Alex Kotlowitz, author, journalist and opening lecturer for the 19th Annual Distinguished Speaker series, delivered a powerful message Thursday night about poverty, race and violence in America.
Kotlowitz began his discussion with stories of survival from New Orleans. He recently visited the Astrodome, where he spoke to some of the 27,000 Hurricane Katrina survivors who are temporarily living there.
"Katrina pulled the curtain back on deep and profound fissures in American landscape," he said. "A measure of a civilization is its ability and desire to comfort the afflicted."
Kotlowitz said the public needs to be more aware of the issues raised by Katrina.
"The state of our poor, especially poor children, I believe, is one of the most urgent issues facing society today," he said.
He went on to explain how, in certain parts of New Orleans, a young African-American male has a greater chance today of being killed than a soldier did during the Vietnam War.
The African-American infant mortality rate in the U.S. rivals that of some third world countries, Kotlowitz said, yet a collective unwillingness of Americans to face these problems only allows them to worsen.
"The gap between two Americas is wide and deep, and has only widened in times of economic prosperity," he said.
"Where are our civil and political leaders?" he added, saying the issues of poverty and violence were completely ignored during the last election.
Chris Hildebrandt, freshman accounting major, said Kotlowitz's speech was intriguing.
"It was inspirational," Hildebrandt said. "I feel like he's trying to get people to realize what's wrong, or do something worthwhile."
Kotlowitz also spoke about his experiences with Lafeyette and Pharaoh Rivers, two African-American brothers on whose young lives he'd based his book "There Are No Children Here."
The book, which was this year's UB Reads selection, focuses on Lafeyette and Pharaoh's childhood in Chicago's West Side, where they experienced the extreme effects of gang violence and poverty at the ages of nine and thirteen.
Kotlowitz attributed such violence and poverty to the dissolution of communities.
"The breakdown in community is due to the breakdown of work," he said.
Kotlowitz then asked why people acted as if they knew nothing about issues such as poverty and violence.
"It surprises me that so many know so little. Where has everyone been?" he said. "How can we not know?"
Kotlowitz described his time with the boys as a very harrowing, yet educational relationship.
"They spoke of violence with such casualness, such matter-of-factness," he said.
Although they were children, he said that the two boys were really unable to have a childhood amidst such rampant violence. He described dark circles he saw underneath the two boys' eyes, because they weren't able to sleep. They were also unable to form meaningful, healthy relationships, because they were so often subjected to violence and hate.
"Children become spiritual nomads, with no one to turn to, not even themselves," he said.
Silence, Kotlowitz said, was the major contributor to breakdowns in places like Chicago's West Side. He found there was not only an institutional silence around children and the afflicted, but also a silence that these types of communities impose on themselves.
"They think that if they begin to share their stories, they won't be believed," he said. "Self-imposed silence is the most painful and destructive silence there is."
The only way to change the situation, Kotlowitz said, is with more involvement from everyday people.
"If our leaders can not act, then we must," he said.
Photo: Courtesy of Matthew Messina, from the RMBERS' Instagram page
