Amazing Grace - Jonathan Kozol

"these are children in the poorest, most abandoned places who, despite the miseries and poisons the world has pumped into their lives, seem, when you first meet them anyway, to be cheery..." pg 6

I want to relate this quote to becoming an educator and the persona I want in my own classroom in the future. I think that it is necessary for a teacher to provide a safe and comforting environment for their students because we really never know what a child has gone through or the background that they may come from. Children see many things in this world that they should never have to experience which can really effect them. Applauding them and giving them the best experience in a comforting classroom and understanding the positions they may be in is the first step that I want to take in order to become a positive role model for my students future. 

 "In 1991 the median household income of the area, according to The New York Times, was $7,600" pg 3 

I definitely think that this data helps me to begin to understand the situation that many people from this area in the South Bronx are coming from. It's incredibly to me how many people suffer through the lack of income they go through. The United States does not make it easy to live peacefully if you do not come from money or have money. I give so many props to the families that live through these conditions successfully because they are all so strong. 

Inside the area right near Cypress Avenue there is a place that Cliffie explains to be the place they "burn bodies" which is later to be found out to be a waste incinerator that burns "red bag products" meaning amputated limbs, fetal tissue, bedding, bandages and syringes, etc. The thing to note is that this waste incinerator building was established in this area "over the objections of the parents in the neighborhood," (pg7) 

I want to connect this quote to the silenced dialogue reading that we discussed last week and note how the city of NY completely disregarded the voices of the families in the south bronx community for this waste operation to be placed directly near their homes and children. I think that this just shows how underprivileged their community is because they were not taken seriously. Unfortunately, now this waste operation being in their town effects only the families and children who live there. 

image a

image b

In relation to the first quote that I pulled, these graphs indicate the most recent household income distribution (image a) and the rent distribution (image b) in the Bronx, New York. In the past 30 years, because the original data was from 1991, there has been an increase in income, however, this is most likely to do with overall inflation and raised price of living and such. To back this up, image b displays the rent distribution across the Browns area which has also generally raised over the past 20 years. Something I would like to note is that the census in image a is most likely not including any of the homeless citizens in the Bronx area which, I looked up, and if you use the hyperlink underneath here you will see that homeless shelters around the Bronx area host as most as 5% of the population in each specific district of NY. 

https://citylimits.org/2019/09/10/data-drop-which-nyc-neighborhoods-host-the-most-homeless-shelter-beds/

thanks for reading my blog ☮♡ Julia butera