Shannon Sharpe
As I watched the movie Pruitt-Igo
I seen a great amount of ideas and illustrations that showed how Pruitt-Igo could seem a bit like a
prison outside of prison. The first thing that stood out to me was living
conditions. When Pruit-Igo projects
were first built they started off as a nice place to live. Over time the living
conditions in this area worsened because the government stopped funding Pruitt-Igo. One individual in the movie
spoke of a time that the tenants of Pruitt-Igo
were living without a heater during a cold winter. This led to one of main
sewage pipes bursting which caused the community to flood. The people of Pruitt-Igo tried to stop the flooding
but it was impossible due to lack of resources. Once the government stopped funding
the projects crime rates in the area rose drastically, so drastically that the
police stopped coming to help the people because it was so dangerous. Another
reason police stopped coming to help the people was that Pruitt-Igo was a predominantly black area, and at the time blacks
were still trying to climb the ladder of equality. Government funding seemed to
be another way that the projects might have felt a little like living in
prison. Since the government was funding the projects they determined who lived
in them and also who could and could not visit. Do to government regulations
many kids in the community would rarely get to see the their fathers. One
person in the documentary explained how he would have to lie to the people in
charge regulating the projects about seeing his father or his father living
with his family because his father had a job and men with jobs were not allowed
to live there their families. Fighting was also very common in the Pruitt-Igo projects. Similar to prison
fighting was a way to ear respect in the community amongst the community
especially for African Americans. If you knew how to fight people would not
bother you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWiyBuHUCfY
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