Our course reading was new to me but really helped me chose the topic that I researched because the book itself has multiple topics that are being discussed. When I reading the syllabus and saw that we had to choose our topic by the end of the 1st week I kind of got nervous because I had just gotten into the class and had absolutely no idea of what I wanted to research. The email that I received with sample topics helped me when thinking about a possible topic for my HCP because at least with the list that I received I saw that there were a variety of topics that focused on different topics, not only relating to African Americans. Initially, I did not know what I wanted to focus on but I had a few ideas in mind. One of them was police brutality. I thought of addressing that topic in my HCP because recently, there have been many controversies on that topic with shootings or unfair treatment of African American because of discrimination. However, after reading Michelle Alexander's book new possible topics came into my mind that made me turn the direction of my HCP.

COMMENT 1:  The screenshot below shows part of the sample topic list that Professor Berghof sent the class. When I read the list I found a topic similar to the one that I wanted to focus on which was one that was dealing with police brutality (not part of the screen shot). That's when I decided that I was going to include it in my 5 possible topics that I was going to send to her. Reading the list also helped me narrow down another topic that I wanted to possibly focus on. For example, when reading the list I spotted some topics dealing with stereotypes, such as the sample topic 8. Part of Sample 8 on the list really struck me because I started to think about how I have seen tv shows or films that have incorporated stereotypes but I knew that I did not want to focus on shows or films. After reading the list I felt that even though I still did not have my 5 possible topics, I felt that I had some sort of idea of what issue I possibly wanted to focus on aside from police brutality. 

Aside from the sample topic list that Professor Berghof gave us The New Jim Crow really opened my mind on new topics that I found interesting and did not know enough about but wanted to conduct more research on it. Topics that I took into consideration when formulating my 5 possible topics which are shown below. 

COMMENT 2: The screenshot above shows the 5 topics that I sent. The order that I wrote them down reflected which one of the topics where my top choices. With the first topic of police brutality I was able to use one of the sample topics and incorporate it with the topic that I wanted to research. Instead of just focusing on police brutality in general I wanted to focus on police brutality during the civil war era and compare it to present day police brutality. Another of my topic, topic 2, was about an African American women stereotype, more specifically the welfare queen stereotype. When I formulated this topic I did considered the list of sample topics that I got and used one of the topics that appeared in the New Jim Crow for my topic. I wanted to focus on how the stereotype of the welfare queen has affected people, African american women and other people that have been exposed to the stereotype. This topic just like the first topic that I wrote on the 5 topics email seemed pretty interesting but unlike police brutality with the second topic I did not know much about it. I was not aware that the welfare queen stereotype still continues today and even before encountering the term welfare queen in the New Jim Crow I did not know about the term welfare queen. So wanting to know knowing about it made that topic  more intriguing to me. 

COMMENT 3: The screenshots above shows the conversation between Professor Berghof and I. Our conversation helped me determine which topic I really wanted to focus on for my HCP. Just like the first two topics were my favorite topics out of the 5 that I included, professor Berghof thought the same. When rereading the comment that I send to Professor Berghof, I can sense that I was hesitating on picking the welfare queen stereotype as my topic because I did not know much about it; however, what she send me (the part where it says "okay, so the topic of . . .") was what really pushed me to actually deciding on that topic. She said that I could focus on government documents, films, and news coverage, which I actually did.  When I read her email I knew that even though I did not have a lot of background knowledge, conducting research about the welfare queen stereotype was really going to help me. Therefore, interacting with my professor via email me did help me in choosing and directing me towards a topic. 

COMMENT 4:The screenshot above shows more of what I went through in order to decide on my topic when I was reading the New Jim Crow. The two pages that are shown above is the part where I encountered the welfare queen stereotype. When I was reading this part I was thinking about the sample list of topics that was sent to my class and thought about how I wanted my topic to focus on stereotypes and their effects but I still was unsure of what stereotype I wanted to focus on and especially in what type of media. So when I read this, it felt like a light bulb went on because first of all I have never heard of the welfare queen stereotype but it seemed interesting enough for me to conduct research on it, second it related to our class theme and third I was able to decide that I wanted to focus on a stereotype that has be involved in politics. In the screenshot you can see that I underlined and circled specific terms relating to welfare and welfare queen, such as on the left page I circled crime and welfare,or I circled and underlined other terms that I thought were important. The page that really gave me more information and that I used for my HCP was the page on the right. Which describes a "welfare queen" by including Ronald Reagan's welfare queen anecdote. The right page of the screenshot was helpful for my HCP because I was able to use that part in one of my paragraphs when I was addressing the welfare queen stereotype's role in politics in the past during Reagan era. So quoting that specific anecdote served as evidence in my HCP.