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The Lives of Children and the Conscience of a Nation Currently there are about 600, 000 people who live in the South Bronx and about 434, 000 who live in Washington Heights and Harlem. This area makes up one of the most racially segregated areas of poor people in the United States. In this book we focus on Mott Haven, a place where 48, 0000 of the poorest people in the South Bronx live. Two thirds of the people are Hispanic, one-third are black and thirty-five percent are children. There are nearly four thousand heroin users, and one-fourth of the women who are tested are positive for HIV. All of this and more in one little area of the South Bronx.
In the middle of all this chaos and confusion are children. Children who have daily drills on what to do if gunshots are heard, children who know someone who has died of AIDS, children who have seen someone been shot right in front of their face wondering if its their father, children who long to be sanitation workers, and children who die everyday. The lives of these children almost seem lost with depression, drugs, and death all around them. As we see, there are little sparks of light in most of these childrens eyes, sparks of light that show just how innocent and intellectual they really are.
Mott Haven seems like a place that no one could even imagine existing. A place so distant from most peoples reality that it could only exist in a Spike Lee film. A government owned ghetto that people are just thrown into when the dont fit into normal society. A place that can be shunned and feared and easy to get away from simply by shutting a newspaper.
One would think that the resources necessary to get these people back on their feet would be available but we see that they arent. Children still die from falling into faulty elevators, people die from having to wait 4 days in a hospital corridor just to receive treatment, fires occur on a daily basis, rats are like a family pet when not gnawing on a defenseless baby for the third time, soup kitchens are filled to capacity and many are denied services that are long overdue such as food stamps. Discrimination and prejudice are so prevalent, you would think that the state of New York would want to do something. Why do these people get overlooked? One form of prejudice that I couldnt help but noticing was the medical waste incinerator built on Locust Avenue. Originally it was going to built in another part of New York, but when parents complained of cancer worries they decided to build in Mott Haven, despite the protest of the parents there.
It seems as if they didnt even care about the welfare of these people, these people can get cancer because theyre already unclean. The people of Mott Haven, as seen in Jean Kilbournes discussion Deadly Persuasions, seem to portrayed as not human. If the people of NY see them as less of a person, then its easier to overlook them. Cultural bias is another form of prejudice. Cultural bias can be in the form of standardized test to get into a better school or even to get a better job. Access to resources makes it harder for minorities to get ahead.
If a child cant even get proper schooling due to teachers not wanting to pass 96 th street to teach, what are they suppose to do? Some wait hours for care in a hospital because theyre too afraid to hop on the train to go into Manhattan and go to a nicer hospital where care would be available sooner. Why are they scared, because they fear they wont be accepted there. They feel they would probably get less respect there than if they stayed where they felt they belong. The discrimination that is present in Mott Haven is in the form of racial segregation. Discrimination is an attitude put into action.
The action here is that these people are being ignored. It truly is amazing how the South Bronx and Harlem make up the most racially segregated area in the United States. While this is true, the issue is never discussed politically. Its like segregation isnt even present in the state of NY because it is The main form of segregation takes place in the school system. Kozol states that two-thirds of Americans black children know few, if any, white people.
One reason for this is white families themselves who take children out of schools in their neighborhoods. What confidence can these children receive knowing that others dont want to be around them. What are the suppose to think about the United States itself. Do you think they wonder why their country would let them grow up like this? Of course they do.
The sad thing is that some of the children think that this is all their is, their new life of joy is only available in heaven, where they wear white nightgowns because theyre angels. Many of these children go into Manhattan around Christmas and see NY how it should be, then they return home and nothing has changed. Drugs seem to be very prevalent around Mott Haven, mostly because it seems as if these men and women have nothing better to do. This just seems to strengthen the stereotype that all blacks are drug users and lazy. Maybe its because they really do have nothing better to do. For many, drugs are an escape from the reality that they live in.
Everyday, from 9: 00 am to 12: 00 midnight people are out at Childrens Park buying, selling and using drugs. Calderon, Mott Havens most notorious drug lord until his murder, thinking of the childrens welfare stopped the selling of drugs during the hours that children are coming home from school. I believe that was a good idea on his part. This action kind of proved that these people arent just all about the drugs, they dont want kids to start ending up like them, they have just lost all hope for themselves.
This stereotype is what I think makes the state of NY not want to help these people. Why should they believe these people want to improve their lives if their just doing drugs, Despite all this, these children still have a light in their eyes. One Stuyvesant principle said, Everything these kids touch turns to gold. Of course this school is said to produce more doctors than any other high school in the United States. What is the symbolism behind that?
For the children of Mott Haven, are they truly innocent until proven guilty? The racist ideology doesnt apply to them until someone makes them feel like it does. These children are not deemed inferior. One child stated that he wanted to be an x-ray technician one day. Even though the child said it with a shrug, the thought was The sadness these people experience is just heart wrenching. No one should have to deal with this kind of racism.
No one should be forced to the bottom of society and deemed so inferior that they shouldnt even be helped. People shouldnt have to feel like a monster that no one wants to see or speak of. The people of Mott Haven just want help, they want normal lives just like everyone else. Kozols venture into this world was very courageous and forthright. The depiction of these people he showed truly should make NY think of what they are exactly doing to this community and these children.
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