best and worst places to grow up: atlas of upward mobility

How Your Area Compares

Click on the above link to see how one's county of residence compares to other nearby areas in contributing to the social mobility of children. This interactive along with the New York Times article, An Atlas of Upward Mobility Shows Paths Out of Poverty, describes how much growing up in the nation's largest cities affects future earnings based on a recent study by Chetty and Hendren. A somewhat similar interactive, showing the changing geographical distribution of income concenration (1970-2007) over the nation's 24 largest cities is available through The Stanford Center for the Study of Wealth and Poverty.

super rich kids

Frank Ocean - Super Rich Kids from dustin sussman on Vimeo.
This post was contributed by SOC 3013 student, Brittany Nicole Cannan.

In my opinion, Frank Ocean is one of the best rap artists of our time. He recently came out with an album, Channel Orange, and "Super Rich Kids" is one of its feature songs. I've posted the lyrics below along with the video so you can better visualize what he is saying. The song is a play on children who grow up in families with lots of money, but with parents who are neglectful due to over-involvement with careers. These kids then are often unsupervised and have plenty of time to mess around. I really relate to this as much of my childhood and teen years was also spent at home alone, and although I didn't get into too much trouble, plenty of other children in my neighborhood did. There were parties thrown every weekend, kids getting arrested, and cops always seemed to be circling the neighborhood. This song includes drug references as well, such as "too many bowls of that green, no lucky charms" and "too many white lies and white lines." In all, Ocean provides vivid insights about some of the struggles facing children who grow up in otherwise privileged homes.

Too many bottles of this wine we can’t pronounce
Too many bowls of that green, no Lucky Charms
The maids come around too much
Parents ain’t around enough
Too many joy rides in daddy’s Jaguar
Too many white lies and white lines
Super rich kids with nothing but loose ends
Super rich kids with nothing but fake friends
[Verse 1: Frank Ocean]
Start my day up on the roof
There’s nothing like this type of view
Point the clicker at the tube
I prefer expensive news
New car, new girl
New ice, new glass
New watch, good times babe
It's good times, yeah
She wash my back three times a day
This shower head feels so amazing
We’ll both be high, the help don’t stare
They just walk by, they must don’t care
A million one, a million two
A hundred more will never do
[Refrain]
[Bridge]
Real love, I’m searching for a real love
Real love, I’m searching for a real love
Oh, real love
[Verse 2: Earl Sweatshirt]
Close your eyes to what you can't imagine
We are the xany-gnashing
Caddy-smashing, bratty ass
He mad, he snatched his daddy's Jag
And used the shit for batting practice
Adam and Annie thrashing
Purchasing crappy grams with half the hand of cash you handed
Panic and patch me up
Pappy done latch-keyed us
Toying with Raggy Anns and Mammy done had enough
Brash as fuck, breaching all these aqueducts
Don’t believe us
Treat us like we can’t erupt, yup
[Alternate Verse 2: Frank Ocean]
Polo sweats and Hermes blankets
Them label hoes be stealing my shit
And all they clothes revealing they tits
Pills, high enough to touch the rim in that bitch
We party in my living room
Cause father is gone
And he left me this empire
That runs on its own
So all I got to do is whatever the fuck I want
All we ever do is whatever the fuck we want
[Verse 3: Frank Ocean]
We end our day up on the roof
I say I’ll jump, I never do
But when I’m drunk I act a fool
Talking bout, do they sew wings on tailored suits
I’m on that ledge, she grabs my arm
She slaps my head
It's good times, yeah
Sleeve rips off, I slip, I fall
The market's down like 60 stories
And some don’t end the way they should
My silver spoon has fed me good
A million one, a million cash
Close my eyes and feel the crash
[Refrain]
[Outro]
Real love, ain't that something rare
I’m searching for a real love, talking bout real love
Real love yeah
Real love
I’m searching for a real love

Talking bout a real love

poor kids

Please feel free to write a review of this just-released documentary. View entire documentary at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/poor-kids/

what if the Honduras Air Force detained U.S. citizen children?

This story was written by Dottie Laster and originally posted at Anti Trafficking News by Dottie Laster 

According to the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) there is a need for emergency shelters due to an increase in the number of unaccompanied minors crossing into the United States. One of the solutions that ORR is using is to detain children at Lackland Air Force Base. According to ORR they have just over 200 children housed at the Air Force base (see the New York Times story). According to the story, border apprehensions overall have declined; there were 340,252 nationwide last fiscal year, down from 1.2 million in 2005. The small increase of children to cause such extreme measures as housing on an Air Force base seems suspicious.

These children are all in the United States without adults to accompany them. They have been detained by Immigration or Customs and Border Patrol, some as young as 8. Many have been victims of sexual abuse, human trafficking and other crimes. According to the Flores vs Reno Settlement "all minors are to be held in the least restrictive environment, be provided at least 6 hours of education daily, and access to legal services and mental health care. Any minor who is a victim of a violent felony, abused abandoned or neglected or a victim of human trafficking may qualify for immigration relief." According to the Trafficking Victims Protection Act trafficking victims are not to be detained or deported.

According to one of the detained children, after the press tour was over the 2 hours of education they were receiving was taken away, the teachers replaced by guards, the board games taken away, the outdoor time evaporated and the children were denied even arts and craft supplies. All this changed after the the single tour of outside observers left. Many non- profit legal service providers have volunteered free legal services to these children only to be rebuffed and denied access.

When remembering the Stanford Prison Experiment, by Dr. Philip Zimbardo, one recalls how college students treated their “captives” in the short time they had power and control over them. It was a lesson for psychologists and sociologists to understand how people behave in the absence of oversight and in the position of detaining others. It could be assumed that groups of people detaining others are susceptible to the actions portrayed in the Stanford Prison Experiment.

When the inequity of immigrant children, being held with no outside representation and advocates, are wards of large bureaucracies who benefit financially from their incarceration then I wonder why anyone would think it is ok to allow these children to be denied legal and psychological services. Why is a detaining organization able to operate unlicensed and in a location where no one can check on the children?

Also, how can 200 immigrants be allowed on an Air Force base? Just to visit a family member who is in the Air Force is a long process which involves many levels if identification. What decision maker combined the U.S. Air Force with detained immigrant children? Does not this suggest an image of the least-in-voice crushed by the most powerful organization in the world? If US citizen-abandoned children were held on a Honduran Air Force base behind guards with no access to legal services, education, or mental health services, would we cry foul? Would we demand their rights be protected? Should we treat all children as carefully as we treat our own? 


Related articles
Lackland AFB a temporary shelter for immigrant children (mySanAntonio.com)
UK Border Agency 'detaining children in degrading conditions' at Heathrow (guardian.co.uk)
DEA admits to role in deadly Honduras helicopter shooting (cbsnews.com)
US DEA Agents Kill Up to Six Civilians in Honduras (news.antiwar.com)
Reverberations from drug raid felt in US, Honduras (kansascity.com)
Hondurans attack Government buildings, demand U.S. leave (redantliberationarmy.wordpress.com)