Lewiston Sun Journal Analysis

What is poverty? The word poverty produces many different ideas and images in people’s minds depending on their past socializations. Words can create images in people’s minds out of preconceived ideas they have developed through their life experience. In her article titled “Changing the Face of Poverty; Nonprofits and the Problem of Representation” Diana George examines the semantics and the imagery of the word poverty. While also addressing the issue of how people perceive poverty and what people living in poverty truly look like (676). Prof. George is arguing that organizations like Habitat for Humanity, which were 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

The article Being Poor, Black and American: The Impact of Political, Economic, and Cultural Forces written by William Julius Wilson is about the struggles and inequalities African Americans living in poverty encounter. Wilson discussed political, economic and cultural forces that have an impact on American impoverished communities. The author suggested the natural disaster of Hurricane Katrina brought the media and world attention to poverty in the United States. Prior to Katrina, the author believes Americans did not focus or sympathize with poor communities. This unsympathetic attitude stems from the belief that people are poor because they did not work hard enough, or are not doing anything to get out of that situation. After Katrina, Americans started to notice and care about the impoverished communities because the hurricane was a natural disaster and out of their control. Overall, the author explains how politics, economics and cultures forced many families into poverty, and diminishes the idea that people live in poverty because of their own shortcomings.

In Seeing and Making Culture: Representing the Poor, author Gloria Watkins under the pen-name Bell Hooks discusses the problem with the way poverty is depicted in the media in America. From her own personal experiences growing up poor, she has observed what the stigma surrounding poverty does to the underclass. Hooks points out how the media generates the idea that being poor means that one can’t live a meaningful life, and that one should feel ashamed for not having lots of money or things. To further her argument, Hooks uses examples from encounters she has had where people are conditioned to believe the poor are lazy, dishonest, and unworthy. Bell Hooks

Author Bryan Stevenson (2014) writes, “The true measure of our character is how we treat the poor, the disfavored, the accused, the incarcerated, and the condemned”(p.18). According to the non-profit, Feeding America (2016), in 2015, 43.1 million, or 13.5%, of people in the United States were impoverished. Poverty is a vicious cycle, trapping people and families for generations. The inability to escape poverty is due in part to difficult class mobility in the U.S. but also because certain factors reinforce the idea and state of poverty. Bryan Stevenson’s bestseller Just Mercy, Lindsey Cook’s article “U.S. Education: Still Separate and Unequal”, Michelle Alexander’s excerpt “The Lockdown”, and Sarah Smarsh’s “Poor Teeth” all explore the idea of poverty and the systems that sustain it. While all four readings focus on poverty differently and explore it using different techniques, they all share similar big picture ideas about how poverty is fortified through systematic, societal, and psychological efforts.

To many Americans, poverty is merely a synonym for ‘not rich’. Even those who understand the definition may struggle with the concept that poverty is not a distant, foreign, concern; poverty can occur in any country, region, neighborhood, and household. In a study performed by Carroll et al, 60% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed with the statement “poor people are poor because of laziness and lack of will power (2011, p. 116). In the same questionnaire, 77% of respondents felt most poor people have the ability to escape poverty without government assistance (Carroll et al, 2011, p. 117). As above facts show, despite the widespread nature of this issue those not living in poverty often have

Poverty is present in today’s U.S. social system. For example, as Lesser states in the Clearinghouse Review, “Forty-six million Americans live in poverty” (1). Lesser then goes on to say how forty-six million Americans living in poverty correlates to almost one in every three single-parent families is poor (1). This is a daunting fact as it applies to today’s economic context with “rising unemployment rates and mortgage crises driving more individuals and families to seek the support of a cash-strapped social welfare structure” (Grijalva 1). With this in mind, many legislators are discussing the topic of poverty in the political realm. In order to tally the score of representatives the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law conducted its sixth annual Poverty Scorecard. “The 2012 Poverty Scorecard grades the voting record of every U.S. senator and representative on the most important poverty-related votes in 2012” (Lesser 1). The 2012 votes covered a range of topics such as budget and tax, food and nutrition, health care, housing, and many more (1). The results of the 2012 Poverty

In the U.S., there’s a cycle of poverty and hardship that many Black and Hispanic citizens face. This cycle began when the War on Drugs started. The implementation of mandatory minimums, the predetermined punishments that come with drug crimes, greatly impacted ethnic minorities. The amount of minority single-parent households became more prominent in 1960s, where the War on Drugs was emphasized. Families with a single head are increasingly more likely to be in poverty than those with both parents. In the 60’s, Black families held the highest single-parent household population. Gregory Acs, who has a PhD in social work and specializes in social welfare, found that over 40 percent of single-mother families with children were in poverty. Those who are in poverty are defined as having an annual income lower than $22,000 (Acs, et al). The cycle of poverty ensures that those who are in poverty stay in

The numbers do not lie—little evidence exists that supports the claim that drug testing recipients will save money. Striving to prove that the main source of the drug problem in the United States lies in the recipients of the welfare program, policymakers continue to work fervently. The overgeneralization of the poor as drug users has become common practice in Washington. Lawmakers seem to feel that because recipients receive government funding, they in turn give up their constitutional rights as U.S. citizens. The practice of criminalizing the poor has become commonplace in the creation of U.S. governmental policy.

