THINK PIECE

Amazing Grace

By: Jonathan Kozol

Context/Premise:

• Children and Adults in poverty in the streets of south Bronx
• Prostitution
• Drug Addiction
• Murders in the streets
• Children's low education
• Poor health care
• Race (Hispanics & Blacks)
• Prejudice
• "the evil on the earth

Argument:

Jonathan's argument is that children and their parents who are living in a poverty level like in the South Bronx are mentally, physically and educationally affected. The children and their parents who are living in these conditions don't choose to live this way. The "behaviors" that the poor people undergo has nothing to do with the poverty level they are in. In fact the reason why they are in this level is because there is this thing that exist called "evil on earth". This "evil on earth" is referred to those people who are rich and have the power that is needed to help these people, but instead of doing that they decided to make pretended that is not there so that they don't use it on the people who are in need for it, which are the poor people.

Evidences:

1. These children along with their parents are constantly getting hurt mentally by what they witness in the street of the South Bronx. They witness many things like murders, prostitution, and drug dealers. This really messes up some one's mind, especially children, because they are part of this world that all they can think of is about negative things. For instance, when people want to head outside on a hot night just to get some cool air some of them refuse to because they fear for their own life's. Those who do go outside thinking of it as a risk because you can either die inside of hotness or possibly get killed outside in a shot out that occurs almost everyday. These are the fear that the residents of the South Bronx have to live with every moment of their life. The way they think of jobs are also evidences of how these people are constantly not thinking of anything better because they are not mentally capable of doing it. For instance, when asked the type of jobs these people have most of them are prostitutes, drug dealers, living on SSI, and if lucky a legitimate employment. People who work in a "real job" are not the same race as the people that live in the South Bronx, which limits their job employments with other races. Since these people can't be working in real jobs, that forces them to think so little of them because they know they don't have a chance to get that real job that someone in a middle/superior class have. Prostitution and drug dealers can also affect people's mentally because they are constantly surrounded by people who are HIV positive and the drug dealers who want to bring others down by offering them drugs. Children and parents who are growing up in this type of atmosphere are so mentally affected that they don't see what's out there for them. What they see is what they witness in the streets of the South Bronx and for many children that's what the future "holds for them".
2. Many children and parents are physically affected in the street of the Bronx. For instance a fifteen year old girl died of a drug overdose. Why was this girl consuming drugs at such a young? Well it is obvious that the main reason why children do drugs is so that they can forget all of the hurt and depression that they have inside. Even innocent children get physically hurt. One of these cases was a twelve year old girl who got shot in the head while waiting for the bus. The girl lost her hair and she was also enable to finish school because she was completely paralyzed. So what did the child do to deserve such a terrifying ending? NOTHING...she was just another victim of the south Bronx streets. AIDS is also another horrifying thing that people have to deal with. Children born with AIDS and other children getting rape is something that occurs usually in these streets.
3. The education that these children are receiving is not the same as what higher class level children are receiving. This again reminds me of the rules and codes of the American Society that are not being thought to these children so that they can be part of the society. I came to this conclusion because when Kozol asked Cliffie about who are his heroes, he stated Michael Jackson and Oprah, however he didn't mention any important people that are mentioned in many of the American History Classes. When Jonathan asked Cliffie about George Washington, he didn't even know who they guy was. Can you imagine what kind of low education level Cliffie and other children from this society are getting? I mean I don't find it wrong for Cliffie to mention those media people as his heroes, however, I do believe that Cliffie and this other classmates deserved to be thought on the same level as higher social status children so that they can participate in the American Society.
4. I also found that Jonathan argues about how Social Scientist believe that if the poor people keep behaving rationally then they are going to maintain at that social level for a long time. The example that Jonathan uses contradicts the Social Scientist's statements. He uses the story of a women named Alicia Washington who attended a segregated school and had to choose her future husband from the same segregated school as the one she attended. Social Scientist refers to these type of male as an unemployed black men who have previously been involved with drugs and or been in prison. She decided to leave her husband who infected her with AIDS and constantly physically abused her. Alicia was detected with two different kinds of cancers and ended up in New York City where she lived in a shelter for four years in Time Square and then was forced to move into the South Bronx. So where is that irrational behavior that the Social Scientist had stated? Is it her fault that her options on choosing her husband was limited because of the segregated school? It is obvious that these people ended up in these city because is the only option they have in order to survive and once they are there it is difficult to come out because it seem as though they are not connected to the rest of world.

This story was very powerful, especially knowing everything that people in that city have to go through daily. The only part I felt that I can relate to is the fact on how poverty affects children's education. Not having enough money for the correct sources needed to obtain that same educational level as the higher and more dominate class makes a big difference. I remember, how in high school we had to leave our books in class in order to share with other students because the school didn't have enough money to buy every single student a book. When we had homework assignment we had to copy it down on a piece of notebook paper in order to finish it at home. Some of our books were too old and some of the facts that were there weren't accurate enough to connect to what was going on in the "real world" that we were living in. When I think back, now I know why I wasn't at a higher level as what other schools in Rhode Island were. It wasn't because I never paid any attention, it was because the sources that were given to me were not as good as the other higher educational schools. That's is probably why Cliffie didn't know who was George Washington and his importance to the American History. In the story, Kozol mentioned that other people tried to help by giving out condoms and clean needles for the prostitutes and drug addicts. I know they are trying to help with the problem of AIDS, but what about the major problem that these children are facing? What about the low educational level they have, how can these children rely on that type of education? I think that if they really want to help they should start with the education first because the children need to a reliable education to better the city's future.