Am I My Brother's Keeper
I recently wrote a final research paper for my Urban Sociology class; I compared and contrasted urban areas in America and those abroad in developing countries. I had the opportunity to watch a magnificent movie "Brownstones to Red Dirt;" this movie followed the lives of children from Brooklyn, NY and Sierra Leone as they became pen pals with one another and learned about each other's cultures through their exchange of letters. This is just a short excerpt from my paper :)
Imagine an orphaned child in Sierra Leone that was displaced by a ten year civil war and an urban kid from Brooklyn, NY that lives in one of America’s worst impact zones.[1] If they were to become pen pals, what could they talk about? In the midst of their geographical differences, will they be able to relate to each other on any basis? An Indie[2] documentary film, Brownstones to Red Dirt, follows the journey and development of students from Freetown, Sierra Leone and Brooklyn, New York as they experience each other’s cultures through the exchange of letters. During this course I learned a lot about what defines an urban area and the various attributes that have contributed to the formation of these areas over a period of time. As this course progressed, I found myself constantly at battle with the advancements made in urban areas, and all the growth still yet to be achieved. As decades pass urban areas seem to remain static in certain parts of their growth; this inability to prosper allows negative connotations about urban areas to remain pertinent in our current culture. A question that often recurs in my mind as an African American from an urban area is, “What can possibly be holding us back from achieving our full potential?”
Whether here in America or across the globe, a common factor in our failure is hopelessness – many poor people associate their lives with being incompetent or inferior. I want to take a closer look at American urban areas in contrast to those in developing countries; though there are many noticeable differences between the two I think they both share a commonality in promoting helplessness. A lot of developing countries may lack physical resources but, in America our poor are often injected with a lack of self-assurance or validity at a young age which in turn fosters a fear of success and an ultimate array of failure. This injustice was recognized as early as 1890 by W.E.B DuBois when he did a sociological study on the black population living in Philadelphia’s 7th ward. One of the main driving forces behind urban peoples’ inability to move forward is segregation or the constant isolation from different cultures. Douglas Massey and Nancy Denton expressed in American Apartheid that,
Thus one-third of all African Americans in the United States live under conditions of intense racial segregation...People growing up in such as environment have little direct experience with the culture, norms, and behaviors of the rest of American society and few social contacts with members of other racial groups (Denton 77).
This can be seen as the foundation of many downfalls in society; whether it is the formation of projects to keep African Americans separated from whites or the Belgium’s separation of people in West Africa which led to the Rwandan genocide. When people’s voices are silenced, a piece of their pride is often taken away which can be seen in many top-down reform models where the government often abuses their eminent domain rights. This abuse of power is evident in the formation of grand stadiums in America or the housing of the Olympics in other foreign countries. After watching the interaction between children in Sierra Leone and Brooklyn, I realized that whether here in America or 4,000 miles away in Africa, there is a common psychological bondage that perpetuates the failure of our urban areas.
Brownstones to Red Dirt is an amazing documentary that exemplifies how people can be so far away from one another but share many of the same dreams, aspirations, and struggles. A group of middle school children from Marcy projects in Brooklyn, New York became pen pals with orphaned children in Freetown, Sierra Leone that were displaced by their countries’ 10 year civil war. This interaction was a part of RESPECT International’s program to connect refugee and non-refugee children around the world. The NYPD declared Bedford Stuyvesant as an impact zone because in 3 square miles, there were 139 murders. Many of the children in Freetown witnessed their parents being brutally murdered; they watched as their parents’ limbs were cut off and viciously tortured for no reason at all. The movie started with the children stating how they viewed the places in which their pen pals were writing from; they originally viewed the countries in very dissimilar lights. The students in Brooklyn think the children in Sierra Leone will lack shoes, food, clean water, and natural resources; some think they are struggling to stay alive. One boy even said he thinks they are still in slavery! The young children in Sierra Leone view New York City as “heaven;” they think NYC is a huge place with large houses, the children go to school well, and if a person wants a good job they need to go there. They believe that all the houses have electricity whether day or night, whenever the children are hungry they eat, and all children have both parents that will buy them whatever they want. One of the orphans in Sierra Leone, Augusta, described NYC like this, “People rush to go there, when there they try to become white…they live their lives different from us and they are not equal.” During months of interaction through letters both students learned a lot from one another and how their assumptions were wrong.
Today Bedford Stuyvesant is one of the poorest areas in the United States. Even though the children from Marcy projects live in America and may possess more materialistic things than the people in Sierra Leone, there is still a huge lack in their social development. Many of the children from Brooklyn saw murder and violence as a social norm; they spoke about their neighborhood murders as if it was just another conversation around the dinner table. Their lack of social affirmation has a psychological effect on them and can make them feel as if they are immune to success. One boy from Brooklyn, Fred, described it like this, “They make me feel like I aint nothing…just a black piece of dirt. You black, a bad little kid, disrespectful, curse, and fight” (Brownstones). The children in Sierra Leone recognized there was a lack in resources but it did not stop them from appreciating what they had; they were still so humble and grateful for the little they possessed. They went to church and praised God with their entire heart even in the midst of their sorrows. After learning about the circumstances of those orphaned children, the students in Brooklyn put together a fundraiser because they wanted to have an everlasting impact on the children in Sierra Leone. They raised $1000 for the children and in return the children in the orphanage in Sierra Leone were very appreciative and thankful.
This documentary showed me that whether here in America or in other developing countries, the poor cannot prosper because of an abuse of power from people in high places. Many times the government will manipulate and play off of the poor’s weaknesses; they make it nearly impossible to obtain a better life. For instance, Sierra Leone has substantial mineral resources – including diamonds, gold, rutile, and bauxite but official receipts from legal exports have been minimal. For decades, majority of the diamond and gold produced have been smuggled abroad. The economic infrastructure has nearly collapsed due to corruption, neglect, and war-related disruptions. The 10 year civil war added more disruption and chaos to the country, which in turn worsened the economy. There is much wealth embedded in the diamond and gold mines in Sierra Leone, yet it is one of the poorest countries in the world. The citizens are very vulnerable and subject to follow corrupt leaders. There are not many civil servants or teachers to educate the children – they fail because they are not given the resources to succeed.