Kozol and Roose Black Lives Matter Too; Relfection

Amazing Grace by Johnathan Kozol is a Wake-up Call

      Upon reading the article I was amazed about the realities some people live and that they are so different from my own. In the beginning of Kolzol's article he states, "At the elementary school that serves the neighborhood across the avenue, only seven of 800 children do not qualify for free school lunches. 'Five of those seven get reduced-price lunches, because they are classified as only 'poor','not destitute' (Kozol 3). This quote was eye opening to me and I was amazed by these statistics. Growing up there were not many students in my school that got free or reduced lunch. I was shocked that this is the reality for people, I feel now that I was sheltered from the lives that other people live. I never realized until recently that these things are real for people and that people do live in conditions like this. 

      Throughout the article, Kozol also states about the conditions people live in, which make me feel humble about how I live. Kozol says, "In humid summer weather, roaches crawl on virtually every surface of the houses in which many of the children live. Rats

emerge from holes in bedroom walls..." (Kozol 5). I was shocked that the families in the Bronx live in these conditions. It made me think of a story my mom told me the other day a student she has. She said that her student was very tired, because the student did not sleep good at night due to the rats crawling out from the walls. The student talked about the rats in the home as it is normal for everyone and does not know that other families do not have rats in their homes. It is amazing to me that families in America live very different lives, even though they live in the same country.

      There was a quote that Kozol including in the article that made me recall a book I read in my literature class. The novel was called Blindness by Saramago, where a group of people went blind and were put in quarantine. While they were there the blind were neglected, the conditions were unsanitary and there was crime. Kozol includes a quote from a woman in which she says, "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?" (Kozol 11). People are placed in a condition in which the people are in similar conditions to their own. Instead of the people being placed in healthy lifestyles, they are placed in dirty, unhealthy areas which is what happened to the blind people in the novel. 

   I was also amazed that there were so many people in the article who have the disease or know someone with AIDS. There are multiple times in the article that Kozol includes quotes from people who recall that there friends, neighbors or themselves have the disease. It made me astonished that AIDS was so common in their life. In my personal life, I have never known of someone who has suffered from AIDS. I also asked my mom if she has known of someone with the disease from her life and she said she hasn't either. This makes me think how different of a life I live from those who reside in the Bronx. AIDS seems to be very common where they live, but where I live it is not really talked about and not many people have it.

     The article has been shocking to me, because it's crazy to me how different my life varies from those who are in poverty in the Bronx. It makes me really thankful for the life I live, but it also makes me wonder why lives vary so much in one country. I wonder if there is anything I can to do to help improve the living conditions of other people? Is there something that can be done to reduce the large variety of lavish to harsh living conditions? Why is it that some people are able to have the privilege of living a healthy lifestyle where other are not?

All Lives Matter, TOO.

            

         This article by Kevin Roose, made me re-think of the things I have said in the past. I have heard of the Black Lives Movement in the news and on social media. I have also heard people question that don't all lives matter though. At first I thought that the argument that all lives matter was accurate and did not think that it was a way to shut down the Black Lives Matter movement. In the article Roose includes a statement that states that a statement has "an implicit 'too' at the end" (Roose 3). I personally never thought of this way and never realized that there was an implicit 'too' at the end. This was a wake up call for me and made me really reconsider the Black Lives Matter movement, in which they want their lives to matter as much as others. I now think that the movement is a rational and important movement for people to re-look at and understand their point of view. 

In the article Roose also states, "saying 'all lives matter' as a direct response to 'black lives matter' is essentially saying we should just go back to ignoring the problem" (Roose). I feel that is important people understand to not shut down the movement and look for ways to solve the problems instead. People should try to understand why are people vouching for Black Lives Matter, instead of saying all lives matter as a rebuttal to the movement.

       

     I wanted to look into this movement more and found an article from the New York Times explaining that the movement is an example of democracy. The article also explains how the movement is trying to perverse despite opposition from white supremacists. I have attached the link to the article for you to read https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/21/opinion/sunday/black-lives-matter-leadership.html.

Talking Points

    It never ceases to amaze me that people in one country such as, the United States, can live such different realities in the terms of living conditions, health, and wealth. It makes me wonder why The United States is advertised as a land of opportunity for all, but yet there are people who are living with rats and unsanitary conditions. How did the nation get like this or has it always been this way. I did not address this in my reflection but there was a quote in the article "White Priviliege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack", that states, "whites are taught to think of their lives as morally neutral, normative and average and also ideal" (White Privilege). This quote made me reflect on my education and I was ALWAYS taught to be fortunate for the life I live because many would go to extreme measures to be in the position I am in. It makes me rethink how I view my life and if I think of it as ideal and normal? 

Works Cited

Kozol, Jonathan. “The Lives of Children and the Conscience of a Nation.” Amazing Grace, pp. 3–21. 

Ransby, Barbara. “Black Lives Matter Is Democracy in Action.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 21 Oct. 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/21/opinion/sunday/black-lives-matter-leadership.html. 

Roose, Kevin. “The next Time Someone Says 'All Lives Matter,' Show Them These 5 Paragraphs.” Splinter, https://splinternews.com/the-next-time-someone-says-all-lives-matter-show-them-1793849332. 

White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack Peggy ... https://www.racialequitytools.org/resourcefiles/mcintosh.pdf. 

Kozol, Jonathan. “The Lives of Children and the Conscience of a Nation.” Amazing Grace, pp. 3–21.

Ransby, Barbara. “Black Lives Matter Is Democracy in Action.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 21 Oct. 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/21/opinion/sunday/black-lives-matter-leadership.html.

Roose, Kevin. “The next Time Someone Says 'All Lives Matter,' Show Them These 5 Paragraphs.” Splinter, https://splinternews.com/the-next-time-someone-says-all-lives-matter-show-them-1793849332.

White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack Peggy ... https://www.racialequitytools.org/resourcefiles/mcintosh.pdf.

Kozol, Jonathan. “The Lives of Children and the Conscience of a Nation.” Amazing Grace, pp. 3–21.

Ransby, Barbara. “Black Lives Matter Is Democracy in Action.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 21 Oct. 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/21/opinion/sunday/black-lives-matter-leadership.html.

Roose, Kevin. “The next Time Someone Says 'All Lives Matter,' Show Them These 5 Paragraphs.” Splinter, https://splinternews.com/the-next-time-someone-says-all-lives-matter-show-them-1793849332.

White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack Peggy ... https://www.racialequitytools.org/resourcefiles/mcintosh.pdf.