Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival, and Hope in an American City

Chapter 23 shifts focus to Supreme’s childhood. He was born to teenaged parents who had a heroin addiction, eventually learning how to convert food stamps to cash to feed their addiction. When he was seven, someone shot his grandmother while she was sitting in her rocking chair at home. There were rumors that she was a loan shark. The family was able to move into the apartment, and they kept the rocking chair.

At this point Supreme had two younger siblings, and his parents regularly threw parties. He picked up needles off the floor and sometimes came across someone shooting up in the bathroom. Sometimes he would come home to discover his parents were gone, which meant they were out of drugs and looking for some. He cooked stolen groceries and learned to collect his mother’s food stamps before she could convert them to money for drugs. He also did the shopping. He developed a phobia of mayonnaise after getting sick once from out-of-date food. His father was physically abusive to everyone in the family.

Child protection workers became aware of the family when Supreme was nine. The family now included four siblings, including a baby girl. One morning after taking a walk, Supreme came home to find his baby sister dead. The children were separated and placed in foster homes, and the father was arrested. It was later discovered that she died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), but the parents lost custody of the children anyway. Four years later, the siblings were reunited with their mother in a part of Bed-Stuy where shootings and drug use were regular. Supreme ended up joining a gang and dealing crack in North Carolina, which landed him in jail.

Skipping ahead to 2013, Giant leads a group protesting the acquittal of the man who had shot Trayvon Martin. This is the beginning of the Black Lives Matter movement. A court has recently determined that New York City’s stop and frisk policies target people of color. Supreme decides to enter rehab; Dasani is relieved that he is leaving. Because of his Five Percenter beliefs, the counselor concludes he needs a psychiatric evaluation.

An infant dies at Auburn, which leads to inspections. Health inspectors declare that children under two and children with respiratory issues shouldn’t live there at all. Since both criteria apply to Dasani’s family, they are transferred to another shelter that includes an apartment with a kitchen. With Supreme still in rehab, Chanel is short on cash. She takes the children to therapy once again. A few hours later, a van takes them to their new address, which happens to be in Harlem near the park where Giant trains with the Bartendaz.

Supreme drops out of rehab to rejoin the family. Chanel attempts to shoplift at Macy’s but is caught. Supreme travels there to get the kids while Chanel is taken into custody. She is eventually released, and Supreme says they should beg instead of steal. Dasani begins to sense that something is off with the way they do things and that most families don’t beg and shoplift to get what they need. Supreme has entered a new methadone program and cooks in the kitchen regularly.

School arrangements become complicated. The younger children go to school in Harlem, but Nana, Avianna, and Dasani all want to remain at McKinney. Nana is assigned a bus because of her disability, but the others must find other ways to get there. Chanel escorts them, and Miss Holmes offers to let Chanel volunteer until the busing situation can be sorted out.

Around this time, in December, Elliott’s five-part series is published in The New York Times. Now Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio promises to address the crisis of unhoused individuals. Bloomberg only mentions the articles sparingly. Eventually, a rebuttal is published The Wall Street Journal. Dasani and Chanel are regularly recognized, and the Times receives so many donations that the paper sets up a trust fund for the children. The new public advocate, Letitia James, claims to have played a role in the story. Elliott and Dasani had never met her. James asks if Dasani will help participate in Bill de Blasio’s inauguration. James refers to her as “my new BFF” (262). She shakes Hillary Clinton’s hand, and Clinton tells her she’ll give her an office when she is in the White House. Dasani believes she is inspiring people. Bill de Blasio moves more children out of Auburn and makes other immediate changes. Chanel complains that she can’t access the trust fund.

Chanel heads with Papa and Lee-Lee to the welfare office to settle a financial matter. Papa has been suspended from school. Dasani hasn’t been to practice with Giant in a few months. Bill de Blasio, now the mayor, has promised to improve the system. Supreme left again the week before after a violent fight in which he pulled a knife and broke the TV. Chanel wonders if the Five-Percent Nation has made him racist—too focused on the “white man” to make decisions for himself (268). Papa is the only male left in the house.

A few days later, Supreme sends Khaliq and Nana to the apartment with a bottle of juice as a peace offering, but Chanel is unimpressed. Giant calls each morning to encourage Chanel to get out and make money.

