This past week was my college's spring break. Most students use it to catch up on sleep, homework, to travel, or well just not be at school. However, I chose to spend my week at school instead. At my college, we had the opportunity to take a course on social justice and receive one credit at the end of the week. I am one credit away from being a part of my graduating class next semester and knew that this FREE class would be my best shot.

All the classes taught were based on social justice, and I took the course called "Living While Black", that talked about the disproportionality of minorities, and African Americans in both the criminal justice system and the marketplace. The professors that taught the course were so well versed in knowledge on the subject and I learned so many new things. For example, did you know that African-American representation in prison is disproportionate to their population? They are only 13% of the American population, yet they represent 55% of the criminal justice system population. Also, the amount of cases in the marketplace of discrimination is unbelievable I never thought that these things could happen, yet they have. Such as small cases in hair salons where an African American woman is denied getting her hair done because the hair dresses "does not do blacks", or the man who was questioned for theft at a Bloomingdales department store and handcuffed by security and asked to remove both his pants and his son's pants with no evidence of theft. It is unbelievable that these events take place.

Overall, my spring break was not a waste and I am completely happy with my choice to skip out on a week off to gain both a credit and this great knowledge. Even though I didn't get to go to the beach, or on vacation I was able to gain free, and great knowledge about a subject that I do not know much about. To be completely honest, I definately would take a short course like this again, as it has aided me in becoming one the people who fight for social justice in such a time of struggle in this country.