There Are No Children Here Essay Example

Lafayette realizes that he is one of the gangsters tainting the city that many people call home. This promise pulls Lafayette out of the gang scene and into the vow of getting out of the cruel streets of Chicago. In Chicago: A Biography, Pacyga discusses the skyrocket in the population of African Americans in the 1990s. The Chicago Housing Authority sought to build projects to house the overwhelming amount of newcomers. These projects were ultimately deemed low-income housing. Lafayette and Pharaoh were victims to these poor living conditions.

The film displays these projects with gloomy scenery, filth on he floor, holes in the walls, and bullet holes in the windows. During the Great Migration, as blacks quickly bubbled over Into Chicago, the Black Metropolis began to develop. Blacks migrated from the south to escape racism, financial woes, and labor Issues. As blacks were transported to Chicago, they were moved Into a new culture, one geographically different but similarly filled with segregation. Despite the change of scenery, blacks were still subjected to deprived llvlng conditions, underprivileged schools, and segregation amongst businesses and neighborhoods.

African Americans nonetheless attempted to bulld their own city In the middle of Chicago" (Pacyga 206). Blacks strived to develop their own sense of home and belonging. Black entrepreneurs sought out to establish institutions, newspapers, and businesses. The Defender and The Whip newspapers were both handbooks to teach southerners proper etiquette in the new "white" environment. Thus, newly rich black migrants tried to separate themselves from poor newcomers. Lafayette's troubled migrated from Mississippi with his family in the same hope starting a free and comfortable life.

However, Elliot was unable to find relief because his neighborhood

ran rampant with gang activity. Violence was all he saw and the vulnerable preteen used gangs as his escape from his distressed life back in Mississippi. Pacyga explains that in 1899, Chicago was the first city to set up a separate court system and Juvenile detention center as a result of extensive street gangs and lack of food and money that caused minors to commit crimes to get what they needed. By 1932, over six hundred Juvenile courts were established over the United States in the attempts to soothe youth disorderly conduct.

The film narrates the matter of Juvenile delinquency with the use of cold-blooded murderers being gang members under the age of thirteen, decades after the court system's establishment. When Elliot broke into a car and stole a radio, the police apprehended four young black males including Lafayette. They were all taken before a white Judge who was utterly disgusted by the boys. Her piercing words and chilling attitude seemed more like she was faced with an adult serial killer than four black teenagers with sticky fingers. Her views were similar to those of the gang members. Age did not play a role in the recruitment of fellow members.

Gang involvement was restricted to the proper handling of a gun, respect for the gang, making money, and putting fear over others. With those duties in mind, it did not matter who had homework due the next day or who had to be in before the street lights came on. Upon settling in Chicago, African Americans faced the burden of being subjected to attend disadvantaged schools and obtain a far from satisfactory education. Pacyga reflects that African

Americans attended primarily black schools. These schools were vercrowded, lacked extra-curricular activities and passionate educators.

By the 1960s, outrage over the ghetto schools spread through the city of Chicago, sparking boycotts and screams of injustice. In There Are No Children, Pharaoh is a fourth grade student with an embarrassing stuttering problem. In his predominantly black school, the many kids in his class make fun of him. Despite the discouraging conditions of teasing, cramped classes, and overall unhealthy learning environment, Pharaoh still strives to overcome those obstacles and graduate from high school with he hopes of going on to college to provide a better life for his mother and siblings.

Pharaoh makes straight A's, studies the dictionary, and even got to present the motivational speech to his fourth grade graduating class. Pharaoh stuttered his way through the speech but his determination did not skip a beat. The film used Pharaoh as a prime example of how regardless of unfair learning conditions, there were still some African American students who were hungry for the proper education they deserved. Pharaoh saw education as an escape from the cruelty he and his family faced living in Chicago.

The film There Are No Children Here concluded with children discussing how gang violence has affected their lives and what they ultimately want to be when they grow up. The film brilliantly displays the concept of "the deferral of the dream". Years ago when blacks migrated to Chicago, they dreamed of a life that allowed them to financially, academically, and ethically take care of themselves and their families. Those dreams were hindered by gangs, poor housing, crime, and a need for suitable extremely close to

home, actor Mark Lane who played Lafayette, was fatally shot at a est side Chicago gas station in 2001.

His killer's was never caught. Lafayette depicted such a powerful and life changing character. Ironically, his life was taken in the very place he acted as a struggling African American youth. The violence that was illustrated in the film still undeniably exists in modern day Chicago. Pacyga provides great insight about the difficult lives of African Americans in Chicago. However, There Are No Children Here sits in the heart of the difficulty and broadcasts the heartbreaking challenges blacks had to fight through.