brynn’s Reviews > Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City > Status Update

Whatever our way out of this mess, one thing is certain. This degree of inequality, this withdrawal of opportunity, this cold denial of basic needs, this endorsement of pointless suffering - by no American value is this situation justified. No moral code or ethical principle, no piece of scripture or holy teaching, can be summoned to defend what we have allowed our country to become.

There are two freedoms at odds with each other: the freedom to profit from rents and the freedom to live in a safe and affordable home.

Working on behalf of the common good is the engine of democracy, vital to our communities, cities, states - and, ultimately, the nation. It is "an outflow of the idealism and moralism of the American people," wrote Gunnar Myrdal. Some have called this impulse "love of country" or "patriotism" or the "American spirit." But whatever its name, its foundation is the home.

The home is the center of life. It is a refuge from the grind of work, the pressure of school, and the menace of the streets. We say that at home, we can "be ourselves." Everywhere else, we are someone else. At home, we remove our masks.

Arleen smiled at Jori. "I wish my life were different," she said. "I wish that when I be an old lady, I can sit back and look at my kids. And they be grown. And they, you know, become something. Something more than me. And we'll all be together, and be laughing. We be remembering stuff like this and be laughing at it."

When Pana heard about it, he made Arleen a deal. If she left by Sunday, he'd return her rent and security deposit; if she didn't, he would keep her money and evict her. Children didn't shield families from eviction; they exposed them to it.

The distance between grinding poverty and even stable poverty could be so vast that those at the bottom had little hope of climbing out even if they pinched every penny. So they chose not to. Instead, they tried to survive in color, to season the suffering with pleasure.

What the chief failed to realize, or failed to reveal, was that his department’s own rules presented bartered women with a devil’s bargain: keep quiet and face abuse or call the police and face eviction.

i love this it’s really well written. but damn is it heavy. i can’t read very much at a time