Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival, and Hope in an American City

Dasani struggles to sleep the first night at Hershey because she is not used to the quiet. Her roommate has been at Hershey for much longer and has no trouble falling asleep. The McQuiddys are used to dealing with the varying survival skills children bring.

The McQuiddys have a good relationship and have recognized that it is important to let the children see them argue, because many of them have been exposed to domestic violence and haven’t seen healthy ways of resolving conflict. Jason often sings loudly, while Tabitha tends to be quieter. The McQuiddys are trying to provide skills that will help the children wherever they end up. To get ready for school, Dasani has a variety of medical appointments and a psychological evaluation. She also must get new clothes.

Back in Staten Island, Papa watches a pirated version of the new adaptation of Annie, starring Jamie Foxx. He runs away from home shortly after. When an ACS caseworker later asks him why he ran away, he says he wanted to enter the foster system. Without Dasani in the house, he feels unprotected.

When he is found, he gives the name of his school district and his principal is contacted. Chanel is notified by police, and she asks them to retrieve Papa as she cannot take the rest of the children to the hospital. They agree. At the hospital, ACS is saying that the parents refuse to claim their child. Papa becomes combative and eventually is sedated and handcuffed. Chanel asks Elliott to drive her and Khaliq to the hospital. While there, ACS sends caseworkers to her home to inspect and interview the children.

The next day, Chanel contacts Dasani to inform her of the news. ACS will be visiting Dasani at Hershey. Dasani understands what the process will entail—more scrutiny and investigations for signs of neglect. During their conversation, Chanel asks a lot of questions to ensure that Dasani has everything she needs. Dasani mentions a girl she has met who is “more ghetto than” her (331) and discusses possibly piercing her ears. Her mother persuades her not to do it by discussing the pain involved.

Dasani contemplates the differences between her current life in the predominantly white, small town of Hershey and her life in New York. She finds similarities between her houseparents and Chanel and Supreme, but there are also a lot of differences. Supreme and Chanel are proud of the knowledge they gain by reading, whereas she never sees her houseparents reading. Tabitha has Dasani try a meringue, something she enjoys seeing children experience for the first time. Life in Hershey follows a very strict routine.

One theory embedded in Hershey’s approach is that the children must learn routines. This is similar to Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs—an influential theory holding that people cannot attend to more abstract needs (for love, community, and personal fulfillment) until their basic needs for food, safety, and shelter are met. Dasani sees her mother as always in survival mode and therefore forced to neglect her emotional needs. Dasani’s first day of school is filled with both worry and a newfound sense of peace. She doesn’t like math, but she also feels that everything at Hershey is quieter. She isn’t worried about those around her and finds the strict schedule she must adhere to freeing.

Elliott discusses the effects of chronic stress on cognitive development. Research conducted in 2013 showed that poor children had less gray matter than their more well-to-do peers by age 4. Chronic stress is also linked to several health conditions, including diabetes and heart disease. At Hershey, one approach to dealing with these realities is to try to replace the “fixed mindset” the children often come with, believing their intelligence or their behavior is fixed, with a “growth mindset,” in which they believe they can grow and change for the better (340).

Dasani makes a new friend, Khali, who lives down the hall from her. Dasani appreciates Khali’s authenticity, while Khali appreciates that Dasani is funny and doesn’t complain. They compare the skin color of those around them to types of chocolate. At her house in Hershey, Dasani finds it easy to adapt to some things, but she struggles with the lack of junk food and the McQuiddys’ strict expectations about language and grammar.

When Jason and Tabitha take a weekend off, Dasani undoes her braids in an act of defiance. When they come back, she eventually informs Tabitha that they were starting to look old. She admits that she undid them in order to take control of something. Tabitha sets up an appointment with the school salon, where they cannot take the time to do her hair that her mother or her hairstylist usually take.

Dasani goes to see a therapist, Julie Williams, who puts her at ease with her calm manner and hints of relatable experience. She grew up in a small town in Pennsylvania and lived for a time with her father, who had a drug addiction. Later, she moved in with her mother, who worked all the time. Julie was a runner and hoped to become a track star. She became pregnant before going to college, and her child’s father’s parents helped to raise the baby so she could focus on school.

