Hello Everyone!
In this weeks class you did a great job of really living a situation we see often, and you successfully portrayed the ideas and personas of the characters you were given. We discussed the ideas found in Oscar Lewis's The Culture of Poverty and Daniel Moynihan's The Tangle of Pathology, in The Negro Family: The Case For National Action and we were posed with the questions:
Is there really a culture of poverty that gets transmitted generationally and is inescapable?
How does society demonize the poor, specifically people of color living in poverty?
How does gender and gender identity play a role in poverty?
I was thinking about these three questions last night trying to come up with characteristics of poverty (and a good question to begin discussion) when I started thinking about my previous internship at the Center on LGBTQ studies. When I think poverty, I tend to think of the stereotypical woman of color with three kids, or a two parent heteronormative family involved in drugs. It's not because I think these are the people that represent the poor, but because the media has led me to internalize images of what the poor are supposed to look like.
Relating back to my placement, these aren't the images of the poor in the narratives I am reading, or the research I and doing.
So my questions to you all is:
How do you think someone becomes trapped or predisposed to a cycle of poverty? Do you think gender, gender identity, and sexual orientation play a role in perpetuating poverty? How does this relate to the clients at your placements?
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Great prompt Nancy! I found our in-class role-play exercise to be a really positive experience. Participating in the role-play opened up our minds by challenging us to construct opinions and formulate arguments from different perspectives. As a result, I thought the role-play was really productive because it gave us an opportunity to think critically about an issue from various perspectives and address different sides of the argument.
Because it is generally accepted that financial barriers, an inadequate education, and limited job opportunities can all cause a person to become trapped in or predisposed to a cycle of poverty, I will address this prompt from a different approach. Personally, I find that poverty is heavily associated with elements of hopelessness and feelings of despair. I believe that these feelings can be considered byproducts of a sense of social immobility and alienation, which often arises from being categorized as the “other”. Once someone is caught in a mindset of hopelessness, he or she loses any incentive, drive, or motivation to strive for success and achieve his or her goals. Although one’s financial and/or social circumstances are what initially bars an individual from breaking out of poverty, I think that the most detrimental consequence from generational poverty is for someone to adopt the belief that like his or her parents, it is impossible for him or her to make it in the world. In addition, the common notion that the “American Dream” is attainable for all becomes problematic when it causes people who are unable to achieve their own standards of success to feel inadequate. Thus, I think that feelings of hopelessness, despair, inadequacy, and incompetence directly contribute to the entrapment of an individual into a cycle of poverty, after he or she is already in that situation as a result of financial circumstances.
Overall, I would argue that an amalgamation of factors plays a role in the entrapment of an individual into a cycle of poverty. In “The Tangle of Pathology”, Daniel Moynihan asserts that a matriarchal family system in Black homes is a major factor that causes generational poverty. Although I find his argument heavily flawed, sexist, and racist, I still think that gender, gender identity, and sexual orientation can play a role in perpetuating poverty in certain circumstances. For example, a poor individual might refuse to accept the only job available because he or she feels that the job goes against what someone of his or her gender would do. In addition, I recently watched an episode of Law & Order: SVU for another class (Season 17, episode 2 if you want to check it out), which centered on a story about how three Black teenagers tragically pushed a transgender individual off the ledge of a bridge in a park. During the opening scene, the transgender teen was immediately alienated, as the three boys who bullied her had targeted her simply because she was “different” from those who around them. As a result, I think that someone’s gender, gender identity, or sexual orientation can fuel one’s sense of alienation from others, which can cause hopelessness and entrap a financially poor person into a cycle of poverty.
The effects of poverty on individuals are evident at the CJA. From spending time at Central Booking, I have observed that individuals who have encountered the justice system before are generally less cooperative during our interviews than those who were arrested for the first time (kind of obvious, I know). People are aware that an arrest can significantly hinder their chances from getting into college, landing their dream job, or being let out of jail without bail (feelings of hopelessness!). Actually, the fact that someone has had previous arrests, however, plays a very (and I mean very) small role in decreasing someone’s chance for a recommendation of his or her release. As a result, I detest the fact that individuals, especially juveniles, are being arrested for minor violations, rather than being given a summons or a desk appearance ticket. Once someone gets that first arrest/conviction on his or her record, he or she automatically realizes the disadvantage they are now put in compared to their peers. With a “criminal” record, you might be able to land a job at McDonald’s or Burger King. You might not get a job, however, that requires an extensive background check, but might actually pay more. As a result, these unnecessary arrests are just contributing to feelings of hopelessness and the entrapment of individuals (who are already experiencing financial difficulties) in a cycle of poverty.
