Chris Rock and his wife Malaak have chosen a group of 30 local kids from the Salvation Army on Bushwick Avenue as protegées. They are encouraged to shun violence and revenge, focus on advancing their studies, and possibly most important, gain perspective on their lot in life by being exposed to conditions in third world countries.
Malaak Rock chose the kids — who range from 11 to 15 — through essays, recommendations and interviews.
“I want them to realize that yes, you may live in the projects, you may not have the best school, but you have the ability to go to school,” she said. “When you compare it to the type of global poverty that they experienced in the shantytowns in South Africa — it’s different.”
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Shawn Todd, 16, who has never been outside the U.S. before the Africa trip, didn’t expect to see children who couldn’t go school.
“It was bad. Real bad. Different from Brooklyn. The garbage, the stink. They only had one room. Some kids had no shoes,” Shawn recalled while at the center recently.
lovah June 30th, 2009 at 12:26 am
i really dig this idea, and i’m sure the 30 kids will be positively affected, but i can’t help but wonder how the main ideas (putting things into a global perspective, learning gratitude and hopefully then all the positive behaviors that can come out of that, etc. etc.) can be brought to the larger youth community without actually having to drag ‘em to developing countries, or take kids to the movies, or be there in the street 10 feet away every time they’ve got to make a decision.
it’s a great idea, big props to Malaak, but i just wanted to throw that out there and see what ppl thought.
Kojo June 30th, 2009 at 3:54 pm
I agree with lovah. You don’t always need to send a kid to a developing country for them to be positively affected. But, I see the Rock family has its heart in the right place, so I give them props.
I’m African (Ghanaian). Sometimes I get annoyed when someone always has to mention or go to some country in Africa to have appreciation for what they have here in the States….”If you think your life is bad here – look how they live in this country in Africa” etc. I’ve been to South Africa. Yes, there are shantytowns, but there are numerous areas in South Africa that have fought poverty and found the means to build up, develop, and educate their communities.
Growing up, people used to ask me whether are not life is hard in parts of Africa (I travel a bit). It’s not ALL bad over there. Actually, I think people there live more simply and appreciate what they have moreso than in the US. Many of African NYC cab drivers do not work to set their roots here. Some simply work to send money home and eventually go back to their respective countries and live off the fruits of their labor here. Some consider life in the US harder than in their own countries due to stress.
Many Africans I know get a little annoyed when the media here only showcases the negative side (Poverty, Genocide, AIDS, etc.)of African nations and sometimes ignores the positive. I know many people consider African nations as developing countries, but let me say that they are more developed than many may think.
My Dad got his PHD in the States, and he grew up in an environment where he did not wear a proper pair of shoes till high school. His family put more emphasis in using the little they had for school fees and the true necessities. He used to tell me life was hard, but he never said that life was miserable or bad in his town (a few steps above a shantytown). He used to teach inner-city children in the Louisiana, and he was always perplexed by the children sporting a new pair of $200 Air Jordans though their parents were collecting public assistance.
Poverty exists in New York..the US as well as “developing countries”. Look to the housing projects in this city, the favelas in Brazil, the slums of India, the shantytowns of South Africa..Nigeria..everywhere…poverty exists on our very door step and a world away.
I have no gripe with the Rock family because I admire what they are doing. I just feel one can gain enough perspective from his/her own community, but I understand that the Rock family wants to give these children a wider perspective to draw upon.
lovah June 30th, 2009 at 9:42 pm
lots of good points, kojo, and from my knowledge, i agree with all of them.
I think the bottom line is that the way poverty manifests can be really similar across cultural lines, but it can also be drastically different. take your example of the expensive shoes your dad saw amongst poor kids in the U.S…introduce those kids to poor kids in say, Ghana, where they’re saving every penny they’ve got to get their little sister the required school uniform and some pencils so she can even GO to school (let alone look good when she gets there.) And on and on…we could go on forever.
the point i want to make in regards to this article, is that kids who’ve got that direct experience of poverty in a developing country/different culture, who have come out of it and are in the U.S. for higher education, work, whatever…could potentially really have an effect on the Air Jordan, mom-abusing, public housing poor just through dialogue or even through some video footage, interviews, documentary style exposure. Malaak and her $$ and time would be awesome, but again, limited audience.
In any case, her project really excites me.