Poverty Stereotypes - Final Essay

Poverty Stereotypes

            In America it has become increasingly difficult to achieve financial success due to numerous factors such as the Great Recession and unemployment. However in today’s world poverty can no longer be blamed on character flaws, unwillingness to work or lack of education. If it is not understood how poverty in this country has occurred then there is no way to construct a correct solution. With 150 million Americans living in or near poverty it is important to distinguish the ways in which poverty occurs. Authors Tavis Smiley and Cornel West address the prevalent misunderstanding of poverty in their novel The Rich and the Rest of Us: A Poverty Manifesto. Ignorance to understand how poverty forms not only creates a larger gap between the rich and the poor but also amongst the middle class and the poverty class. A democracy that cannot understand and empathize with its poorest citizens cannot thrive. If the nation continues to believe in poverty stereotypes then there is no foreseeable hope for those living in the poverty class to see the other side.

            It is not longer appropriate to say it is at the fault of the public for poverty in this country. For the pass decade poverty has been an accumulated result of a recession, income inequality and an overwhelming amount of corporate greed. Individuals across the country can view poverty as a character flaw because it is easy. It is a very quick and easy assumption to look at those in poverty as being lazy or unmotivated. Selfishly, it is easier to believe these types of explanations because it means as individuals we do not have to come up with a solution. If people have decided to be lazy and not to work we cannot do much about it, and it is much more to convenient to believe there is nothing we can do than it is to actually try to come up with a solution. Therefore, those in the upper class and middle class prefer to blame poverty on character flaws because it is more favorable than to face the reality of there being a larger underlying problem. Collectively “we want to pin the tail on any available donkey that will keep us from having to define poverty as ‘being unable to make a living because we can’t find a job’” (171). People will continue to blame poverty on all different stereotypes as long as it means not having to come up with any sort of solution. When the country fails to understand the true problem of how poverty is formed then there is no way of coming up with correct solutions. If the government does not admit their for the sake of convenience, then the whole country will continue to suffer and the number of those in poverty will continue to increase.

            Stereotypical beliefs projected on the poverty class have also been created in order to construct a gap between the poor and middle class. If giant corporations and members of the 1% can create a division between the bottom two classes then it lessens the probability of those two classes coming together for a great good. Members of the middle class want to distance themselves from those in the poverty class out of disdain. Few people want to be associated with the lowest level of the county because of the stereotypes created around those in poverty, and nobody wants those characteristics to be reflected on them. The middle class find it comforting to disassociate themselves from the lower class “because we all want to feel like we have some sort of stature in life” (171). Although most middle class citizens are hovering closer and closer to the poverty line, many still do not want to believe they are capable of going into poverty. They distance themselves from those below them because nobody wants to be at fault, and nobody wants to be a part of the bottom of the pyramid. It is easier for an individual to feel as if they have some structure by judging those below them. However, it would be a monumental movement if those in the middle class and poverty class viewed themselves as equals and came together to protest the 1%. If the middle class continues to frown upon the poverty class below them then more individuals in the middle class will continue to fall into poverty because no change is being made due to old fabricated stereotypes. 

         These stereotypes will not only continue to create a gap between classes but will prevent any sort of solution from being developed. If the country is too busy arguing over what the problem is rather than looking at the facts, then it will be a long while before the government takes any form of large measure to assist those in poverty and prevent others from entering it. Society can no longer afford to misinterpret poverty in today’s world because stereotyping no longer benefits anyone. More specifically, stereotyping does not benefit the 150 million American in or near poverty today. The country has done a disservice to 150 million Americans all because “our definitions of [poverty] are stuck within a history of bygone eras” (23). Many American hold onto a definition of poverty that is no longer applicable to today’s world. The truth of the matter is that poverty today is not caused by lack of education of lack of willingness to work, but rather due to an exponential amount of government neglect. The government has neglected to face poverty for what it is today and has not tried to seek any form of solution. Thus leaving little aspiration for today’s generation and for those to come.

