| years ago, while volunteering at a weekend mentoring | | | | control. Instead of tapering instances of sensationalism |
| program for high school students in Newark, N.J., I got | | | | and distortion, the mass media has gone in the |
| an education of a lifetime. During the mentoring | | | | opposite direction. Reality shows and randy TV talk |
| sessions, many of the students often discussed what | | | | shows have become our obscene look into the |
| was going on in their lives. They talked about gang | | | | causes and consequences of our societal ills. |
| activity at their schools, drug problems in their | | | | When dealing with the human condition, there are no |
| neighborhoods and personal problems at home. | | | | scientific techniques that unearth definitive answers to |
| Most of the students were from struggling, poor or | | | | perpetual family-structure threats. Our strongest tool is |
| working-class communities. Their limited skills spoke | | | | the accounts of those living in the conditions we are |
| volumes about the quality of education they were | | | | studying. That, coupled with concrete statistics and |
| getting. Their unlimited dreams challenged us mentors | | | | actual instances, helps us toward understanding. |
| to find ways to harness our young charges’ | | | | Ghetto America digs into broad social debates like |
| ambitions and channel them into something tangible. | | | | education's role in reducing crime and drug abuse and |
| None of the students’ stories were particularly | | | | in providing long-range opportunities to poor urban and |
| unusual or shocking to me, after all I was a copy editor | | | | rural youth. The effects of drug-sentencing laws and |
| at The (Newark) Star-Ledger at the time. But getting | | | | federal budget cuts on anti-poverty programs are also |
| to know the faces behind those stories, and seeing | | | | topics in need of questioning. |
| firsthand the impact they had on the teenagers’ | | | | This project’s eclectic cadre of rural and urban |
| lives, made the stories all the more real for me and | | | | teens acts as interrogators as well as witnesses, their |
| gave them context. I began to believe that perhaps by | | | | disheartening homes, schools and general living |
| helping others make that connection, especially those | | | | conditions the evidence that leaves an imprint on the |
| within and outside their communities with the power or | | | | audience's thoughts during deliberations. Each person's |
| ability to help bring change, I could possibly help facilitate | | | | success is determined by a complex equation of |
| collective solutions. | | | | opportunities, efforts and timing, but there are external |
| We see the headlines and hear the television | | | | traps that snare ambition and hard work, even |
| newscast teasers: "Drug Use Up at Local High School," | | | | unwavering determination. More than questions of |
| "Little Girl Shot Outside Home in Gang Crossfire," | | | | culture and environment, pragmatic issues like teen |
| "Student Test Scores Lowest in Region" and "Teen | | | | employment programs on long-term job skills |
| Pregnancy: A Rite of Passage." These news stories | | | | development and the influence of abstinence |
| seem to repeat themselves in bits and pieces, but they | | | | programs on teen pregnancy rates oftentimes hold |
| offer little, if any, comprehensive look at why these | | | | more importance. |
| events occur and often overlook larger socioeconomic | | | | Ghetto America works to bridge this country’s |
| and historical issues underlying them. | | | | many social worlds through the rich and textured |
| My project, Ghetto America, gives a wider audience to | | | | tableau of interesting people and the events that |
| the voiceless, providing a larger forum for | | | | shape and alter their lives daily. In the spirit of This is |
| disadvantaged urban and rural young people around | | | | My Country, John A. Williams' 1966 cross-country |
| the country to discuss their plight, share solutions and, | | | | exploratory book, Ghetto America examines the |
| hopefully, destroy social marginalization. | | | | stereotypes and generalizations that routinely |
| Nearly the 40th anniversary of the report of The | | | | accompany discussions of race, culture and class. |
| National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders | | | | The crux here is the acknowledgement that finding |
| (Kerner Commission), the mainstream news media has | | | | root causes to problems, challenging conventional |
| failed to make good on its promise to produce | | | | notions about the people experiencing them and |
| balanced reporting in our nation's underprivileged | | | | gaining new solutions won't necessarily come from |
| neighborhoods. It is difficult to gather from their | | | | lawmakers in Washington or university professors but |
| coverage how events shaping the lives of this nation's | | | | from the very people living with these problems or |
| poor are interconnected with forces outside their | | | | those working to resolve them. |