Hi Nancy! I think you ask a great question. The cycle of poverty is something that we all know exists. But I feel like leaving the term like that (bringing back what we've talked about before about the power of language) takes the responsibility out of the phrase. The cycle of poverty seems to inevitable. However the cycle is not a mandatory and unchanging force and it is by no means unavoidable.
Negative perceptions are so damaging emotionally to the people that live in impoverished communities. There is a concern that in many of the communities that are below the poverty line OUTSIDE agencies come INSIDE and "fix" the problem. There are several problems with this method. The first is that the outside influences have no understanding or appreciation of what the neighborhood does have to offer. It may be rich in culture or language. The second issues is that the residents of the community themselves begin to doubt their own value. They begin to have a dependency on these organizations to solve their problems because they have seen time and time again no collective gathering from community members to resolve their own problems (as they have been taught not to believe is possible). A third issue is that people are taught that to "make it" means to "make it out." Those who have attained a college degree and have now gained the critical thinking and skills to help the community gather to talk about resolving the issues are the ones who are the first to leave. Not to say that they abandon their community but they are now seen as outsiders.
As to your question on gender and gender identity, I have not seen very much research on this topic. What I can point to is the welfare queen. The term welfare queen is one that I am sure we have all come across. "In the popular imagination, the stereotype of the "welfare queen" is thoroughly raced — she's an indolent black woman, living off the largesse of taxpayers. The term is seen by many as a dogwhistle, a way to play on racial anxieties without summoning them directly." There is a great article on the term that I am pasting the link to below. The term is used to convey the image that you talk about Nancy, the typical black woman with multiple children.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/23/politics/weflare-queen/
Of course this is by no means an accurate description but it is the one that show up in mainstream media. This again reinforces the negative stereotypes which, as we all know, can have devastating impacts on young individuals who are prone to believing the negative about them.
The final question you ask is on how the idea of cycle of poverty relates to our placement. For me, I work at a job placement agency in the Bronx. My biggest group of clients are either homeless or recently incarcerated. I believe that throughout their lives the individuals I have the honor to work with have been told that they cannot. Either by someone they love, a teacher who could help them, or a system that has failed them. They began to believe this about themselves. They fall prey to the influences around them. However this itself is not as 2 dimensional at it seems. For more information on this idea of the influences around I encourage you all to please read THERE ARE NO CHILDREN HERE. It is amazing writing with a journalistic approach to a very personal story on children who are desperately trying to survive the Chicago housing projects. The system makes it so hard for individuals to believe they can make it, and so much harder even after they believe that they can. There's that idea of structural violence again...
Great discussion, all. Thanks Nancy for getting it going.
I have a question: what is the so-called "cycle of poverty"? I ask because it seems you're using the phrase as if we all know what it means, or what you mean by it. Thoughts? Definitions?
Great prompt Nancy! I believe the cycle of poverty is the experience of people who lack the resources, education, developmental experience or any other mechanism that has a track record of bringing people out of poverty overtime. Furthermore, the absence of the instrument with the potential to reduce poverty makes it difficult for their children to also rise out of poverty, therefore creating a revolving door throughout generations. I think many components causes someone to be trapped in the cycle of poverty. Gender and gender identity specifically can have significant impact. For example, take into account Moynihan’s view of the matriarchal family system found in black families. Similar to my role at the town hall meeting, imagine the mother makes a small amount of money that is stretched out to pay for childcare, education for the three children, transportation for work and other typical single mother expenditures. One of the three children might be male. The child might notice the struggles being faced by his mom and have desires to help, especially after internalizing this idea of being THE MAN OF THE HOUSE, due to an absent father. Negative emotions such as hopelessness is a common belief among people in these communities but motivation streamlined in the wrong direction could also perpetuate poverty. A motivated male growing up in a community like the Wagner Houses might not have been exposed to people who have “made it out”, like Jasmine mentions, the traditional route and now participates in the formal economy. Instead the success stories he can touch and absorb influence are similar to Nick’s past life. It is not surprising that a young man with a poor and undereducated family history with loads of ambition might make bad decisions. They enter to drug economy with the positive thoughts of “I’m going to make it”. However, we know this story all too well, which ends with the drug dealer dead or in jail. Unless you actually do make it like Nick’s character. But for the unfortunate majority, this is where the cycle of poverty begins again. If you end up dead, it is highly likely that your single mother did not have a life insurance plan for you. No parent anticipates burying their child. I experienced firsthand how expensive a death in your immediate family could be around this time last year. So the expenses of a death could put that family in a deeper whole of poverty than they were in already. The accumulation of debt could be a real burden. Not only could that now dead boy’s siblings be denied loans for college but the mother might have to severe her relationship with the banks to avoid constant overdraft fees. Disassociation from banks now causes that parent to pay check cashing fees among others to pay for expenses. Otherwise they may pay for the funeral with a subprime loan due to the existence and long history of redlining in the United States. This perpetuates the cycle of poverty especially if the debt outlives the mother’s lifespan. That is something I’m actually curious about, whether children inherit their parent’s debt like others inherit fortunes?