Poverty plagues the entire nation. People assume that the worst of poverty is in the midst of heavily populated areas such as New York or California. What they don’t realize is that poverty rates in Grand Forks are worse than the average poverty rates in the entire nation. And it isn’t just a slight increase, poverty rates in Grand Forks County are 150% worse than the national average. The poverty rates are ridiculous, yet there are only a few articles in the Grand Forks Herald that actually focus on poverty. I researched through the Grand Forks Herald database and came up with less than ten articles in the past 5 years that focused on poverty in the area. That’s a maximum of ten articles in 1,825 days. This report focuses on the effects that

Race and ethnicity is key factor to poverty in the U.S. since an African-American is three times more likely to be in poverty than a non-Hispanic white. People with different ethnic backgrounds may experience alienation, or discrimination as a result of their differences with the people around them. Blaming the victim is a common explanation for poverty, but it doesn’t stand up to scrutiny since there are countless factors

Throughout the United States, homelessness and poverty have become an overwhelming issue. From people losing their jobs to others having to give up their homes, nearly 14.5 percent of Americans experience some type of poverty. This could look like a small percentage to some but in reality, it's more than 45 million people. While this number may be decreasing, the stereotype of those who are in poverty still remains. It is often thought that those in poverty are non-educated addicts and are generally criminal people. This, however, fails to be proven true. In my personal experiences, it was believed that the homeless and impoverished were of a lower social level and it was easy to assume the poor were in their walk of life for more reasons than simply not having money. Drugs, crime, and poverty all seemed to have the same definition.

This review is formulated with scholarly sources and references based off of poverty in America. This disclosure is approached with a value free sociological approach, and it will give insight on the social causes of poverty and the effects it has on America. Poverty is a very controversial topic. Many will assume that people living in poverty are lazy, made bad life decisions, or that they are solely the reason for their predicament however, people living in poverty would argue that their are deeper issues for it. Poverty will be deeply explained and researched from both perspectives

There is evidence everywhere to suggest that poverty is a cause of crime, anti-social behaviour, and drug abuse. However, this can be counter-argued, as these can be a symptom of poverty – for example, an individual spending all their money on drugs and alcohol can lead to having no money to pay for sanitation, food, water, and shelter.

The pinpoint cause of poverty is challenging to find. People who live well off and are above the poverty line may be quick to assume that laziness, addiction, and the typical stereotypes are the causes of poverty. Barbara Ehrenreich, a well known writer on social issues, brings attention to the stereotypical ideology at her time, that “poverty was caused, not by low wages or a lack of jobs, but by bad attitudes and faulty lifestyles” (17). Ehrenreich is emphasizing the fact that statements like the one listed, often influence readers to paint inaccurate mental pictures of poverty that continue to shine light on the ideology of stereotypes being the pinpoint cause to poverty. However, there are many other causes that are often overshadowed, leaving some individuals to believe that poverty was wrongfully placed upon them. Examples would include: high rates of unemployment, low paying jobs, race, and health complications. Which are all out of one’s ability to control. There is no control over a lack of jobs and high rates of unemployment, nor the amount of inadequate wages the working poor receive. Greg Kaufmann, an advisor for the Economic Hardship Reporting Project and The Half in Ten campaign, complicates matters further when he writes, “Jobs in the U.S. [were] paying less than $34,000 a year: 50 percent. Jobs in the U.S. [were] paying below the poverty line for a family of four, less than $23,000 annually: 25 percent” (33). Acknowledging Kaufmann’s fact, the amount received for a family of four is fairly close to the yearly salary of a high school graduate, which means, receiving that kind of pay for one man may seem challenging, now imagine caring for the needs of four individuals. To make matters worse, certain families receive that amount of money and carry the burden of paying for

She finds herself questioning, “Who, exactly, did I think was poor?” She concludes that she and most of the public find race and poverty are frequently equated to each other with no explanations as to why except for what they were brought up to believe. Her paper challenges her audience, the general public, to rethink the definition of poverty. McMillian brings to light that poverty should not be a point of racial contention but rather a common ground. As opposed to this, the second article finds race to be one of the factors that can contribute to poverty.