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You can see more of our work, including links to things we mentioned here, by going to nbcnews.com/whyisthishappening. So thats a lot on my plate with some cornbread. Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American And so I have seen my siblings struggle for decades with it and have periods of sobriety and then relapse. Elliott says those are the types of stories society tends to glorify because it allows us to say, if you work hard enough, if you are gifted enough, then you can beat this.. And through the years of American journalism, and some of the best journalism that has been produced, is about talking about what that looks like at the ground level. Poverty Isnt the Problem | American Enterprise Institute So there were more than 22,000 children in homeless shelters at that time in the main system. And part of the reason I think that is important is because the nature of the fracturing (LAUGH) of American society is such that as we become increasingly balkanized, there's a kind of spacial separation that happens along class lines. This is a pivotal, pivotal decade for Brooklyn. Dasani races back upstairs, handing her mother the bottle. Why Is This Happening? And they were, kind of, swanky. But before we do that, I want to talk a little bit about your subjective perspective and your experience as this observer and the ethical complications (LAUGH) of that and talk a little bit about how you dealt with that right after we take this quick break. Used purple Uggs and Patagonia fleeces cover thinning socks and fraying jeans. The journalist will never forget the first time she saw the family unit traveling in a single file line, with mother Chanel Sykes leading the way as she pushed a stroller. It was this aspiration that was, like, so much a part of her character. So Bed-Stuy, East New York. Sometimes she doesnt have to blink. I had spent years as a journalist entering into communities where I did not immediately belong or seem to belong as an outsider. She was a single mother. I had not ever written a book. They think, "All men are created equal," creed is what distinguishes the U.S., what gives it its, sort of, moral force and righteousness in rebelling against the crown. How did you respond? The only way to do this is to leave the room, which brings its own dangers. She doesn't want to get out. Criminal justice. Like, "Why do I have to say, 'Isn't,' instead of, 'Ain't'?" (LAUGH) And the market produces massively too little affordable housing, which is in some ways part of the story of Dasani and her family, which is the city doesn't have enough affordable housing. She is 20 years old. We could have a whole podcast about this one (LAUGH) issue. Her body is still small enough to warm with a hairdryer. She was so tender with her turtle. And that's really true of the poor. She will be sure to take a circuitous route home, traipsing two extra blocks to keep her address hidden. Elliott says she was immediately drawn to 11-year-old Dasani not only because of the girls ability to articulate injustices in her life, but how Desani held so much promise for herself. In the book, the major turning points are, first of all, where the series began, that she was in this absolutely horrifying shelter just trying to survive. So at the time, you know, I was at The New York Times and we wrestled with this a lot. They are all here, six slumbering children breathing the same stale air. Don't their future adult selves have a right to privacy (LAUGH) in a sense? And so Dasani went literally from one day to the next from the north shore of Staten Island where she was living in a neighborhood that was very much divided along the lines of gang warfare.