Review by Michaela Corniea

Published in 1998, On the Outside Looking In by Cristina Rathbone is a journalist’s exploration of the lives of inner-city kids in New York. Taking place in the school year of ‘94-’95, this book opens a window into the lives of the kids people seem to be trying their hardest to overlook. With the many obstacles they face in their daily routines, the kids are doing their best to simply survive. Rathbone highlights this journey through the frame of the high school experience. To emphasize this, the school she visits, West Side, is unconventional – “Long used as a place for dumping troubled kids, it was a school for those the Board of Education wanted to forget” (6). While Rathbone’s focus is on the students, she does bring up infrastructure issues that interfere with West Side’s ability to run smoothly. The overall effect is a book that calls the reader to examine the American education system from a sociological standpoint.

I pulled this book from the shelves of the Toni Randolph collection at the East Side Freedom Library. The ESFL is a library with a mission: inspire solidarity, advocate for justice and work toward equity for all. Each of the collections in the library reflect this mission. Randolph’s collection is a mix of history, fiction, and essays with a focus on amplifying diverse voices, which I explore in detail here. I chose this book in particular as a mix of all Randolph’s interests: journalism, youth, diverse stories, and justice. I thought it would be a good look into Randolph’s mission and a way for me to educate myself on a topic I know very little about. Indeed, while the author is sharing stories from several decades ago, the message is still prevalent, which I find quite telling, and allows readers to engage in the material regardless of the year.

“How can America as a nation just close their eyes to the obvious relationships between four hundred years of abuse and cultural murder and slavery and discrimination and low performing adolescents?” asks the principal of West Side. “To ignore all that is criminal” (209). Rathbone takes this question with the seriousness it is asked and tries to pry open the eyes of the nation through the stories she presents. For the sake of her readers, the author breaks this examination down into digestible chunks, casually comparing the term “dropout” to “pushout” in the same chapter that she describes the joy of a student viewing the works of Dalí for the first time. The book is paced so heavy subjects get a lift in the next section or vice versa. Students come and go in the book just as they did in school, and Cristina travels through the city to keep track of students as they play hooky, visit friends, or make their way to court. The focus is truly on the kids and all aspects of their lives, showing how many different elements – poverty, gangs, dysfunctional homes, and more — work to force each student along a certain path; they lack other options.

As an important note, this book does not judge or stereotype. Instead, it is a collection of facts as well as Rathbone’s reaction to them. She is unbiased and allows the stories to find her, rather than pushing and inserting herself in situations to find a “scoop.” Through her perspective and observations, we learn. When she sees other organizations capitalize on a student led rally, we feel the injustice of the kids’ hard work being pushed aside. When she hears about the death of a family member from a student, we feel frustration and embarrassment at the way we ourselves are limited when our society fails to help. When a conference packet reminds the administration that students may turn to gangs as a way to fulfill a need for safety and community, we realize the harm assumptions can cause. As she describes the tireless work of the principal and the commitment of the teachers, we feel inspired to translate their effort into our lives. Most of all, as we read about these students with their determination and resilience, we are reminded of the importance of youth and the hope they carry.

If you are interested in learning and reading more, the East Side Freedom Library carries several books related to this topic. One suggestion is Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools by Monique Morris, which can be found in the Rachleff collection. Jonathan Kozol’s Amazing Grace: The Lives of Children and the Conscience of a Nation is also connected and located in the Rachleff collection, as well as The Future of Us All: Race and Neighborhood Politics in New York City by Roger Sanjek. Related from a different angle is How the Public Schools Got the Way They Are by Robert Peterson from the Rachleff collection and Sister Citizen by Melissa Harris-Perry in the Cleary collection. There are also plenty of other related topics and books to explore in the library, and I hope you follow your interests straight to the shelves at ESFL!

Michaela Corniea