Kali and Dasani work on a film together, and Dasani reflects on having always felt that she was a star. She remembers her mother secretly telling her she was the favorite a few years ago. The family at Hershey takes a trip to the natural history museum. Tabitha keeps counting heads to make sure everyone is there, reminding Dasani of school trips back home. Dasani writes a poem for her mother. The McQuiddys’ son plays a clarinet piece he wrote himself, and Dasani cheers as though celebrating one of her own siblings.

In shop class, Dasani works on a candy dispenser for her siblings. She writes letters to her family. She receives a lengthy response from Supreme, which he signs “your father and daddy, Godsupreme” (351). Dasani has heard rumors that her biological father is sober and working. She visited him briefly in 2013. The McQuiddys feel that Dasani is a “parentified child” and that they must gradually encourage her toward behaviors that are more age appropriate. Dasani tries to shave her legs, seeing that her housemates are doing it. She cuts her legs and goes to Tabitha for help. Dasani is focused on making the track team.

The family reenters the systems of regulations and interventions in the wake of Papa running away. Most cases are in relation to allegations of neglect, “which is strongly correlated to poverty” and disproportionately impacts families of color (356). Papa blames himself for what has happened, and Chanel seems to blame him as well. The first accusation of neglect came when marijuana was found in Papa’s blood at birth. The same judge that presided over that case in Brooklyn is presiding over this case in Staten Island, though neither Chanel nor the judge (Judge Lim) recognize each other.

Chanel would probably have access to better legal representation in a different borough of the city, but in Staten Island her only option is a court-appointed attorney. The attorney, Glenn Yost, happens to share Chanel’s tendency toward theatrics. He is a former police officer who worked narcotics in Brooklyn during the crack epidemic. The court finds that both parents are neglectful and that they must be supervised and meet court orders to retain custody of their children. Judge Lim wants Chanel to take a drug test as soon as she can.

Chanel shares none of this news with her family, especially Dasani. At Hershey, Dasani is thriving. She is doing well in her classes, even math, and she has made the track team. She misses her family and is excited for spring break. Her mother notices some changes in the way she speaks, and Dasani worries about “acting white.” Chanel meets Dasani at the bus station, where Dasani presents her with the candy dispenser she has made.

On the way home, they stop at a local bodega, where the boss greets Dasani warmly and they fill the candy dispenser with Skittles. They get home, and Dasani is stampeded by her siblings, who have made her a poster. There is tension between Dasani and Avianna, as Avianna still has not been admitted to Hershey. Avianna notices that Dasani speaks differently, and Dasani also corrects everyone else. At dinner she uses a fork to eat and only does her own dishes. She also gives other suggestions about cleaning. Avianna accuses her of “actin’ real white” (365).

While Dasani has been away, Lee-Lee has bonded with Nana, who is competitive by nature. One morning, when Lee-Lee climbs into Dasani’s lap, Nana says something negative, and Dasani responses aggressively. Avianna is happy to see that Dasani is back to her former self.

Lee-Lee has a seizure and is rushed to the hospital. Dasani stays with her while she is under observation. She will be headed to Hershey soon, which she now refers to as “home” (367). Dasani and her siblings perform a dance routine at the station and earn some money. Chanel gets Dasani’s hair braided. Avianna goes with her though there isn’t enough money for her. There, they meet a young girl and discuss how Avianna was held back. Eventually, Avianna is in tears as Dasani cajoles her about her performance in school.

Dasani goes back to Hershey and struggles, like many of the students, with the transition back, though most do not speak of what’s happening at home. Dasani is worried for her sisters Nana and Avianna, who are struggling to get to school on time and often miss breakfast. Dasani trains to run the 100-meter dash and is one of the fastest girls on the track team. The coaches emphasize passion and discipline—a combination they call “grit.”

