Analysis Of Seeing And Making Culture : Representing The Poor By Bell Hooks

In Bell Hooks, Seeing and Making Culture: Representing the Poor, Hooks writes about what she considers to be hazardous in dispositions towards neediness in the United States, and in proposing arrangements. Hooks starts the essay off by saying, “Americans today rarely talk about the poor” (Bell Hooks). She explains that Americans acknowledge the existence of four groups: the poor, the working class, those who worked and have extra money, and the rich.

In Diana Georges “Changing the Face of Poverty”, she uses various examples of ads, brands, and organizations  to show that the way poverty is portrayed has corrupted the understanding Americans have on poverty and what it really is. I agree with Diana George’s statement that the impression of poverty through visual imagery is distorted. Her essay examines many aspects of the misrepresentation of poverty. Society believes that they are doing more than what is actually being accomplished. The effect of her explanation allows for the audience to alter their opinion on the true image of poverty. Her use of real organizations within the community strengthens her approach.

In analyzing both essays, Eating the Other: Desire and Resistance by Bell Hooks and There Is No Unmarked Woman by Deborah Tannen the authors address societal problems that highlight and emphasize the differences that certain groups in society must face and overcome, although the targets in both of the examples of societal dilemma between the two are very different, they both accurately represent how unjust the modern social structure is.

As a main point of her argument, she argues that poverty is generally stereotyped into the poverty that would only be seen in Africa, or another third world country. To support this, she establishes a sense of ethos for her readers by citing other individuals that have also noticed the poverty representation gap. Seeing that poverty is a complex issue to begin with, George addresses this complexity by simply suggesting that it should be represented as such in the media. Nonprofit charities may now have to reconsider their

Every conflict in Bell’s life can be traced back to her childhood, and her mother’s parenting methods. If Bell was told to strive for what she did not have, then she may have been accepted by her peers. It is clear that she wanted to be accepted by her classmates, because otherwise she would not have been hurt by how they treated her. If Bell was taught to strive for what she did not already possess, whether it was friends or material objects, she would have had a completely different school experience.

With all of the media 's hatred of poor people, it must affect their self-confidence and how they view the American Dream. Through her experience, Jennifer Mayer has noticed that very problem. While working in the soup kitchen, she noticed that most of the people who came in lived in "survival mode" and only lived "day-to-day" with no real goals. They had no dreams of success because they believed it to be impossible (Mayer). One reason for this self-esteem issue is their lack of education. Since poor people rarely have a college education, they feel like they have no future. This can often cause them to give up on their dreams and resort to crime (Reef 225-226). Also, because poor people are below America 's social and economic system, they will often give up on their dreams.

The reason that people think like this is because all organizations depict the worst of the issue, hoping that people will reach out and donate to their projects. Even though this may be helpful and they do reach their set goal, they are not portraying the other side of poverty that may not be as severe but these people need money and help as well.

Hooks first argument stems from the false assumptions that she has encountered about the poor. She takes us years back to her college days where students and professors were labeled as ‘mindless, unworthy, shiftless, dishonest, and lazy (paragraph5). To her, those experiences were a culture shock because having being brought up in poverty, she had always been taught that there is no correlation between poverty and personal integrity. Furthermore, a person could be a hard worker and still be poor. The values of a human being can’t and should not be based on material possessions. She states that it is horrifying to think that the poor have no values. According to Bell Hooks, had it not been for the upbringing in a poor household, she would neither be the prolific writer that she is nor have good values. All the aforementioned assumptions indicate how lowly the United States contemporary society regards the poor. The poor are never portrayed as who they really are.

As far as she describes, she just enjoyed living with grandparents and she says that the lure of life was everywhere and in everything, but no one in the crowded house had a regular job or social security number, and no one talked about class even if they were open about money. Hooks' personal memories tell me that poor people are afraid to talk about class because to be poor in the U.S. was to be an object of shame and ridicule, and because they were afraid to face the reality that makes them feel miserable, unpleasant, and unsecured. And the most importantly, most of them are not really conscious about how classism affects and exploits them. On the other hand, according to Hooks privileged (mostly white) people do not want to talk about class because they do not really want to change. Hooks says "Citizens in the middle who live comfortable lives, luxurious lives in relation to the rest of the world, often fear that challenging classism will be their downfall, that simply by expressing concern for the poor they will end up like them, lacking the necessities of life". We can see the widening gap between rich and poor and more and more class-segregated society in the U.S. today, but this appears rather favorable circumstance for the privileged people with class power. I came to realize that whites of all class backgrounds seek to keep underprivileged non-white people in subordination to maintain their own class status. Hooks interprets it "the victims

