Tag Archives: dasani

Invisible Child Commentary

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 I believe it was a good decision to withhold Dasani’s last name as well as that of her family for protection purposes. In the story, Dasani spoke about the rivalry between her family members in the projects and the unexpected fights with people that could occur due to her family’s temper as well as her own. I agree with not including Dasani’s last name because of the potential harm it could’ve caused her or her family.

2) I didn’t mind that the story was long because I was so intrigued. I was able to really learn about Dasani, her family, and get a firsthand experience look into what life at a homeless shelter is long. Yes, it may have run long, but I personally would not criticize it because I genuinely enjoyed everything about this story.   3) Again, I believe the time was not disclosed due to safety reasons. There is a certain boundary that has to be kept with such delicate situations. You’re dealing with someones life, not just another report.

4) I feel like this shed a lot of light on how homeless people are treated in New York City. Yes, this may have been an extreme scenario, but who is to say that other homeless people in the city don’t go through this and more ?

5) Not everyone can really go into depth as to what life is for a homeless family the way Andrea Michelle did. I truly enjoyed her piece, and it left me wanting more. I can only hope we get an update piece soon because I truly opened my eyes to the extreme circumstances homeless people are forced to face.

Please comment on these criticisms and add your own criticism or praise.

Dasani response

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I don’t think that leaving out the last name was detrimental to the quality of the article. Her first name alone was empowering enough and held enough metaphorical value for the writer to really help the reader understand how unique Dasani is in her circumstances. The last name would absolutely have to be included for a news article but for a feature with the amount of research that was done and the time it took, including a last name is not quite as important as her story and its relevance to a more national scale issue.

I disagree with the critique that the story ran too long. The writer dissected on one angle of the bigger issue of homelessness and tied it to the different aspects of Dasani’s life, so every part of the story held a different value to the authors angle and the extended perspective strengthens the article. The information is not repetitive and the main idea of the story continues to be the reoccurring theme of all the parts to the story.

Again, like the last name, I think disclosing the time involved and the months following her is information that makes the story go on a tangent. For a more concrete news article, all statistics around the situation are vital, but for a feature article, it’s not necessary when all the other information points to these conclusions.

Focusing on more politics and policies on how homeless people are treated would have broadened the angle that the writer was pursuing, and I thought it was wise that the writer chose not to include more information. Doing so allowed the writer to focus on their angle with more depth and because the angle was specific, the shift in focus in the articles from Dasani to the issue at hand where all empowering and smooth.

The constant shifts in focus were what kept the entire story so engaging. It kept giving readers something else to gather before they were shifted from Dasani to something related to her circumstance. Fort Greene being a gentrification gem to the Auburn family residence, change in community exemplified through different streets being paved differently on Myrtle, Bloomberg “homelessness more enjoyable” to rats in Dasani’s room. This is a style I see a lot with authors I read like Junot Diaz and Dave Eggers, with the constant shifts holding value in how the reader receives the information.

I think that the article had the potential to be a middle ground for understanding larger and more complex issues. The shift of focus gave the reader perspective on how the larger scale issues and decisions effected the smaller scale issue of Dasani’s life. However I don’t think the article was exaggerated and I think the very specific focus helps exemplify the issues going on.

Invisible Child Comments

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I thoroughly enjoyed reading about Dasani and her family, I found myself rooting for them during tough times, and rejoicing at times when things were going well, like when they had a birthday party for Dasani, even though the cake was stolen from Pathmark. I didn’t feel her last name particularly mattered, we knew her family intimately by the end of the series, and I don’t think the fact that I don’t know their last name changes anything.

The story did run a bit long, but it was essentially telling somebody’s life story. That absolutely deserves some time. As for the Times not disclosing the extent of following her family, I found it clear that at the bottom of every article, there was a link to “Summary of Reporting” that detailed exactly what Andrea Elliott had been doing with Dasani and her family. Perhaps this was added after any controversy started brewing.

I also felt there was very much attention called to the policies and politics on how homeless people are treated, it was clear almost every time Chanel and Supreme suffered a setback  or were mistreated at Auburn how messed up the system is.

There is always risk when relying on a single story, but I don’t think there was any generalization and it was certainly not a caricature of larger and more complex issues. It may not have touched on these issues, but it didn’t caricature them in any way.