            Society and the government will soon have no alternative to face the truth about poverty today. It has costs the country and its citizens too much in believe in poverty stereotypes that may have once been true in the past. However, today poverty must be faced with the notion that citizens in poverty are not at fault for their situations and therefore the government has an obligation to fix the problems they have caused. The country is at a crucial time in which if drastic changes are in order, that number of 150 million Americans in poverty can dramatically decrease; but if nothing is done and the country continues on the same path that number may devastatingly increase. 

U.S. Prisons: Myth Vs. Mayhem.

             This article explains the past and current problems in jails across the country. Author Frank Trippett explains the failing systems in the nation that are not improving crime rates nor helping inmates. He describes the increasing costs the governments spends on jails, the poor conditions, and the lack of safety for both inmates and law enforcement. He ends by expressing the way society's view for prisons needs to change and how as a society, we need to understand there are things prisons are and are not capable of.

           Prison is not the best solution for dealing with gang members because they are not given any chance for improvement, but are rather but in the same or similar environment as they were before. Being surrounded by other gang members only encourages rebellion and outbreak. These gang members are all trying to fight for the same thing they were fighting for in the streets: power. When gang members are locked up and put in the same building with rival members there is a very slim chance for a safe environment. This not only creates and unsafe environment for inmates but for the patrolling officers as well. The environment because hostile and dangerous for everyone around.

         Prisons do have the ability to become successful if reform in jails across the country were to take place. This would require a drastic change in how prisoners are treated and dealt with. One thing that benefit prisoners would be psychological treatment. If prisoners were given psychological counseling or therapy it can vastly change their thought process, their need to seek power, and possibly deal with any trauma they faced as children. It would also help if officers were trained differently on how to treat and speak to the prisoners in a more effective way.

         It was surprising and interesting to learn about the hostage situation that took place in a New Jersey jail and the situation that lead to multiple deaths in the New Mexico State Penitentiary. It was surprising to hear how little media outlets did not report these situations because they seemed to be common occurrences. It was interesting to read how much money the government and California alone spends on inmates and just one jail cell for a failing system. If they are willing to spend an exponential amount of money on these inmates, it would make sense to spend it in a wise way which is currently not happening. The many stories Trippett illustrates in jails across the nation are alarming to read about and see that not much is being done to improve them.

          I was confused about the ideas of alternative punishment and how society believes these punishments would work. I was confused on how certain states have imposed alternative punishments and to what extent they have used them. Also, if multiple prisons were “bad enough to declared unconstitutional” should that not lead to the investigation of more jails around the country? Once declaring jails unconstitutional shouldn't they be shut down or modified to help improve conditions for all.

Should We Have Compassion?

Gabriela Cazares-Lopez

M. Williams

English 1A

21 October 2013

Compassion

            Compassion can be described as having sympathy and sorrow for others are effected by misfortune. To feel compassion is to feel pity for others who are suffering and feel the need to relieve people of their hardship. As a society, to understand one another there must be a sense of compassion in order to properly function. And it can be argued, that it is lack of compassion that makes a society lack peace. To have compassion is the ability to combine sympathy and empathy to better understand one another. In Gregory Boyle's Tattoos on the Heart, he describes compassion, in its truest meaning is not “in our service of those on the margins, but in our willingness to see ourselves in kinship with them” (71). Boyle indicates that compassion is not just the ability to help others less fortunate or different than us, but as the ability to also see parts of ourselves in others. It is the ability to find common ground with others. It is then when people from all over, can be compassionate with one another.

               We should show compassion because in doing so it means we are not judging others. It indicates that we are not grouping others or putting people in a box based upon our general knowledge of them. Compassion shows that you have an interest in someone and are willing to get to know them further before judging them immediately. Compassion reiterates the notion that you “can't judge a book by its cover, nor can you judge a book by its first chapter” (35). Boyle goes on to explain that you cannot judge a person if their first chapter is prolonged. When showing empathy towards others, it sends the message that a person is willing to get to know someone, and not judge them but relate to a person. Empathy and compassion bring humanness to a society. When people are able to do and express emotions such as empathy, compassion and sympathy, that is when a society has achieved to understand one another a large level. 

