Fist, Stick, Knife, Gun: A Personal History of Violence

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. The South Bronx is notorious for its air pollution (one neighborhood is nicknamed “asthma alley”), and according to the New York City Community Air Survey, children in the South Bronx are hospitalized for asthma there at a rate between 2-5 times the other parts of the city. How does air pollution in low-income areas connect to structural racism? How does air pollution in the Bronx exemplify the idea of “environmental racism”?

Teaching Suggestion: This prompt will get students to discuss issues of environmental racism, which are deeply connected to larger issues of Structural Racism. Environmental racism affects an individual’s physical and mental health and can alter the trajectory of their entire life. The Bronx, the borough of New York City where Canada’s memoir is set, is one of the most polluted areas in the United States.

• Vox’s “What Does Sustainability Mean in The Bronx?” investigates environmental racism in the United States.
• CBS New York’s “Bronx Organizations Pushing for Environmental Justice with High Asthma Rates in Community” focuses on the abnormally high pollution rates in the Bronx, and its larger effects.