Elliott introduces Joshua Goldfein, an attorney with New York’s Legal Aid Society, best known for his work on unhoused rights. Chanel calls Goldfein when she is in trouble, most recently when she punched a caseworker, but they don’t always see eye to eye. Goldfein set up the trust fund, for example, to which Chanel wants access.

Though Dasani wants to go to Giant’s practices, she often misses both them and school. The principal, Miss Holmes, suspects her mother is relying on her and Avianna to do things around the house. She confronts Dasani and Avianna with the counselor present, and they admit they have been oversleeping and spending time with their mother. Miss Holmes reminds them they need to fight for their education, something she tells them often. After the discussion, the counselor calls a “child abuse hotline” (275).

Miss Holmes has mixed feelings about reporting negligence. She believes children usually do better at home, even with the oversight of ACS. She worries about what happens to children like Dasani when they end up in foster care. She believes families should receive better “material help” (276). Miss Holmes considers pushing for Dasani and Avianna to get into Hershey, a private school started by the chocolate magnate for poor kids.

She calls them together to inform them of the opportunity. The founder of the charter school that occupies McKinney’s top floor protests Mayor Bill de Blasio’s policy and curries favor with the governor of New York State. Miss Holmes plans to retire at the end of the year. Dasani has a broken tooth with a cavity. She hasn’t received dental care in years, which could change at Hershey. Supreme has recently been injured in a fight with another unhoused man. He walks with a cane.

Supreme and Giant have a confrontation. Chanel claims that Giant was disrespectful toward her at the park recently, prompting Supreme to post a death threat on Facebook. Dasani reluctantly sides with Supreme, parting ways with Giant. A recent evaluation determined Supreme has psychological issues. His anxiety skyrockets when Eric Garner is choked to death by a police officer for selling cigarettes. Supreme used to buy cigarettes from him.

A boy who is interested in Dasani, Jay, attempts to get her to sleep with him. She resists, and he pulls her hair before she runs away. Avianna disputes this story, claiming that Jay simply dumped Dasani for a different girl. Chanel fights with another resident, and they are transferred to another shelter in the Bronx. Avianna and Dasani are now old enough to go to school by themselves. They arrive to discover that Miss Holmes has retired.

Dasani has advanced to eighth grade, but her sister Avianna and Dasani’s long-term rival Star have not. Avianna ends up in Miss Hester’s room. Miss Hester was recently evicted from her apartment because the owner wanted to renovate and sell the building. She is now unhoused with her 15-year-old daughter. Chanel gets a voucher for a rent subsidy, and she chooses to move the family to Staten Island, the borough they lived in after receiving Joanie’s pension. Dasani remains committed to going to McKinney.

The family moves to a new duplex in Staten Island. Supreme, Khaliq, and Nana are still not around. Chanel misplaces her key, so she forces the front door open. Papa is energetic and difficult to control until they get to the bay, where all the children jump into the water with their clothes on. Dasani gets suspended from the local school for getting into a fight. She tries to commute to McKinney, but the school is too far away. Supreme, Nana, and Khaliq have moved back in. Supreme spends most of his time researching police brutality and keeping up on Black Lives Matter. The police officer who strangled Eric Garner is not indicted, which leads to a series of protests.

ACS caseworkers stop by the house. They try to inspect the children for marks. There are three bedrooms for the children now, but usually they end up forming a big mattress in the living room, as they did when they lived in shelters. Elliott has gradually become “Drea” to the family, and she spends a lot of time with them to work on her book. Chanel doesn’t always get along with Elliott, and she is sometimes mad at her for not giving them money. Elliott will sometimes speak to bureaucrats on the family’s behalf. Chanel makes Elliott listen to The Notorious B.I.G. and proposes replacing the white-sounding voice of the GPS with “an app called Hood GPS” (294). Chanel offers Elliott advice on her relationships and her brother, who suffers from alcoholism.

Dasani is not admitted back into McKinney because of her suspension. Instead, she must “report to a ‘suspension site,’” where children seem to mostly sit at computers and watch movies (295). She is accepted to Hershey. Avianna is not admitted, but she can take another round of tests to try again. The sisters are inseparable as the departure date nears.