"Amazing Grace: The Lives of Children and the Conscience of a Nation" by Jonathan Kozol

QUOTATIONS: The three quotes that I used are in red

This excerpt from Jonathan Kozol's book was powerful. As Kozol retold a conversation he had with a seven-year-old boy named Cliffie from the South Bronx, I felt a strong sense of compassion, as well as guilt. I couldn't help but feel as though the level comfort that I had growing up in a middle-class, suburban neighborhood was undeserved. Kozol's and Cliffie's vivid descriptions of the conditions in the South Bronx were eye-opening to say the least. Because of those descriptions, I chose to use three quotations from Kozol's work as the basis of this blog post.

Quote #1:
The first quotation from Kozol that I picked conveys a strong sense of the fact that many people from higher social classes often hold poverty-stricken communities to a certain level of disdain. This quotation came from a conversation Jonathan Kozol had with Cliffie's mother regarding a waste incinerator that had recently been placed in the South Bronx. Cliffie's mother explained how the burner was originally planned to be built in Manhattan, "but the siting of a burner there had been successfully resisted by the parents of the area because of fear of cancer risks to children." Does that mean the parents of the South Bronx were not equally concerned and did not resist equally as hard? Of course not. It simply means that the powers-at-be do not see the residents of the impoverished areas of their city as important. The opinions and health of the South Bronx residents did not matter as much because the residents of Manhattan made more money (Kozol stated that in 1991, the median household income in the South Bronx was only $7,600). It is saddening to know that children are born into surroundings that constantly remind them that they are regarded as unimportant. As teachers, we are expected to be unbiased and demonstrate how each individual is equal. In an environment such as the one Kozol describes, that is a tall order to fulfill because every other aspect of these children's lives suggests otherwise. The organization of our society makes it clear that everyone is, in fact, unequal. We are surrounded by elements that are designed to created insecurity and as a result of that insecurity, humans have forever done wildly unjust things to other humans.

Quote #2:
The second quotation that I chose came from the same conversation Kozol had with Cliffie's mother. She explained how people from different areas come to the South Bronx to dump their unwanted goods. She stated, "People who don't live here come and dump things they don't want: broken televisions, boxes of bottles, old refrigerators, beat-up cars, old pieces of metal, other lovely things." Once again, this quote exemplifies how, often times, people from higher classes disregard the wants, needs, and feelings of   those citizens residing in poverty. Just like Quote #1, this quote represents how higher-class citizens often possess the notion that people of the lower-class care less (or should care less) about the sanitation of their respective neighborhoods. It also reemphasizes the neglect our government has for certain groups of people and the notion that people are judged most heavily on their income.

Quote #3:
The third quote I chose also exemplifies how the many of the powers-at-be often show disregard for the well-being of our current poverty-stricken population. The quote also comes from Cliffie's mother while she is explaining to Kozol how 3,000 homeless families had been relocated to her neighborhood within the span of a few years. She doesn't understand the rationale behind the relocation, saying, "This is the last place in New York that they should put poor children. Clumping so many people, all with the same symptoms and same problems, in one crowded place with nothin' they can grow on? Our children start to mourn themselves before their time." By including this quote in his book, Kozol once again stresses the fact that poverty-stricken communities are treated with total disregard. The quote shows how those in positions of power have not made an effort to solve the problems within many neighborhoods within cities across the country. Instead, as seen in the South Bronx, the problems have only been perpetuated.

Conclusion:
The three quotations that I picked, while only a small segment of the Kozol piece, encompass the main idea that children who grow up in environments like the South Bronx have to overcome much more than children born into higher classes. Kozol's conversation with Cliffie and his mother showed how poverty-stricken communities within the United States are often an afterthought in society. Like Jonhson stated in the first article, "The trouble we're in privileges some groups at the expense of others." Overall, this excerpt from Kozol made me realize how important money is, especially Quote #1.

A good documentary about social injustice and a
lot of what we've been discussing in class.

Money never ends.