But moving on to the latter potential end route for a drug dealer, incarceration. Jail or prison could be another expenditure to an already stretched budget between transportation for visits and communication fees. Technology has been so useful these days in cutting costs and making life easier however in the case of virtual visits for inmates, it is still pretty costly. Additionally, prisoner debt is real. An inmate can be charged a fee for infractions among other things and be responsible for paying the bill upon release. Check it out: http://money.cnn.com/2015/09/18/news/economy/prison-fees-inmates-debt/
This also perpetuates the cycle of poverty because here are victims of the cycle of poverty, being released after paying their debt to society, expected to start life all over the right way, already in the red. This whole example is how I believe someone or a family can be trapped in the cycle of poverty and where gender identity plays a role.
At Vera, the Pathways from Prison to Postsecondary Education Project is one way to aid in reducing the cycle of poverty. In the details of the early RAND evaluation on pathways, inmates have said participating in pathways increases their sense of confidence being that they will be the first in their families to earn a college degree upon release. Correctional education in prison also increases the likelihood of the inmate finding a job. Earning a college degree and having a job upon release could have a positive effect on a man’s child or children. If your dad was able to earn a college degree under challenging circumstances you should now be able to do the same. This new cycle puts generations that come after in a better position each and every time.
Nice prompt Nancy! I too enjoyed last class. However, I wish we had a few more minutes to play out our character roles.
Like you all said, there are many circumstances that can entrap someone in the "cycle of poverty". To me, the cycle of poverty is a continuous system that separates an already disadvantaged group from gaining access into fiscal opportunities. Fiscal opportunities isn't limited to a job. It can refer to access to education that would better the chances of receiving a job. There are a series of opportunities that can be set into place for economic mobility in America, but the structural cycle of poverty prohibits this for various reasons; often times because of their societal "othering" as nick said, based on race, sex, gender, class, citizenship, religion and more.
One of the biggest entrapment into poverty is immigration. I'm following this new documentary series on Twitter called "strolling stories" where they are now interviewing these Afro-Italian women who was born and raised in Italy but whose mother(s) moved from Nigeria. One mother left her highly accredited Job as a chem /bio professor in Nigeria to move and support her husband in finishing his degree in Italy. When she came to Italy the job market did not recognize her degree as a professor, so she was subjected to "cleaning houses" for a living. Here's the link to this segment of the docuseries: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JCubkwdpwr8. She also goes on to talk about how the Italian government forced the two of them to prove that they were Italian citizens, so they could not get their citizenship approved until they were 18years old, even though they were born there.
This story can very well relate to the families who have moved from other parts of the world to America. The American system of education, social security, federal funding, and the job market is difficult to understand for even a native bred "American", nonetheless someone who was already accustomed to a different system and way of life. It is extremely easy, almost a given to fall within the cracks and into a system of poverty.
I do think gender and gender identity perpetuates who is subjected to poverty. Many places exercise hiring biases pertaining to gender and orientation--some biases even as minute as your name. If I'm not mistaken, statistically, a woman's rate is .70cents to every dollar a man makes within the job corps (correct me if I'm wrong Verons!). With this piece of information alone, access to fare wages is against a group of women. Move into smaller groups of "others" and you'll find even harsher treatment and even greater access limitations.
I don't have clients at my placement at the center for youth Justice, but we do have a demographic of juveniles in which the status offenses largely skewed to affecting. Like I've said in previous posts, African American girls are subjected to harsher punishment after committing a status offense. Additionally, many of these girls families are inching towards the federal poverty line, if not already there. There are many factors within their family life that enable them from going to school, poverty being one of them. This emphasizes another cycle within poverty, because if a child can't go to school, they'll either won't receive their education, resulting in barely any access to a job OR they will have a criminal record which will also result in fewer, if any, access to a job/income.