9 Paragraphs

             To help lower income schools struggling to provide basic resources to their students, States should tax the rich. Taxing the rich by a slightly increased amount to go towards education in public schools could help substantially. For instance, this past year fifty-five percent of California voters put into effect the Yes on 30 Campaign. The campaign proposed increasing taxes on the rich. When voted into last November, Yes on 30 is set to raise six billion dollars annually for schools. This was able to be done because the California Federation of Teachers was able to come together and pull support from individual communities with the hopes to better fund and supply California schools. Other States should follow in California's foot steps and pass laws to better fund and accommodate low income schools. This would provide schools with higher funding and the ability to purchase crucial materials such as textbooks, for every student.

         State and city governments would also so of increased support towards low-income schools by offering rewards for those who do help or donate resources. Along with increasing taxes on the wealthy States should offer better rewards for those who do help poor schools. States should consider “'Pay[ing] teachers more to work in places like the Bronx...Pay college kids to tutor inner city children...You could forgive their college loans to make it worth their while'” (David,158). The student Kozol interviews attends a high income school yet understands that students in inner city schools need more resources from outside forces. As he states, the government needs to motivate the outside help and make it worth their while. Governments could help college graduates who are trying to pay off their student loans, by agreeing to pay them off if they help poor schools. If done correctly, it could create a beneficial cycle of helping citizens, and those citizens helping others under them.

             Children who do have materials feel worthy of their education because having materials sends the message that many people believe that they will make good use of those resources. Students in wealthier communities who receive better funding feel worthy of what is being given to them. An example being the kids living in Rye, New York who are able to attend the local high school that is fully stocked with materials and was able to raise $400,000 through parent support. When interviewed by Kozol, the students mention that they do not believe that the poor children would do well in their school. These students claim that their success is due more to themselves than to what has been provided for them. It is this type of confidence that students in poor communities lack because many believe they are not worthy of their education. The generous amounts of extra materials and resources the students in Rye, New York have also give them a sense of empowerment. Children quickly notice that they are getting more than many other schools and feel a sense of power. However it is a strange power these Rye kids have over other kids, such as in the Bronx, who are the same age yet are at a much greater disadvantage. As Kozol continues questioning the kids on what they could do to improve inner city schools, high school student David mentions “'It seems rather odd, that we were sitting in an AP class discussing whether poor kids in the Bronx deserve to get an AP class. We are in a powerful position.'” David is right in that the position he and his fellow classmates are in is is extremely powerful because they could determine the destinies of those inner city students. If enough of students of Rye, New York got together and volunteered to willingly give students in lower-funded schools some materials, or donations, it could change the lives of the children in the Bronx dramatically.

                Lack of materials in poorly funded public schools creates citizens with feelings of little self-worth. These feelings begin in the classroom, where students in poor schools observe they are not receiving all they can. When students in struggling communities hear the neighboring cities do not want to give them money, or that the more fortunate do not want to donate to their schools, they jump to the conclusion that they are not good enough. Kids begin to assume that the reason nobody wants to donate money to them and provide them with the resources they need is because they are not worthy of the things most other kids in America have. The lack of materials and resources sends them the message that there is no use in trying to educate them because there is no hope, because there are not expected to do well. In Jonathan Kozol's Savage Inequalities, he mentions a report by the Community Service Society in which an official of the New York Board of Education notes that message the poor funding sends “trickles down to districts, schools, and classrooms” (121). Kozol explains that “Children hear and understand this theme -they are poor investments- and behave accordingly” (121). This theme that Kozol mentions kicks in to a student's mentality to the point where they give up and stop believing in themselves because nobody else does, causing this students to grow into low-achieving citizens with low self-esteems and little faith in themselves.

