one person of your race does something wrong it will affect everyone of that race not only you. People can be affected by your actions even if they have nothing to do with you. You cannot blame one incident from one person on the whole race. There is no possible way that a whole race could get together and plan something as brutal as a terrorist attack. There are many bad people in the world but you can't blame the action of one person on the whole race. People can be affected

Once again, minority students are being nurtured go in the direction of prison. The second level is at the intra-institutional level, which includes incentives within an institution that encourages marginalization. The marginalization is done in the best interest of the institution (schools), to make gains such as extending the zero tolerance approach that is present in the criminal justice system, and other “benefits”. To institutions, they are benefiting from this, but they are oppressing so many, therefore adding to concerns of the prison system. The third level mentioned is the interpersonal level, which looks at cultural rules and behaviours that dictate how minority communities and perceived and treated. This is a major form of systemic discrimination, which is evidently carried on in the criminal justice system. Geronimo also mentions the notion of achieving the “American dream” by being a hardworking individual, but this is merely a myth, as it does not consider where the person is placed within society,

This intense and vivid presentation of people with an ethnic background in the justice system discloses a conflict between America’s thoughts towards legal equality for everyone and a tendency to arrest ethnic minorities. The hard reality and fact is that people of color get arrested more often

The challenge of crime policy is that crime is not evenly distributed across the socio-economic population. There are a multitude of reasons why this is a fact, but what is important to know, is that it greatly impacts crime policy. Criminal justice policies have vastly changed, especially in the last fifty years, in an effort to respond to citizens’ needs because of the uneven distribution of crime. Therefore, this means it is a reactionary response. It is imperative to remember that crime tends to effect the poor, the young, and particular ethnic groups more, when examining criminal justice policies. Policies that are of the criminal justice persuasion in their nature, in the extent of the policies, and in their impact directly effects the liberties of a governments’ citizens are always in flux.

The Ted Talk by Sherry Turkle, "Alone Together" embraces a strong dependency of modern day technology, and it's power to replace human contact with the "Illusion of companionship". With a respected background, a degree in Psychology and extensive research, Sherry Turkle emphasizes just how much we're letting technology take us to a place we do not want to go. It is one thing to reflect upon a professional, and another thing to adopt imagery in personal lyrical emotion. The two videos that grasped my attention were Gary Turk's "Look up" and Prince EA's "Autocorrect Humanity." Both videos display a lot of similarities, such as rhymes, an emotional connection, and expressing the overall picture of putting down your phone, but Gary Turks "Look Up" has made a larger impact of the two. The video "Look Up" has a significantly powerful, and emotional appeal to it and the message it conveys.

I think that Anna Deveare Smith describes her art and craft of drama as “the broad jump to the other” because it represents the differences between each character’s lives and experience that she transform into. On the surface, everyone’s life seems like anyone else’s, but the unique experience each person goes through varies broadly from person to person. Her performance in the Ted Talk illustrates just that. Smith jumped from her act of Stud Terkel who is this old radioman to a woman by the name of Paulette Jenkins who is an inmate at the Maryland Correctional Institute for Women. These who characters are completely different from each other in terms of gender, experiences, status, and so much more. The only similarity between them is the

The ability to choose and make choices does not make us freer. In fact, the opposite is true. The more choices we have, the less free we feel. Too many options, too many paths, too many alternatives makes us feel cornered and confused. We don’t know which is the best and remain frozen and undecided as a result. This was the point of Barry Schwartz’s TED talk. He wanted to explain that more choices does not equal more freedom.

In October 2012, Cameron Russel examined the power of image in her TED talk, Looks aren't everything. Believe me, I'm a model. She gives an honest view of the model industry, acknowledging not only that she “won a genetic lottery,” but also that she is insecure. This is a powerful message in our culture, especially for young women. Her delivery, which included an outfit change, changes in tone and position, and slides, contributed to the power of her speech.

In Martin Seligman’s TED talk, he explains the values of positive psychology’s impact on creating happier lives. In 2000, Martin Seligman created a new field of psychology called Positive Psychology. This field of positive psychology is the study of positive traits and behaviors that can contribute to a positive “happier” life. In Seligman’s TED talk, The New Positive Era of Psychology, he categorizes positive lives into three categories. The Pleasant life, the life of engagement, and the meaningful life. But before he begins his speech, he explains the negative actions taken by psychology when treating people.