Nancy, I love this prompt…very thought provoking. My definition of the “cycle of poverty” encapsulates the experiences encountered by marginalized/isolated groups that are concentrated on the low socioeconomic rung of the ladder. In turn, the conditions within the cycle restrict opportunities for upward mobility. As my fellow Verons have already stated, there are a multitude of factors as to why someone can become trapped in, or predisposed to the cycle of poverty. The two main factors are the lack of financial and educational opportunities. This is further perpetrated by gender, race and sexual orientation. We cannot deny the fact that history tends to repeat itself, especially when marginalizing minorities, women and the LGBT community. Although there are other factors of structural violence at play, it is not a coincidence that there are a significant amount of female headed households within NYC alone. Being a woman has many obligations, often wearing different hats at the same time. Although women are now continuing their education, they are not receiving the same pay as their male counterparts. Unless there are strong kinship ties, single mothers will struggle throughout their life trying to get out of the cycle of poverty. I guess you can say I have personal bias being that my mother was a single parent. My mother was the first in her family to go to college, and having me at a very young age was no walk in the park either. It wasn’t until recently that my mother had finally “escaped the cycle”, and bought her own house. My mother is a registered nurse, and one would assume that she makes a decent amount of money. However, Staten Island has its reputation for being racist. My mother has experienced this in many forms. Despite being qualified for some of the top positions at hospitals, years of work experience, and reapplying a number of times (when they needed someone desperately) she was still not offered a position. My mother was also caught in the cycle of poverty because her mother was also under the same conditions. As a child, my mother repeated that getting an education was the only way to “make it out”. I can see similar conditions with my clients at Safe Horizon. The main reason why people become victims of trafficking is because they are poor. However, the cycle that applies to human trafficking victims includes migrating to find work, or being kidnapped and coerced….not going back to school. One of my clients is from the Philippines, and she is a victim of labor trafficking. She described how she took it upon herself to seek work abroad to help her family because her husband was not present within the home, and accumulated debt only to send what little money she earned back home. This instance is seen in a more extreme light than what we have in the United States, and sometimes its good to see that other “cycles of poverty” can be worse than what we have now.
Here is a link to some of the “myths” about the culture of poverty: Weather you agree or not is still subject to change.
http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/apr08/vol65/num07/The-Myth-of-the-Culture-of-Poverty.a
Thinking about my post earlier, I just wanted to clarify that receiving a job isn't the escape route to poverty. Much like gabby's example, many families have a working mother with a great working title such as a nurse, who still lives under or on the poverty level. It isn't plainly about receiving a job or career, as other factors comes into play when trying to excapenthis cycle. Family size, dept, housing/mortgage payments and many more regulate the conservation and usage of these nursing funds.
Poverty is a form of structural violence with interlocking systems-- receiving a job/career is one of the many bars that make up its cage.
All I can say is this article right here!: http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/america-condemns-millions-its-own-citizens-suffering-misery-and-early-death
To piggy back on the "poverty concept"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/warren-buffett-us-poverty_55ef2df8e4b03784e276c478
Very interesting prompt Nancy. Our seminar exercise did in fact open my eyes to see from the outside in and consider different dynamics in poverty. By definition the cycle of poverty is the “set of factors or events by which poverty, once started, is likely to continue unless there is outside intervention.” I believe that someone becomes predisposed to a cycle of poverty when they are brought into an environment where such cycle is in work. We are a product of our surroundings and so being exposed to such standards affects us . I feel one can be trapped in this cycle with lack of education, lack of resources and helplessness. As educated people we know how to critically think and with our readings and in class discussions we are able to dissect this concept. If individuals predisposed to this cycle are not informed on how to better themselves they will be lost in it. I believe a lack of resources goes hand in hand with education because these resources can aid these individuals but if they are scarce or the ways to obtain them aren’t being promoted then they are losing out on helpful opportunities. Learned helplessness is a concept from psychology I feel can play a part in the cycle of poverty. If someone is in the cycle long enough and has yet to receive help after pursuing it they will lose the hope of getting out and will no longer be motivated to continue their fight therefore becoming trapped.
I’m not sure I can say that I think gender identity and sexual orientation play a role in perpetuating poverty. Each individuals story is unique and I am not fairly aware of cases that look into these labels as contributing factors. I will say that women do have a harder time establishing themselves in the world and that has already been proven time and time again. I can see there being more pressure for people in the LGBT community who do not have the proper support to become a part of the cycle because of their identities. I say this with coming-out stories in mind but I cannot say for certain.
