Stereotypes Of Poverty

Stereotypes are a form of prejudice everyone will once experience in their lifetime. Stereotypes are centered around an individual's race, gender, social class, religion, and age. They have been known to be elements people use to make judgments and subjectify people to one key feature. As Gordon Allport states, “ To state the matter technically, a noun abstracts from a concrete reality some one features and assembles different concrete realities only with respect to this one feature”(364). Mr.Allport’s words can be summed up to say stereotypes have been used as key fundamentals to associate one feature or aspect of a person with a group that represents it, typically in an unfavorable way.

In her article “All kids should take ‘poverty 101’,” Donna Beegle, says that people should study and know what is poverty. According to Beegle “If we begin by teaching children about poverty in the K-12 system, everyone would learn about the true causes of poverty and the circumstances that perpetuate it.” (par. 9) she wants from school system to have a poverty course for children to make them know the difference between poverty, middle-class, and wealthy people. Also, they would have a chance to change their knowledge of how people are not the same in life. When she was born from origin of poverty, and she became a president and founder of a counseling firm, which works to increase communication poverty, race, gender and generational barriers,

In the article, “What’s So Bad about Being Poor” by Charles Murray, Murray states that “One of the great barriers to a discussion of poverty and social policy in the 1980s is that so few people who talk about poverty have ever been poor”. He discusses how, contrary to present day, in America up until the 1950s those in positions of influence and power included a sizable amount of people who had been raised “dirt-poor”. Murray states that, because of this, many Americans with their lack of exposure to such people, they develop a skewed perspective of what poverty is. On account of this, Murray challenges the reader with several thought experiments which he uses to help the reader come to certain conclusions that convey his message.

Stereotypes are uneducated opinions towards a certain group, most commonly used within races, skin colors, and cultures. Stereotypes are usually from a majority group towards a minority group. Most of us do not think about it much but, Stereotypes are in our everyday lives, and everyone has taken part of a stereotype, either they have been the one stereotyping or they have been the victim of a stereotype and has been stereotyped. Throughout my life, I have heard a lot of stereotypes towards my kind, and more than likely it is always a negative stereotype. Some stereotypes through time die-off but as they die-off, new stereotypes flood or society. I am a minority, I am Mexican-American and classify myself and embrace myself as one. The stereotype that I have experienced the most is that all Mexicans are unintelligent delinquents. The stereotype of Mexicans being unintelligent and lazy was influenced by the media. Media sources in our lives skew the way we judge people. This stereotype may be taken lightly by everyone who iterates it but what is not taken into account is the effect this stereotype has in the community for those of us that are Mexican. It has a negative impact on my community, I noticed that the negative effect of this stereotype starts by influencing a couple of individuals and then expands to the community as a whole. The stereotype that Mexicans are these unintelligent delinquents gets planted in our heads at a young age and that affects the way some of

Shipler says multiple times in the book that poverty is not only a material issue, it is also a mental one. A person living in poverty describes poverty as “helplessness,” this helplessness defines their sense of identity. Once a person reaches the poverty level, many feel as if they can never improve and thus they feel as they have become poverty. This identity crisis is only worsened when the government strips the identity of individuals for the sake of statistics. The government can not fix the problem if they do not know all of the facts. The government has a responsibility to protect its people, and as such, government workers need to act with a sense of humanity instead of annoyance. One lady who relied on money from the government to feed her family was denied the money when a paper was sent in late. The woman mailed the letter the next day but was denied the money, when she confronted the worker the reason she had not received her money was because the worker did not check the mail. When the government realizes that these are people and not statistics they will be compelled to be more helpful. “Working at the edge of poverty means working on the coldest side of corporate America.” Most assume that when a person is poor, they do not work hard and so people treat them much worse than any other person. If those in poverty are treated fairly, then their sense of self will be improved and the poverty cycle will be broken. Those in poverty are a key part of the national economy, as they work in the jobs that many refuse to. They work in the factories that produce items to sell, which boost the economy. The personal financial choices that a person makes is also discussed in The Working Poor: Invisible in America. Each choice a person makes could be detrimental to their future. Investing in certain job

Stereotypes can be defined as sweeping generalizations about members of a certain race, religion, gender, nationality, or other group. They are made everyday in almost every society. We develop stereotypes when we are unable or unwilling to obtain all the information we would need to make fair judgments about people or situations. By stereotyping, we assume that a person or group has certain characteristics. Quite often, we develop these ideas about people who are members of groups with which we have not had firsthand contact. Stereotyping usually leads to unfair results, such as discrimination, racial profiling, and unnecessary violence, all behaviors which need to be stopped.