The concept of “grit” became popular in education through a Ted Talk by Angela Duckworth, but there are some parallels between her concept and Milton Hershey’s ideas of “character building.” Elliott points undercuts this emphasis on personal tenacity by pointing to research indicating that environmental factors are at least as important. Children fair best when they are in a stable environment with access to educational resources by age 13. Dasani was 13 when she first enrolled in Hershey. Duckworth defines grit as a passionate, unwavering commitment to future goals, but Dasani has come from a background in which she must be forever alert to the moment, rarely considering the future.

In Chapter 31, Supreme suspects Chanel is using drugs again. She has not yet complied with a court-ordered drug test, though Supreme is meeting his requirements with the methadone clinic. Dasani is finding success in track, but she is struggling to adjust at Hershey. She gets in trouble for cursing, and a fight with a classmate on the bus results in a suspension. During a call with her family, Baby Lee-Lee says he hates her. Khaliq, the oldest boy, is also struggling in school and has an individualized education plan (IEP) because of cognitive delays.

Dasani celebrates her birthday at her house in Hershey, while tragedy unfolds for her family in NYC. Khaliq has passed out on the floor after smoking some of his father’s synthetic marijuana. Chanel calls 911 and goes with him to the hospital. It is noted that “she is droopy” and possibly high, and she disappears for a long time without others being able to reach her. Supreme is at home when a caseworker arrives. While he has remained relatively clean and compliant with requests and demands, Chanel is off the rails. The court decides that Chanel must stay out of the home because of her lack of compliance, similar to something that happened four years ago.

Dasani competes in her first 4x100 meter relay race. Though she worries about passing the baton correctly, she does well. In practice, she is inconsistent, either chatting too much, running too fast, or refusing to work through discomfort. Her coach emphasizes that discomfort is a necessary part of improvement. Dasani has lacked focus since coming back from Staten Island, and one day she gets into a fight on the bus.

After the fight, she has a discussion with her housefather Jason. She says she doesn’t want to be fake, and Jason introduces her to the idea of code-switching. Dasani feels skeptical, but she later discusses this concept with her therapist Julie, a Black woman, who presents it in a way that Dasani seems to accept.

In Staten Island, Chanel has not yet taken a drug test. Supreme is trying to get work as a barber and continues to suspect that Chanel is using drugs again. The family is referred to “preventive services”—a consortium of nonprofit organizations designed to help address issues for dysfunctional families (383). ACS has spent more on these programs in recent years and has seen a significant decline in the percentage of families broken up, but the city continues to spend far less on preventive services than on foster care.

The family is assigned to Foundling, a large foster care provider. They are assigned a “prevention worker” (John) who identifies a range of goals for the family. Chanel sees little difference between prevention workers and caseworkers from ACS. John visits the family regularly. When Supreme and Chanel fight, Khaliq responds by cleaning. He is reading well below his grade level and attends a school “for children with cognitive delays” and “severe emotional problems” (387). He struggles in school, and one day ends up in the hospital after an argument with a classmate that resulted in a confrontation with a teacher. His discharge papers indicate he is grieving and should talk to a professional.

Dasani is getting ready for high school, which means she will be assigned to a new house family and will be on a new campus. She plans to try out for cheerleading. She has become more comfortable with code-switching, which therapist Julie analogizes to changing a channel.

Elliott revisits some of the events discussed in Chapter 31, noting that Khaliq lied to the ACS caseworker in the hospital, claiming he got the synthetic marijuana from a friend rather than from his father. A medical aid lectures Khaliq about the choices he is making and how getting arrested will affect him. Her emphasis on choices doesn’t make sense to Khaliq, who has never felt that he had choices.

Judge Lim decrees that Chanel cannot have contact with the children, leaving Supreme with supervised custody. Chanel shows up at the courthouse at the last minute, and her attorney, Yost, hands her the papers outside the courthouse. After, she wanders around the city for a while, lingering outside Auburn, which is now a shelter exclusively for adults. She stays a few nights at various friends’ houses until she runs into an old friend, Barbara. Chanel goes to the hospital for knee pain and learns that the knee should probably be replaced, news that doesn’t seem to bother her much. She and Barbara end up sleeping outside on a heart-shaped sculpture.

