In the Spotlight
Work intended to eliminate poverty must occur on a variety of levels by employing a number of community-driven and informed tactics. Passing legislation and rallying support to fight institutionalized challenges through research and social services are just some of the ways American poverty can be combated.
While the aforementioned methods address issues blockading the alleviation of poverty, a more fundamental challenge continues to inhibit the fight. The challenge lies in the attitudes individuals and groups have towards the poor. Congressman Paul Ryan’s recent comments at a town hall meeting serve as a prime example of when the use of language, and the presence of a potentially problematic view of the poor, perpetuates the idea that culture contributes to the existence of poverty.
During the event, Congressman Ryan stated “We have got this tailspin of culture, in our inner cities in particular, of men not working and just generations of men not even thinking about working or learning the value and the culture of work, and so there is a real culture problem…” Following the congressmen’s statements
Representative Barbara Lee of California fired back stating that Ryan’s use of the words inner city and culture are a disguise for singling out black people.
Regardless of Ryan’s intentions or true ideologies, his out-of-touch use of language at best, or limited understanding of the structure of poverty at worst, highlight the tendency many have to insinuate that poverty exists because of cultural or racial shortcomings. New York Times opinion and editorial contributor, Charles M. Blow, highlights that the perception that poverty is the outgrowth of stunted culture, exemplified by Ryan, enables us to avoid looking at the structural features of poverty that contribute to maintaining oppression.
Public figures using language that suggests that poor people are impoverished because of their own shortcomings stunts the very real progress that is being made to eliminate poverty and reduce inequality. To place blame upon the poor corrects no aspect of poverty, it only removes blame from the larger society for contributing to the creation and maintenance of it.
Direct Service Implications
Cyclical institutionalized poverty will continue to be an outgrowth of American society if the general public as well as politicians fail to acknowledge the systems in place that create poverty and maintain it. In order to combat perceptions that the poor are to blame for their poverty, social service providers, researchers, and educators must continue to transmit the notion that poverty is a device largely created and exasperated by various systems.
Various institutes of academic research that bring attention to the complex issues that create poverty, can be utilized to obtain empirical evidence that may be used to dispute the idea that individual’s are fully responsible for being poor. Additionally such institutes can also transmit ways to actively fight poverty. Some places to start include, the Institute for Research on Poverty, UC Davis Center for Poverty Research, and the McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy and Research.
Also, you don’t have to be a Congressman to bring a value set or worldview to the workplace that unintentionally condemns or admonishes people living in poverty. Service providers should promote opportunities for staff to better understand poverty and the systems that perpetuate it. We strongly recommend the People’s Instituteas a resource for how to break down, not reinforce, stereotypes.
Courtesy of McSilver Institute of Poverty Policy and Research who has kindly given SJS permission to syndicate this piece.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in the Policy News Briefs are not necessarily the views of the McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy and Research or NYU’s Silver School of Social Work. If you have comments or suggestions about this service, contact us at mcsilver@nyu.edu.
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Hi, Ammu. Ryan’s use of language not the problem, it’s his informing white supremacist ideology. His language serves to create a shell game, where poor folks and black folks scapegoated to deflect from the country’s structural economic and social problems and its still-dominant white supremacist perspective.
Agreed Jack, and keep your eyes peeled tomorrow we got a doozy of a response coming from Charles Lewis Jr of CRISP.
Hope you are recovering nicely.
My foregoing comment notwithstanding, kudos for raising the issue and beginning to grapple with it. Best, Jack Carney
So how is that “denial thing” working out for you?
This is going to sound like a mass indictment or a manifesto, well it’s neither; just my attempt at sharing some knowledge on the willfully ignorant and others who think they know what it’s like to be hated from day one of your life in a country where racism and denial runs deep and rampant. Please bear with me as this is rather long and not meant to hurt or attack anyone:
All I really want them to do is read it, and feel what we feel, see what we see, and be honest enough to admit that these truths that are written here are self-evident and are practiced and accepted every single day here in the streets of America. Oh, and re-posting it would be fine too, because these may be my words; but they are “our” truths…
Now that the scab has been ” ripped off; ” with the election and re-election of president Obama it might be time for some to readdress the issue of racism; hopefully some people’s denial and defensiveness will have dissipated, if only for a little while and allow the truth to penetrate.