Stereotypes are assumptions that all certain types of individuals, gender, race, and even group of people are all the same. It is a hazy generalization influenced by numerous of sources such as, past experiences, social media, acquaintances and the most influential family. Individuals understand and treat those being stereotyped by the way they were presented to them, even though the stereotypes may be wrong. Everyone is unique, so making the assumption that all individuals with the same profile looks are the same, can be wrong. Mistreating people because of the stereotypes can ruin second chances for those who are affected, in life. Stereotyping is very common in today’s society; a group that suffers intense stereotypes are homeless. There are times where everyone needs a second chance no matter where they come from and what they have done. Honestly, homeless need to stop being viewed as what they are not.

“What is poverty? Poverty is hunger. Poverty is lack of shelter. Poverty is being sick and not being able to see a doctor. Poverty is not having access to school and not knowing how to read. Poverty is not having a job, is fear for the future, living one day at a time. Poverty is losing a child to illness brought about by unclean water. Poverty is powerlessness, lack of representation and freedom” (The World Bank, 2009).

“He’s a young Latino what is he doing in this neighborhood? he must be lost, he has to be poor.” that’s just one of the stereotypes I hear often. “Hispanic people are poor” When in fact most Hispanics are well off. Yet repeatedly I have heard that stereotype in movies, songs, shows, and school. I have been through this many times as I have lived up through 19 years of existence. Its something that I have gotten accustomed too.

When people let those snap judgment stereotypes use them, they often discriminate. Such the car salesmen who gave the minority groups and women higher quotes then they would give to white males even if the minorities could easily afford the cars, the salesmen would not take these people seriously. That causes them to lose potential customers and it is all because of unconscious stereotypes. Other examples are when minorities and African Americans are more likely to be accused of a crime even if they didn’t do it just due to these stereotypes.

This website explains that Americans are more likely to be considered black and less likely to be viewed white after experiencing decreases in social standing such as becoming unemployed, impoverished, or living inner city. “Race is not just an ascribed at birth, fixed characteristic,” Saperstein said. Instead race implies a set of gendered expectations for behavior against which people are continually judged. American racial stereotypes, from Ronald Reagan’s “Welfare Queen” for women to Willie Horton on a prison furlough for man, have never been about only race according to Alyia. Other status cues are stronger for one gender or the other for example if a poor person are more likely to be non-white, but poverty has an even stronger effect for men. Poverty decrease men’s odds of being classified as white more than decrease women’s odds of being classified as white. Stereotype based on race and gender are self-fulfilling prophecies.

Stereotypes can have excessive damage and it can have a very negative effect on the person in view or as a whole group. Stereotyping is not just another form of making fun of people, it also encourages rejection

Although prejudice and stereotype seem similar, they actually have two different meanings. While stereotyping involves the generalization of a group of people, prejudice involves negative feelings when “they” are in the presence of or even think about members of the group. “Prejudice comes from direct intergroup conflict, social learning, social categorization and other cognitive sources” (Ferguson). Not all stereotypes are negative; there are also positive and neutral stereotypes. Some stereotypes do not slander a race, culture, gender, or religion, but nonetheless generalize a group of people that may or may not be true. For example, some people say that all Asians are smart or good at math. Though people of Asian descent may often be more studious, not all Asians do equally well in school (Floyd, 62). Another common example of a positive stereotype is that all black people are good athletes, dancers, and singers. Though these are positive stereotypes, when people believe them, they don’t take into account that every person is an individual and different. A neutral stereotype

Many describe poverty as an economic deprivation, or lack of income. However, this alone does not incorporate the different social, cultural and political aspects of this unfortunate reality. Poverty is not only a deprivation of economic or material resources but a violation of human dignity. The general scarcity, lack, or the state of one without a specific amount of material possessions or money. It is a versatile concept that may be defined as either absolute or relative. Time and again, poverty is a call to action, for the poor and the wealthy alike, it is a call to change the world so that many more may have enough to eat, adequate shelter, access to education and health, protection from violence, and a voice in what happens in their communities.

We live in a world in which poverty still exists and so does the stigma surrounding poverty. Poverty is the result of being poor in which one cannot provide basic needs for oneself. Poverty surrounds us wherever we go whether we are in downtown or turn on the television. Poverty is a social issue that is present and should not be looked passed. A stigma surrounding poverty is that homeless is an individual’s fault as if they got themselves into that position. Although there are different reasons to being effected by poverty it is not an individual issue but rather a social epidemic. If poverty was an individual problem, more than a billion people would not suffer from it. Poverty is a social issue as it effects society as whole because it is