Jonathan Kozol - Amazing Grace

I found Kozol's article on the residents of Mott Haven, Bronx to be very intriguing and at times very difficult to read in the sense of the strong images it brought to the mind. I felt it was eye opening because it is very easy for a person to think they know what it is like to live life on the other side of the spectrum. But, Amazing Grace actually gives you mental pictures and the realities to life in a real poverty stricken neighborhood. From the way I understood the article Kozol was trying to show his readers through the stories of residents of Mott Haven what life is really like. Since he portrayed the opposite of white privilege, or rather people of color being disenfranchised, and he did it in a subtle way this article differed from those we have read all ready in class. I felt like Kozol was trying to let the reader slowly come to his ideas and opinions rather than outright say "this is what I feel" or "this is how it really is". I found his ending to this article to be unsatisfying because it is like you are just left there wondering what will happen with Alice Washington and her son David. Ultimately you ask yourself, what will happen with all of these families living under these same conditions. You question will anyone ever help them?

Quotes that I found to be beneficial to the text:

1. "... she tells me that more than 3,000 homeless families have been relocated by the city in this neighborhood during the past few years, and she asks a question I will hear from many other people during the months ahead. 'Why do you want to put so many people with small children in a place with so much sickness? 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.'" - Page 11, Paragraph 3
   

   I felt that this quote gave a strong image to the life that these families live every day. It helped to portray the neighborhood and the people that lived in it. It also gives an idea of how poorly the city/government treat these families. I just found this question to be so heartfelt just because of it's simplicity, it is a question that any mother in her right mind would immediately ask.

2. "'My doctor said that I should be on SSI. He said, if I have to start all over, that's the program that I should apply for. I told him I applied for it before, when I had cancer, but they said I wasn't sick enough...I don't know how sick you have to be to qualify for SSI. My girlfriend died from AIDS in March. She never did get SSI. After she died, the checks began to come. Now they keep on coming. Her boyfriend cashes them each month. She's dead! They have to know she died. They paid to bury her. They had to see the death certificate. My doctor says, when it comes to the poor, they can't get nothin' right.'" - Page 20, Paragraph 2 & 3

   I found this quote to be helpful into understanding this article. I feel like Kozol is not trying to outright say - this is white privilege, this is blacks being disenfranchised. I felt like he was trying to show us through stories about people's lives and how people of color are disenfranchised and this story about this sick women is a great example of this.

3. "'Most of the addicts and prostitutes are black. Some are Hispanic. But they're all people of color. It made me feel frightened for my race. The men are killing themselves with needles and the women are laying their bodies down with anyone they meet, not knowing who they are.'" - Page 23, Paragraph 5

   I felt that this quote gave an inside look to a young adult who lives in this neighborhood. He realizes everything that is going on, he knows that in this neighborhood it seems like only people of color are the ones that have drug problems or are prostitutes. I thought it was important because he can acknowledge all of this and when he says it made him feel frightened for his race it was proof that he knew it was something he wanted to change. It kind of gave me hope for him, that maybe he wouldn't end up that way because he was able to see all of it for what it was.