What is your perception of the poor and less fortunate in society? Would you say that you have a low perception of them or do you regard them in the highest? Would you do your social duty to reach out to the poor and impoverished to assist them, or help assist, in establishing programs that would aid in leading them to a brighter future? These are the questions that I ask of myself as I read, “Seeing and Making Culture: Representing the Poor,” by bell hooks. My paper examines the perception that pop culture, society, and media have of the poor, as well as, the expectations and responsibilities of society to ensure a response to

It seems to most that those who have money have it all. They should buy all the unnecessary “junk” that one might find pleasure in owning, take everything for granted and view lower-class individuals as a group of wanna-bes. Think again. S.E. Hinton’s novel The Outsiders, very important propositions are portrayed through the writing techniques which link to another piece of writing “Poverty and Wealth” written by Ella Wheeler Wilcox. Just because you have everything, doesn’t mean you understand it's worth. Different classes have different experiences, allowing elaboration on the different characters.

In the article, Hooks focuses on the issue involving lower and higher class and comparing them in poverty by giving her own personal experiences to illustrate her argument. While addressing the assumptions made about the poor and the view in America culture in the U.S. usually portrays the poor in ways that radiate negative stereotypes according to Hooks. The way that the poor are being represented on television. Hooks clarifies that the misinterpretations of those in poverty can affect their daily lives. Popular culture in the U.S. usually portrays the poor in ways that radiate

I liked bell hook’s essay “Seeing and Making Culture: Representing the Poor”. Bell assesses the light in which higher class people view the poor or lower class. Bell hooks, also known as Gloria Watkins grew up in a small Kentucky town where her father worked as a janitor for the local post office. As one of seven children she was taught that money and material possessions did not make her a better person but hard-work honesty and selflessness determined character. Her hard work landed her acceptance into Stanford University. Although she received various scholarships and loans, her parents worried that she would not have enough for books and supplies or emergency funds. Regardless of this, belle went on to earn a Ph.D. Her experiences and education earned her a very good reputation and even an authority writing critiques on popular culture and diversity (hooks 431-432). She uses ideas in her essay “Seeing and Making Culture: Representing the Poor”, that stem from her own personal experiences with poverty to add credibility to her writing, as well as examples from pop culture and mass media to demonstrate how these representations portray the lower class in ways that radiate negative stereotypes. She wrote the essay because she saw how the poor had many assumptions made about them. It wasn’t until college thought that she made that discovery. She discovered how unjustly they were represented due to the

Being at the bottom in the United States means to be the poorest and to have the lowest socioeconomic status, these people usually work minimum wage jobs or don’t work at all and live off of welfare. The culture of poverty thesis states that ‘Poverty is caused by shortcomings in the poor themselves (Oscar Lewis, Macionis, J. 2004)’. Many people feel this way, but some blame society, ‘Poverty is caused by society’s unequal distribution of wealth and lack of good jobs (William Julius William, Macionis, J. 2004). Most people in US are poor or have a very small income which sides more with society being the blame for all these people struggling to support themselves in today’s economy (Macionis, J. 2004, p. 277). The functional model in sociology focuses on the social structures of low-wages (Merton, as cited by Carnochan, S. 2013) which is what most people in poverty are stuck living off of due to lack of education and opportunity. Some people argue that to maintain low prices for goods and services poverty and low-wage work is important and needed for our economy (Gans, as cited by Carnochan, S. 2013). Some people may believe this is true, usually those in a better social position, but some people have an opposing opinion to the low pay of some workers. The conflict model explains this inequality of wages in the work world, it also brings to attention how people with and without power experience inequality. For example, CEO’s with lots of

Words provoke preconceived ideas and images in the mind, when it comes to a situation like poverty these preconceived notions can have undesirable and unintended consequences. Diana George examines the semantics and the imagery of the word poverty in her article titled “Changing the Face of Poverty; Nonprofits and the Problem of Representation. While also addressing the issue of the perception poverty and what someone in poverty truly looks like (676). Prof. George is arguing that organizations like Habitat for Humanity, which are created to help people in poverty actually perpetuate the wrong image of what someone in poverty looks like (678). Most organizations created to help those in need, especially those in the US tend to portray poverty as what is seen and thought of as living conditions in Third World countries (683). In reality, poverty is all around each and every one of us in this country on a daily basis, and people might not always recognize it for what it is (681,682). Furthermore, the majority of people living in poverty in the United States do not live like or look like someone living in a Third World country. But in reality they are still living in poverty nonetheless (682,683). Organizations that portray people living in poverty here in the US as totally devastated and completely impoverished are doing a disservice to the people they are attempting to help. Consequently, by doing this they are giving a limiting idea of what someone living in poverty