The African American Housing Projects

Imagine coming home to a house that has no warmth or food. Constantly feeling like you are in a place you can’t get out of. This is how poverty may feel to others. The expeirences from the author Jo Goodwin Parker in the story “What Is Poverty” and the McBride family from the novel “The Color Of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute To His White Mother” show that there are various effects of living in poverty that include emotional problems, adolescent rebellion, and

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.

All over the world many have gone through or are still going through the struggle of being in poverty. You don’t have to be homeless to be struggling, it could be just not have lights on in your home, past due rent, or maybe not having enough or anything at all to eat. Many have felt like just because they go through this that they will never be anything because they don’t have the resources to accomplish anything in life, and other people around you who doubt you can make you believe even more that you will never amount to anything in life. Christopher Wallace aka The Notorious B.I.G. or Biggie small’s song “Juicy”, released in 1994 from his Ready to Die album, selling over 607,000 copies is a great example of all of this. He tells this exact story through his song about how people used to doubt him and even goes on to tell about his life in the struggle and coming up from it.

In “Explaining White Privilege to a Broke White Person” by Gina Crosley-Corcoran. We learn about the authors struggle growing up poor. Crosley says that she was so poor growing up, it’s “the type of poor that people don’t want to believe still exists in the country.” Crosley grew up in northern-Illinois and she was truly impoverished growing up. At 12, Crosley was making cup noodles in a coffee maker with water she fetched from public bathrooms. She lived in a camper that had no running water or heat.

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.

I wholeheartedly endorse what Cottom calls “The Logic of Stupid Poor People”, that poor people buy status symbols to survive in this world. She demonstrates that, as a middle class black girl, her family had a way of turning the tables in their favor in multiple aspects in order to supply their needs and wants. Poor people buy expensive items, sometimes depriving themselves of their other needs, just for the respect of others. These items are 21st-century status symbols, they can single-handedly determine the fate of your everyday encounters. The author uses personal experiences to support her argument, persuasively changing your entire perspective and broadening your mind to another individual’s lifestyle.

In Thomas Shapiro’s “The Hidden Cost of Being African American”, Shapiro goes in depth on how wealth in America is disproportionately dispersed between different nationalities. Mainly between Caucasians and African Americans. Shapiro has helped paint the image of wealth inequality and has shown how this is even more staggering than the wage gap between African Americans and Caucasians. Some of the theories he indirectly uses in his book and that I will be exemplifying are generational wealth and support systems, education, and the idea of how poverty only begets more poverty.

In Tressie McMillan’s “The Logic of Stupid Poor People”, it changed people’s views on the threat of keeping up with society, and the status symbol people think they must maintain. Society classifies it as Middle class, suburbs, or simply rich and poor. People feel threatened when someone looks better than them, or has something that they do not have. This story killed all reasons to even feel this way. McMillan also linked this story back to her own personal childhood. Their family was a classic black American migration family, with rural Southern roots. During this time most African Americans were considered as poor. Her family

Growing up as a young black male has many struggles. M.K. Asante’s Buck is an eye opener to the real world of life growing up as a young black male. Malo is the main character in this book. His older brother, Uzi, is in an out of trouble constantly, mother has mental issues and his dad isn’t really supportive of them.as in their family struggles. Malo feels that he is forced to be independent but his mother doesn’t fully agree with some of the decisions that he makes. With his family falling apart, Malo feels that he has to fight for himself to survive in this world.

Most young black American’s believed that they couldn’t become successful in this nation full of oppression. On average, black family’s earned half the income of whites and were twice as likely to be unemployed. Hope of becoming successful for a young black American was grim. Fortunately, one thing

The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) is the “largest public housing authority in the nation” (Developments, 2015). In existence since 1934 (About NYCHA: NYCHA at 70, 2015), NYCHA is a low to moderate income public housing initiative consisting of 328 developments throughout all five boroughs of New York City. More than 400,000 residents benefit from these developments through the receipt of not only apartments but additional services provided by each development and New York City overall. Over recent years the NYCHA developments have been experiencing a reduction in government funding, forcing the organization to re-evaluate strategies addressing maintenance of old buildings (About NYCHA, 2015).

Understanding that the poverty of black Americans did not just stay within the home is a big step in understanding urban poverty. Urban poverty reached outside the home, into the parks, schools and playgrounds. With poverties reach being that extensive, there was something other than adversity causing this. Louis Gates wrote an article about this called “Black America and The Class Divide.” (Jr.)

New Hope Housing likely had strengths related to their employee development program, their effectiveness in housing people in need, and their niche for ensuring individuals who would typically be rejected housing. Some of their weaknesses likely related to their secured funding and current dependence on government funding. Some of their opportunities relate to finding solutions for permanent housing, as this is currently a struggle for the people they serve. Lastly, their threats likely also have to do with their government funding. As budgets change, money is moved around and can impact this organization for the better or for the worse.

Even me and my mom; we’ve had help from 7 families off the top of my head. From giving us a place to stay when he were legally homeless to saving my life. All this has made me realize there is so much working against poor people, including themselves. Sometimes people don’t have the energy or time to take the opportunity to succeed. But it means they are stuck in the loop of the ghetto; even Tupac has realized his luck and the loop of poverty within his song “Brenda's got a Baby”, He brings up how she can’t read above a fourth grade level it’s sad to think there are people in today’s world who still are born and never will be able to read just because their parents don’t have the ability to let it happen. Walmart, a place some of you know as trashy, horrible, and cheap, my grandmother has worked there and she worked with a girl who didn’t pass 3rd grade, where i grew up i can remember a solid amount of people who failed 3rd or 4th

Have you ever wondered what it was like coming from a low-income family? To struggle financially but somehow managed to overcome every obstacle faced resulting in success along with continued success? Well I know I did; in order to further educate myself on what the life of an African American man whose family immigrated from Somalia to provide a more fulfilling life with plenty of opportunities to become someone great. Although the road to success was not easy, David King made it happen. He went through adversities where at times he did not believe he would be able to make it, within those moments of defeat and failure David arose to the top birthing a seasoned successful 40-year-old man whom shared his amazing story with me. What is admiring about David that I took out of this interview is his ambition to always be one step ahead, as well as to working hard to become a better version of himself. Despite not having the push he felt he needed to become this successful he managed to make it all happen with some help from people he has encountered in his life time. Currently, David is happily married balancing working on his career in Social Work working with the LGBT community more specifically the LGBT youth, while raising three kids and maintaining his home in Long Island. “It is not easy, and at times it can be overwhelming. The best advice I give to the people I come into contact with is to always remember to make time for yourself; that is how I survive, always find a