                 The deficiency in resources in poorly funded public schools leads to antsy and frustrated students. Author Jonathan Kozol gives the example of the kids attending Irvington High School where students share a gym being used as seven different classes, have no lockers, and hardly ever get the change to shoot the basketball during physical education. This constant requirement of students having to share, and wait for a mere chance to do something as simple as shooting a basketball creates very impatient citizens. Seemingly, there is a correlation between the lack of textbooks and technology in Oakland schools and the city's high crime rates. Kozol best describes this as he writes, “the scarcity...creates the overheated moods that also causes trouble in the streets. The students perspire. They grow dirty and impatient. They dislike who they are and what they have become” (192). This impatience students acquire leads to outbursts and disturbances within their communities; the anger they felt for their insufficient education is redirected and expressed to an entire community.

Also when students lack enough resources to see and learn new thing they never learn things outside of their own communities. As James Paul Gee describes in his discourse theory, people who only experience small 'd' discourse only learn things from association and experience, people who learn what they are exposed to. For many of the kids in towns the author describes, such as East Harlem and Camden, small 'd' discourse is mostly the only thing the are set up to learn. When schools lack proper materials and textbooks and technology that educate students on the world and on other types of societies, it withholds a student's ability to acquire new knowledge. James Paul describes big 'D' discourse as learned experiences such as politics and speech. The likelihood for citizens in poor communities to have these experiences are slim because they are not provided the right tools to do so, and many will not try to seek it themselves. In James Paul Gee's Social Linguistics and Literacies, he explains that “Discourses are intimately related to the distribution of social power and hierarchical structure in society” (144). Gee means that the your big 'D' depends on where you are in society, and is the determining factor in dividing social classes. These lack of resources for students leads to inadequate opportunities to learn big 'D' discourses creates citizens who do not leave their communities and repeat the never ending cycle.

                  A child who attends a decent school with enough materials and resources has a better chance of acquiring more knowledge. Compared to children in Camden, New Jersey, who do not have enough textbooks, the students in cities such as Rye, New York are more certain to receive a better education. All they resources and materials they have aids their learning process where as the children in poor inner city schools struggle to learn the minimum amount. Kids in poor school are not put into a fair game compared to those in wealthier neighborhoods but rather leave the children “'as [they] are, separate, and equal, underfunded'”(Ruthie Green-Brown, 173). This inequality is what divides kids among classes for the rest of their lives; they become unequal and then uneducated. Kids in towns like Camden, New Jersey begin with an disadvantage: the mere fact that they were raised where they are. Kids in more adjusted towns have a greater advantage; they have more of an opportunity to get ahead, with the right resources, such as books and technology, they are better prepared for their future than many if not all the kids in inner city schools.

                   Children who have more resources have feelings of better self-worth and are more prepared to achieve more in the future.. They feel the reason they are being supplied with so much is because the deserve it when in reality there is nothing they have done nothing that differentiates them from kids in the poor communities; other than the detrimental fact of where each child grew up. A teacher Jonathan Kuzol interviews mentions how “'world is leaving us behind in Camden,''' (177). Children in cities like Camden, are not destined to failure but are also not give much of a change a success as the kids in Rye, New York do. Kids in poor communities are not taught the same skills as kids in suburban schools, they are trained to work they are expected to do. However, the world does not only consist of poor children, or just rich children, eventually both sides “'have got to be around each other...you'll see all kinds of different people. That's America. We have to live in the same world'” (Luis, 187). The separation and barriers that the society puts around these two groups of children eventually comes down, and they will have to face one another. Poorly-funded schools are expected to put their students in positions lower than most kids in urban areas.

                    Because nobody wants to spend money on the students, they feel unworthy. The students Kozol has spoken to all have seen what other school look like, and they all understand what they are missing.When they see these types of inequalities, most kids comes to the same assumption that they are just not good enough. Kozol notes a report by the Community Service Society explaining how children know people do not want to spend money on their education because the think it would be a waste and the children see the results of that in the classroom, “Children hear and understand this theme-they are poor investments-and behave accordingly” (120). When children know that no one believes in them they stop believing in themselves. It can be argued that the reason for the students' poor success is due to their feelings of insecurity.They are aware that they have less than kids at richer schools, but many do not understand why, so naturally they blame themselves. They lose hope because no one has ever had any for them and they stop trying. 