I feel like this cycle relates to clients at my placement in many ways. As many participants of CASES are court mandated to attend school and meet with case workers, with what I know about some of their stories it’s safe to say that their environment as put them in the situations they are in. With the various workshops, one-on-one meetings and advertisements of resources available to them I feel the program is trying to break their cycles. The school portion serves as the education factor that will aid them for many years, the social workers, counselors and teachers on staff provide them with information, attention and resources to help them create better lives for themselves and release themselves from the shackles of poverty placed in their environments. With this outside intervention the cycle can be broken for sure.
Excellent prompt Nancy! I personally believe that an individual becomes trapped in a cycle of poverty when educational attainment is low. A lack of education can harbor a multitude of factors such as the district the person attends school, the parent(s)/guardian(s) views on education, and the type of environment. Low educational attainment can limit the amount of resources a person may have access to such as quality employment, healthcare, and housing. There is a quote that states, “when you know better, you do better”. From my trajectory, this quote relates to the situation as well. When a person has a firm educational background, they have a better chance to not get trapped in the cycle of poverty considering how more opportunities become available when a person receives a certain level of education such as a high school diploma or its equivalency, bachelor’s degree, Master’s degree, etc. Having this background, a person is able to have alternative options as opposed to individuals who do not have a decent education, in which they have few opportunities if any at all. Ultimately, having this restriction can cause the symptoms of poverty such as drug abuse, violence, and crime.
Additionally, I do believe that a culture of poverty is perpetuated in households that do not have an active father in a child’s life. I personally believe that men are overlooked in terms of the stability they provide for a child. From my perspective, I live in a culture of poverty. However, due to the values that my parents have instilled into me, it has enabled me to resist that culture and provided me the opportunity to not become a product of my environment. A lot of the success I have obtained I attribute to my father because he has been a constant motivator for me as I faced trials and tribulations. My mother has made major impacts on my life as well but my father was able to convey things in a way that was more understanding for me, perhaps because we are both males. But I do believe that the dichotomy perspectives from a woman and a man are major contributing factors for why an individual may or may not become a product of their environment.
Furthermore, I believe that a culture of poverty exists anywhere at the eye of the beholder. Meaning, the culture of poverty can resonate anywhere for a person just as long that individual believes there is a sense of poverty. For instance, a whole community can encompass the characteristics I have mentioned above but yet the people who live in that community can feel as if they are privileged and do not perpetuate the “culture of poverty”. Which makes me bring into question, what do we value as wealth? Is it just purely money? Or is it community relationships, education, being in love, understanding yourself? I am confident to say that many individuals will not give responses like the latter due to their limited perspective of poverty. That limited view can derive from the media and what they want the masses to consider as poverty and not for us to critically evaluate what poverty truly is or what it can be.
I think the culture of poverty is not limited to race, gender, or sexuality. However, I do believe that when the symptoms of poverty are perpetuated in demographics that we are not used to seeing there is more compassion/sympathy for them. This can be seen throughout the criminal justice system, such as a white male or female who grows up in an affluent community and has a history of crime but has continuously received petty sentences. In contrast, in a community where it is widely accepted that crime exists, those individuals who reside in that area (minorities) are more prone to receiving much harsher sentences.
Lastly, how this relates to the clients at my placement is that many participants of Common Justice have unfortunately fallen into the culture of poverty. However, Common Justice encompasses a unique approach using restorative justice principles in order to reform individuals. In this process participants become more informed about themselves and how they can prevent actions like this from reoccurring based upon workshops that are centered on Common Justice’s principles of accountability, respect, transformation, purpose, and transparency. With the implementation of these principles, the participants of the program obtain an opportunity to break out of the culture of poverty and turn over a new leaf.
I really enjoyed reading everyone's responses! So many of you were starting to get to where I wanted you to go in terms of thinking about gender, gender identity and sexual orientation but didn't quite get there. I was hoping someone would bring up discrimination in hiring LGBTQ individuals (Gabby you made a great point in how your mother is discriminated against when it comes to hiring) but no one did. LGBTQ individiduals face a ton of discrimination when it comes to hiring. I've heard friends who do hiring pass up individuals that had stated they were transgender because of bathroom issues or because they didn't know how the rest of the employers would feel. It's even harder when you add sexuality + gender together and see that lesbians or trans womyn have a harder time finding employment than men and get paid LESS (Andrene - glad you touched on wage differences) than men. Finally, add race and you see how all theese oppressions get compounded together and lead many to live in poverty.
There's a great article I found when I searched the topic -
http://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/headlines/beyond-stereotypes-poverty-in-the-lgbt-community/
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