Jonathan Kozol Amazing Grace

When I first looked at the readings, I couldn't help but notice how long Amazing Grace was. I was a bit tired and thought I was going to have to stop half way through or when I didn't want to read anymore. That didn't happen to me. I was wide awake through the whole thing, in awe. So then I figured, well I mine as well continue and read the next one and just stop when I can't read that one any longer. Again, didn't happen. As much as the second piece, White Privilege, got thoughts stirring through my mind and confused at why the color of a persons skin dictates who they are so much in our society, I can't help but go back to Amazing Grace. As much of a depressing story it was, it made me really happy that the kids that were talked about in the piece, are turning out the way they are. The little boy in the beginning that is talked about, Cliffie, seems like such a sweet, and surprisingly innocent kid. With what he is growing up with and what he sees every day of his life, I can't believe how good he handles it. His mother must be doing a very good job raising him. I work at a daycare and have these two little girls who live next to each other in a not so great neighborhood, nothing like Cliffie though. One of them is very troublesome and doesn't listen that well and needs that extra attention. While the other one is the complete opposite. She is very well behaved, loves to play the mother roll always asking to help and acts much older than what she actually is. I believe it all comes down to the parenting and how they are raised. The well behaved girl comes from a very loving and affectionate family whereas my little trouble maker doesn't. It breaks my heart because my troublemaker is a doll, when she wants to be or when you can get her to be. But she just doesn't have someone their to explain what she sees until she comes in and opens her mouth to us, which you never know what she is going to say. We then explain in our best ways possible to ease the problems she deals with.I like the way Cliffie's mom lets him have an imagination to a certain point. Kids need that. They need to know truth but they need to able to take that truth and expand on it. I found it so uplifting while reading about all the crimes and infections these people Cliffie lives around that he is still so innocent. The part that got me was with the tape recorder. Asking people their age and then saying okay thanks that's enough. Or when he whispered into it after finishing his cookies, "we're out of cookies. I ate a whole bag of cookies. They're all gone." I can't help but have such a soft spot for him. And it makes me happy Cliffie's mom seems to try to take the good out of the bad. It all rubs off on him. She talked about other people, who don't even live there, dump their garbage and unwanted scraps right her streets. You can get mad about it but it won't change it from happening again. She knows that so instead she takes things she could use out of it.
I also obviously had a soft spot right away for Mrs. Washington. It breaks my heart when bad things happen to good people. And in her case, over and over and over again. Like being sick with cancer (but getting over and it getting infected with AIDS) isn't bad enough, she got taken off of her financial help. She gets taken off, while being so sick and has to go through so much to get put back on while a girl died and is still getting checks that her boyfriend cashes. I started feeling very frustrated while reading through a lot of parts of this piece. For one, how do they not know she died? Sadly I think the answer is because they don't care. Or it is too much of a hassle to go through all of it. There was a part in the second reading that I read that ties in perfectly with that part. I kept searching for it but for some reason I must just kept passing over it but it was something about people with power not caring unless it will be a positive outcome or something? I need to go back and read the whole thing again so I can re pull that out of what I read because skimming isn't helping me. (I will add or fix it!)
So I know why I was getting frustrated trying to find the point I was struggling to make... I was mistaken and it wasn't even in that article. It happened to be in the same article as I was writing about. So, the point I was attempting to make, somebody has to have power in every situation. In Mrs. Washington's, someone had power to help her and possibly save her life and they weren't. Why? Why? Why? just runs through my head over and over again. Why would you not want to help a struggling person when you have the "power" to? Her son considers that evil and I fully agree to that being a definition of evil. "Pretending that they don't so they don't need to use it to help people..." Arrogance could be another good word to add to the list of words describing this piece.