“Please understand that when I say ‘you’, I am not talking about everyone, but the one’s that I am talking about, know who they are. So here we go… The fact that there has been unprecedented Black achievement in America is a testament to the strength of the human spirit and resilience of a magnificent people.
Yes, in spite of not only throwing the kitchen sink at us, and all the appliances too, and putting every conceivable obstacle possible in our path and creating laws that only apply to us, so that we can be easily convicted and warehoused, and denying us a proper education with which we cannot get proper employment and treating us with disgust and disdain; for the last 450 years, ( still we rise…) And that is what burns your ass to the point that you have ( bought and paid for ) lawmakers; to re-double their efforts to strip away laws that were meant to help us and provide opportunities, and creating shams to prevent us from voting.
Yes, yes, yes, we understand that you think that everything is our fault; that if it wasn’t for us, your jobs would not have been out sourced or you wouldn’t have lost your homes and the economy would be better, and gas prices would be lower, and your savings wouldn’t have been wiped out. We understand that you’ve convinced yourself that we have international connections with multi-national drug cartels, Customs and other law enforcement officials and the banking industry and are able to wash billions of dollars in drug money and have those same drugs shipped into the country, and then funneled into our communities’, where they have caused generations of devastation and havoc, and you blame us for broken homes due to systemic high black unemployment, and a lop-sided educational, judicial and justice system. Unfair sentencing guidelines which has led to mass incarcerations and the intentional warehousing of blacks and browns, for the, ” For Profit, Prison Industrial Complex.”
And that old standby, that no one want to accept; police brutality. ( after all they must have done something to deserve it, right? ) After all, even though president Obama was not even in office; it still is his fault that Katrina had such a poor government response… You see… Right there… It’s facts, I tell you, facts.
And our children’s bright futures, have been dimmed, because we are lazy and lack motivation. And oh, yeah, lets talk about the guns too. You know the one’s that are readily available and sold in this country; and protected by 2nd. amendment rights and the NRA and our corrupt politicians. Sure, you remember that, the guns that any sick lunatic can walk into any gun store and purchase, because some people are so fearful that some one is going to come and take them away, so they stockpile them as if their was going to be an apocalyptic invasion from another planet, or maybe a race war, that Fox News keeps warning you about.
Yes we know; that you think that it is all our fault, as well. And you’ve managed to convince a good portion of Americans too. You’ve convinced them to continuously vote against their own economic interests and excoriate programs that also help them; for fear that they would have to share something with us; and they have and they still do? (WTF) How else can you explain the Tea Party? Man, talk about blind hatred and selfishness. And they teach this to their children and still call themselves’ responsible parents?
But guess what? The world has been watching you; and some of those Americans are beginning to wake up, and they are sick and tired of having a national identity and description in the world, that Americans are motivated by hate…
We understand that you (some) refuse to take any responsibility for situations that you created or have allowed to happen right under your nose; because of greed, blatant racism and willful ignorance. We understand that you suffer from the psychosis of privilege and are so blinded by hatred that you don’t realize ( or won’t accept ) that you are getting played too. You refuse to admit to yourself that the views we are forced to peruse are the exact same one’s that light your vista’s too, because you have someone else to blame, right?
Well, just let me ask; how is that working out for you?
You fall prey, time and again to the rich and the powerful, who tell you that if you just keep believing their bullshit, then scraps from their table will trickle down to you too. And they continue to demonstrate; time and again, that they don’t give a rats ass about you, your future, your children, your homes, your outsourced jobs, your college loans or your families’ health or well-being in general.
But all of your problems are our fault; right? Oh, did I forgot to mention that they really don’t care about your husbands, fathers, sisters, brothers, sons and daughters, ( Some raped or otherwise sexually abused ) that they send off to wars for corporate profits who come home bruised and broken, spiritually, emotionally and otherwise. Only to be denied benefits and discharged from the military because of a “trumped up” personality disorder.
When will you get it; that we are all Americans and if this country is going to live up to it’s potential and ideals, we are going to have to start to embrace our difference’s and stop letting fear and hate cloud our judgement.”
Tom Robinson ~