Apartheid. USA 1988
(1989)–Willem Oltmans–
Auteursrechtelijk beschermd
[pagina 104]
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sters growing up in housing projects, the playground serves as a meeting place, where vivid lessons in behavior and character are learned. Thomas Morgan of the Times visited such a playground in the South Bronx which has become the social focus for 1 877 apartments in 17 buildings called the Morris Houses. About 6 000 people live in the project, which adjoins three other projects with another 7.000 inhabitants. Some 34 percent of the families in the Morris Houses receive public assistance, 6 percent receive Social Security payments and the other people are struggling to live just below the Federal poverty line on 11.200 dollars. Nearly 23 000 of the 53 700 residents in this particular area of the Bronx are supported by public assistance. Originally these housing projects were built as an opportunity for inner-city people to move away from the slums. Arthur Richardson, a teacher and consultant at Children's Circle, a city-financed center for job-training and youth development three blocks away from the Morris Playground said: ‘I know families in the Morrisania area who came from the South as young couples, moved to Harlem and lived in a room in an aunt's apartment, then later moved from that room to an apartment in the Bronx. To them, it was like moving to the suburbs. They knew their neighbors, and if a child misbehaved, there was an adult who the family knew would correct him in the parents' absence.’ Mr Richardson told the Times, today these housing developments in the city have changed to such an extent that next-door neighbors are strangers and the extended family structure has collapsed. ‘We are creating a generation of people who have totally dropped out of our society, and we see it every day,’ he added. ‘We attempt to reach out to the ones that are more reachable, because our resources are so limited.’ |
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