Kozol/ ALM

Amazing Grace

• "There are children in the poorest, most abandoned places who, despite the miseries and poisons that the world has pumped into there lives, seem, when you first meet them, to be cheerful anyway"
• Most people would think that children brought up in an area like this would be rotten, rude, and maybe even cruel. But the boy who served as Kozol's guide showed that despite all the death and violence in the area, the kid behaves no differently than any of ours would have.  The situation has done nothing damper the innocence of the children there, at least on the outside.
• "Every time my doctor says I have to go back to the hospital, I cry"
• This quote was made in reference to terrible conditions at a nearby hospital.  A majority of the area is composed of people who have contracted AIDS/HIV.  This quote represents the lack of trust in those who claim to help these people.  The hospital cannot be trusted to keep itself clean and sanitary, while the law cannot be trusted to protect these people from criminals.  This only reinforces the idea that these people can only rely on themselves.
• "I believe that what the rich have done to the poor people in this city is something that a preacher would call evil"
• This is a comment on the idea that people have that working hard will change the situation.  But people in these poorer neighborhoods can't elevate themselves because they lack the resourced to get a better life.  Working hard simply isn't enough and the constant talking down to that the poorer people feel is happening will only cause this animosity to grow.

ALM article:

GeekAesthete argues that saying all lives matter takes away from the point of the statement black lives matter.  Instead of looking at the problem being brought forward (the problem being the disproportionate cases of police brutality involving non-white ethnicities), you are shouting them down saying "of course black lives matter, because all lives do matter".  Instead of the conversation bringing about change, it only made it seem as though the person saying "black lives matter" was trying to get special treatment that would place them above others in regards to the law.