Dasani graduates from middle school at Hershey. She hasn’t been able to connect with her family in a while, and she is unaware of the situation that is developing, though she knows her mother won’t be at the ceremony. In Staten Island, Supreme explains the situation to the children while Khaliq cleans.

Chanel and Supreme blame each other for their situation. Supreme feels Chanel needs to check into rehab to get cleared to come back home. Chanel feels that Supreme’s synthetic marijuana is the source of their problem. Chanel also thinks Staten Island might be more racist than Brooklyn. Chanel attempts to get back into the house to get some clothes, but Supreme won’t let her in.

Chanel attends a hearing to regain access to her children. She has taken a urine test and promises to take a hair follicle test that day. Hair follicle tests can produce false positives for Black people. Chanel is also worried that if she can’t get back into the house today, she will have to wait until after the summer is over. The judge eventually asks for an earlier slot. The ACS caseworker Marisol and Chanel exchange words, and Chanel gets angry. Chanel is also upset that they are only considering her failure and not the context that contributed to it.

Chanel checks into a treatment program, where she will test positive for various substances, but first she contacts Dasani to tell her that she should stay at Hershey for the summer. Dasani gets upset and hangs up. At the Staten Island house, Supreme struggles to keep up with everything. Most things are in Chanel’s name, and there isn’t much food. The prevention worker, John, provides a list of places where Supreme can get food, but they are all too far for Supreme to reach by foot with kids in tow. The food stamps are also in Chanel’s name. Supreme reluctantly asks John for some help, and John promises to return the next day with gift cards. He does not show up, and Khaliq posts a photo on social media with a gun. The next day Supreme tells Khaliq he is “gonna rob somebody” (417).

Instead, Supreme threatens a local store clerk, telling him to buy items he has brought with him. The clerk refuses, and Supreme flees but is later arrested. While he is detained, he cannot contact Chanel because she isn’t responding to her phone. Back at the house, the children are running out of food, and Khaliq reminds the siblings that if someone knocks on the door they have to hide. Supreme is in prison, Chanel is in rehab, and Dasani is alone at Hershey for the summer.

Dasani remains unaware of how things are unraveling at home. She watches the movie Inside Out, in which the emotions of a young girl are presented as characters, and she must learn to let them coexist in order to mature. Dasani is beginning to recognize Chanel’s struggles with addiction and Supreme’s violent tendencies. In Staten Island, ACS is unaware of the night Supreme spent in jail. Because it is summer, the children struggle to find food, as they rely on school for two meals a day.

John eventually shows up but is kicked out by Supreme and quits the case. Supreme applies for emergency food stamps, as the welfare is still going to Chanel. His request is denied. He cannot reach Chanel to acquire food stamps as her phone has been stolen. Chanel has left a rehab program and is in a new treatment program. She is still unhoused. She meets with Marisol, her ACS caseworker, to remind them of their upcoming court date. Marisol seems indifferent to Chanel’s troubles. Marisol is overworked and Chanel is overwhelmed. She learns that Supreme is struggling to get food, so she decides to bring them food when food stamps next arrive.

Supreme picks up a stray pit bull and names it Akeelah after the movie Akeelah and the Bee, in which a young Black girl competes in a spelling bee. In mid-July, a white supremacist opens fire at a church in North Carolina. In Texas schools, new textbooks downplay the role of slavery in the Civil War, while Supreme makes sure his family learns the truth. On social media, he posts a cartoon of a police officer with a gun being put to his head.

Avianna and Nana have taken on the role of mother. They set up a schedule for everyone and keep on top of chores. Avianna takes over cooking. Though they are separate, Dasani and Avianna think about each other often and remain close. At Hershey, Dasani and Kali are becoming closer. Dasani reflects often on the character of Anger from the movie Inside Out. She hasn’t been in a fight in some time and is doing a better job controlling her anger.

