Emma Educates Us

The vast majority of cases brought to the attention of New York City's child protection system are cases of neglect, not abuse. Neglect is a subjective term that is applied quite differently in the city's poor neighborhoods than in its rich ones. Letting your child wander independently down the sidewalk in Park Slope is a funny anecdote. In the South Bronx, where more than 30% of our city's foster children hail from, this is often considered posing imminent risk to a child's life- and can result in that child being forcefully removed from their parent. In this episode, our guest Emma Ketteringham explains why our city's child protection system deserves to be subject to the same critique as our country's system of mass incarceration, why it hasn't been and its effect on families in NYC's poorest neighborhoods.

Emma is the managing director of the Family Defense Practice at the Bronx Defenders, a public defender organization determined to give their clients the high quality, multi-disciplinary representation that residents of more privileged neighborhoods have come to expect from private attorneys. Emma manages 50 lawyers, advocates, and social workers who represent over 85% of parents involved in child protection cases in the South Bronx.

Drawing from her impressive professional experience as a public interest lawyer, historical and political knowledge and personal reference library of straight up facts, Emma paints us a clear picture of how the system fails to serve the parents and children it was built to protect. We also learn more about the incredible progress the Defenders have made and how we can help address one of the most important social and feminist issues our city faces. Oh, Alexis and Emma also throw you some book recommendations and some commentary on what makes Cardi B so great. As always, you can find links to everything referenced below.

FOR MORE ON THE BRONX DEFENDERS:

• Visit their website, especially how to get involved
• Follow them on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram 

TO READ AND RESEARCH

• Larissa MacFarquhar's New Yorker article "When Should A Child Be Taken From His Parents?" and her appearance on the Brian Lehrer show
• Emma's op-ed published in the New York Times "Live in a Poor Neighborhood? Better Be a Perfect Parent."
• The labyrinth of New York City's middle school selection process
• Bill de Blasio and the "tale of two cities"
• Mommy pot blogs and press 
• The Atlantic on "free range" parenting's unfair double standard
• Bryan Stevenson on how "the North won the war, but the South won the narrative"
• The death of Zymere Perkins and the response from the media, the mayor and ACS
• Asthma in the Bronx
• Cardi B profiled in GQ

EMMA'S BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS:

• Emma and Alexis discussed this one off-air. And they both agree that every listener should read Random Family. A MUST for anyone interested in the Bronx, America's indifference to the poor, the bonds between family members and everything else discussed in this episode. Author Adrian LeBlanc spent 11 years living with the people she profiles, this book is the epic, moving and sometimes tragic result.
• Addicted to Rehab: Race, Gender and Drugs in the Era of Mass Incarceration, Allison McKim
• Mercy, Bryan Stevenson
• Shattered Bonds: The Color of Child Welfare, Dorothy Roberts

TO LISTEN TO:

• Cardi B... duh