Presentation Review by Zajah Green

 

 Once more I am here to share my review about the presentations that have been shared in my speech class. I was pleasantly surprised by how well each group delivered their topic. Of course, there were things that I would have liked to be done differently. However, I believe that each group presented to the best of their ability. A heavy topic like racism and relatable topics such as education and the pandemic were discussed.

            The first group presented on the topic of racism.  They discussed things such as the BLM (Black Lives Matter) movement, touched on injustices against African Americans through the years, and more. Group one spoke about and gave information on the BLM movement. They mentioned how it was
a localized movement that was peacefully protesting against incidents of police brutality and all racially influenced violence against African American people. I, as an African American woman, appreciated the fact that group one mentioned this amazing movement. It is surely hard to ignore multiple news reports of an innocent African American dying for insignificant reasons. I did hope for them to mention those who have also died from police brutality other than George Floyd. Moreover, this group mentioned a young man by the name of Emmett Till. To me, such a real-life story as this is something that is very important to talk about if someone were to talk about racism. Emmett Till, at the age of fourteen, was brutally beaten and lynched beyond belief because he was accused of flirting with a white woman. What I wish the group would have done was mention the fact that Emmett Till’s mother requested for her son’s casket to be open. She wanted everyone who attended the funeral, and more, to see what happened to her innocent African American son. Furthermore, group one mentioned the confederacy and what it stands for. Again, as an African American woman this slightly angered me due to the fact that it was insinuated that the confederacy was not a bad thing. However, if you really research the confederacy, it was based on southern states that wanted to keep African Americans as slaves. Southern states that choose to see other human beings as nothing more than replaceable property that could be broken, used, and abused, among other things. That is literally all there is to it, it truly has no good meaning. We can see nowadays and throughout history how only racist groups use the confederate flag. Other than that, I will say that group one did an acceptable job with their presentation.

            The next group to present was my very own group and as per usual I am biased. I believe we did an amazing job when it came to talking about the pandemic and healthcare. Since our topic is a more recent worldwide issue, it took us a while to compress all the information that we researched. Things concerning the Covid-19 pandemic were happening on the daily. Whether it be a new strand, a higher death rate, and information on the vaccine, things were happening every day.  We went through just about everything in our presentation. From the beginning of the pandemic to the former and current presidents’ plan, and where we were a few weeks ago. I was once again proud of how well my group flowed. When one of us had an issue, we continued to move forward to give them time to get everything right on their end. Overall, I was proud and satisfied with my group’s work and presentation.

            The last group talked about education. I feel that the way they presented was very informative. They used many videos to explain their topic. Knowing that my own attention span would’ve faltered if I got bored, I appreciated the videos. Group three even spoke on how it was/is harder for everyone to adjust to this new way of learning. From teachers feeling as though they cannot reach their students because they are stuck behind a computer screen. To students feeling as though they are not learning or retaining the information that is being taught. This pandemic, I will say, has been hard for everyone. It’s even harder for students who really want to learn but aren’t learning. It has also been detrimental to students that have Wi-Fi issues and can barely attend classes. Furthermore, I would have also liked for them to have mentioned how school curriculums are barely mentioning black history. If anything, I remember my past classes only mentioned black history one day out of Black history month. On the other hand, only I would have this in mind since I am probably the only African American in my whole class. Anyway, I believe this group did a good job with informing everyone on the topic of education.

            All in all, I feel as though I did learn a good bit of information throughout all three presentations. With the summary presentation at the end of it all, I realized that each group really mentioned some useful things. Moreover, I am still biased to my group because we were the best. Of course, there were things that I would have liked to be done differently. However, I believe that each group presented to the best of their ability.