Chanel’s court date arrives. Goldfein, the attorney who set up the trust fund for the kids, is there. Chanel has a clean urine test and, from her perspective, has made efforts to meet requirements. Judge Lim, however, says she can’t go home because traces of drugs were found in her hair follicle test. Her caseworker Marisol also complains about her lack of compliance.

Chanel explodes in the courtroom and is escorted outside, where she continues to be upset. The city has recently agreed to pay a settlement to Eric Garner’s family, but the fact that the officer that choked him to death still has his job confirms for Chanel the corruption of the system. Marisol comes out and they confront one another. Goldfein manages to calm Chanel and mentions the movie Inside Out.

Dasani meets her new houseparents, Jonathan and Melissa Akers, who are legends at Hershey. Both were born poor in New York City, like Dasani. Jonathan blends his various backgrounds and learns to ignore people who think poorly of him for it. Melissa strikes Dasani as much more feminine than most women she knows. During an icebreaking activity, they have the children write down lists of reasons they are at Hershey so that they can refer to them when things get difficult.

Meanwhile, Chanel is at a women’s shelter. Her room is hot, which prompts her to walk around the building wearing only a sheet until they give her an air conditioner. She does not want to attend visitations with her children: It upsets the children to see her when she cannot go home with them. She also wants a new caseworker, since she has had so much conflict with Marisol, but she is informed by others at the shelter that it’s not worth the effort. She swings between blaming everyone else for her troubles and blaming herself, and she considers death by suicide. She stops complying with ACS demands.

Dasani is organized and intent on succeeding. She develops a strong bond with her house father, Mr. Akers, and she seems to be moving up the ladder of positive behaviors as defined at the school. Her new roommate, Ashley, is from rural Pennsylvania and believes Dasani hides more than she lets on. Dasani, surprisingly, enjoys cheerleading. In part, it allows her an outlet for her athleticism, but it also emphasizes a kind of femininity that is foreign to her and which her mother would not support.

Supreme’s troubles worsen. He still cannot get welfare transferred to his name, and he also cannot get things like gas bills and the lease in his name. The house is in disrepair. The bathroom sink has come off the wall and there is no hot water. He cooks with a hot plate and tries to keep the children clean by having them bathe on a rotation.

Supreme files numerous complaints to try to get these issues resolved. However, his problems with ACS are also mounting, as the caseworker Marisol has passed the case on, indicating neglect (448). Because of these problems, the children are missing school. Supreme attempts to text to Chanel for support, but she is in prison for shoplifting. Papa is stuck at home because he cannot get transportation to a school for behaviorally challenged children to which he has been assigned.

A school counselor contacts ACS to indicate that the children do not look clean. This results in ACS workers visiting, repairs to the house, and food stamps that include retroactive amounts. Later, they will claim that Supreme was neglectful of his duties by ignoring the conditions of the home.

An ACS inspector will stop by while Supreme and Lee-Lee are sleeping. Notes are left that correspond to Supreme’s complaints without acknowledging that they are complaints submitted by him. The agency has an “emergency” hearing with Judge Lim, who grants permission for the children to be removed. The older children are picked up, but Lee-Lee is still with Supreme.

Chanel arrives at the house to wake Supreme. Supreme talks to ACS and reluctantly hands over Lee-Lee. The children are all taken to an ACS intake center, informally referred to as the “holding cell,” that was formerly part of a hospital. Children sometimes wait here for months. The siblings, waiting to be assigned beds, are finally reunited with Lee-Lee. The children are separated into separate floors and receive medical exams. Though still a virgin, Nana is administered a pregnancy test.

The next day they must go to the court and are assigned an attorney. Chanel and Supreme meet with Judge Lim, who demands they take another drug test. Their housing troubles do not come up. The next day, instead of being led to the court, Supreme is taken to a criminal court where he is placed under arrest for having an outstanding warrant. He is later released, but in the meantime Judge Lim grants ACS custody of the children.

The siblings are split into three groups in three homes and Staten Island: Avianna, Nana, and Lee-Lee; Maya and Hada; Khaliq and Papa. They call Elliott because they can’t reach their parents. ACS caseworkers are on their way to visit Dasani at Hershey.