Kotlowitz described himself as a storyteller, involved in the writing of "literature of fact." His job, he said, is to give voice to those without voices in the "corners and crevasses of the country we don't venture to." While he admitted this is not the easiest time to be a social critic in America, he said that it is also the most important time, because people still need to fight for justice, fairness and equality and stand up for those whose lives don't live up to the American ideal.
Through a series of stories he learned during the time he spent with children in a Chicago housing project, Kotlowitz expressed his belief that there is a huge chasm between the two Americas, rich and poor, and that state of poor children is one of the most urgent domestic issues today. There is a myth that the communities in the inner city and in public housing are strong, while Kotlowitz said this his experience shows that these communities are coming apart at the seams. Without jobs for their members, he said, these communities lose the thread of work, which "holds the social fabric together." Poor inner city areas are also devoid of many of the institutions which we commonly associate with community.
Children living in the projects are therefore drastically affected by living without a sense of community and trust. Kotlowitz explained how one of the children he knew said that he didn't really have friends, only associates, since friends are people you trust. Children also lose trust for authority figures, such as police officers. Violence is also constant in the lives of these children. Kotlowitz came to recognize that these children were deeply affected and showed signs of long term emotional damage and post-traumatic stress disorder. The fear that many children growing up in the projects wouldn't live past their eighteenth birthdays created a reluctance on the part of the kids to build meaningful relationships with one another.
Kotlowitz also discussed what he called "issues of silence" surrounding the lives of poor children. One issue of silence is that of institutional silence, where government and social institutions do not respond to the problems of these children as they might to richer, suburban children. Another issue of silence is that of personal silence, where individuals who have experienced growing up poor in the inner city are reluctant to share their stories for fear that they will not be believed. This fear, said Kotlowitz, must stem from the fact that most people have stopped listening to their stories.
Listening to the stories is actually the first step towards recovery, said Kotlowitz, which is why he wrote a book that empathically shared the stories of individual boys. Beyond that, he said that America has to find a way to restore our faith in the ability of our children to change themselves and the world. Most importantly, he concluded, we have to strive to provide a childhood from which children don't feel a need to run.
Alex Kotlowitz's lecture was sponsored by the Arthur Levitt Public Affairs Center. The theme for the 2003-2004 Speaker Series is "The environment: public policy and social responsibility."
--Caroline O'Shea '07
