Not to mention, that the amount of toxins that young children get exposed to in the inner city is very alarming. One serious toxin is lead, which is affecting the behavior of youths in low-income areas of cities. Lead is a real threat and has been proven to severely damaging the prefrontal lobes while children are developing. Robert Brochin a researcher at Georgetown University states that “Lead exposure during this period can lead to severe neurological and developmental problems that may manifest themselves later in the affected child ‘s life,” (Brochin, pp.3, 2008). Even health clinics put children in these settings at risk because 68 percent of Philadelphia inner-city pediatric clinics had 10 milliliters of lead (Ruboca, pp.655, 1998). …show more content…
In fact, the same self-hatred that Martine encourages Sophie to not acknowledge her ethnic origins. However, telling a child to suppress their ethnic origins is not good, because many children consider ethnicity to be important, and in United States has a demographic that is fill with diversity. Therefore, children will eventually notice the how they are different ethnic groups, and how they stand out. In a study taken out the book name Identity and Poverty: Defining A Sense of Self Among Urban Adolescents found that forty-five percent of young teens thought ethnicity is the most important part of their identity. This quote aligns with Sophie’s struggle of fitting in at school, and is coupled with the fact students of Haitian descent fear other student’s attacks. For example, in chapter seven of Breath, Eyes, Memory Sophie describes the shame that comes from rumors about Haitian stereotypes. She states that “They were even accused of having Haitian Body Odor… they heard on TV they have the four Hs heroin, addicts, hemophiliacs, homosexuals, and Haitians,” (Danticat, pp.51, 1994). With this in mind, young people are compell to notice how racially charge the United States