Poorly Funded Public Schools

            Low-achieving schools in the Bay Area do differ a bit as to those mentioned in Jonathan Kozol's, Savage Inequalities, however they do share some similarities. As many of the schools discussed in Kozol's book, many Bay Area schools suffer from lack of resources due to lack of funding. In this day and age there is a substantial amount of new technology available to the world, much of which can aid learning in schools. However, not all schools can afford or even raise money to acquire such technology. For instance, an article published by Inside Bay Area reports that students attending Oakland High School can not afford new computers and are therefore stuck with computers so old that the company who made them, no longer exists. This is an substantial difference compared to students of Sequoia Middle School in Pleasant Hill who, through parent funding, were provided twenty iPads.

              It is not just technology that students in Oakland, and the Bay Area lack. Another crucial resource they lack are textbooks. As many of the schools in Savage Inequalities,students of Oakland High School are forced to borrow textbooks from a school in West Oakland due to budget cuts. It is alarming to hear that schools like Oakland High do not have such essential resources. And as expressed in Kozol's book, lack of resources leads to lack of faith in students and lack of faith in themselves. Like many of the kids in towns such as East St. Louis, students in Oakland will begin to ask themselves why they are suffering compared to kids in richer communities in nearby towns. They blame themselves and begin to believe that their fate is “determine from their birth. If they fail, it's something in themselves” (172). The students in town like Oakland and Camden see the things everybody else has and realize that for some reason their getting less than the minimum amount.

            In the State of California the lowest-income students receive $620 less per student than students in richer communities. Many schools such as Sequoia Middle School and as mentioned in the book Cherry Hill, are fortunate to live in high income communities where parents are able to donate generous amounts of money to raise funds for extra necessities for their kids. The students in these types of neighborhood have more class choices, smaller class sizes, and more resources available to them individually. For those living in lower incomes communities such as Camden or Oakland, most parents do not have any extra money to spare towards donations to the schools; nor do the schools have money themselves. The Melrose Leadership Academy in Oakland recently had to hold a fundraise to raise funds to pay for copy machines. Copy machines, which to most may seem as an easy resource to acquire, were something of a scarcity at the Leadership Academy. With having to fundraise just to get new copy machines, the students of the Academy can not even imaging trying to raise money for even further resources such as computers and textbooks. According to a Stanford study conducted in 2012 the gap between poor and rich students is 40% higher than it has been in the last fifty years. 

Savage Inequalities: Chapter 3

           Because nobody wants to spend money on the students, they feel unworthy. The students Kozol has spoken to all have seen what other school look like, and they all understand what they are missing.When they see these types of inequalities, most kids comes to the same assumption that they are just not good enough. Kozol notes a report by the Community Service Society explaining how children know people do not want to spend money on their education because the think it would be a waste and the children see the results of that in the classroom, “Children hear and understand this theme-they are poor investments-and behave accordingly” (120). When children know that no one believes in them they stop believing in themselves. It can be argued that the reason for the students' poor success is due to their feelings of insecurity.They are aware that they have less than kids at richer schools, but many do not understand why, so naturally they blame themselves. They lose hope because no one has ever had any for them and they stop trying.  

TED Talk Reflection

Ted Talk Reflection

          Sir Ken Robinson makes a point in his TED Talk in which he says something along the lines of education not being linear, but organic. He goes on to explain how education should be customized to those who are being taught. I enjoyed his idea of this because he is right in the fact that the way people used to learn is certainly not the way we learn now and his idea of a revolution, and not evolution, occurring in the educational system is utterly correct. There does need to drastic change in which people are students are being taught and motivated. He speaks about not everyone not needing to go to college right away, which I agree with because sometimes people need a break and a chance to experience something that stimulates their soul. Some people need time to find their passion, to discover exactly what it is they want to work towards to.

      Robinson brings up the example of the man who had always wanted to be a firefighter, and did so despite being told it was a waste of time. I believe that is the perfect example of passion; of finding what inexplicably makes you happy and just doing it. This is the hope I wish to give students such as myself, who may or may not know what their passion is. But once that passion has been discovered, I believe it is vitally important for it to be pursued, despite what others may think.

Source: Sir Ken Robinson: Bring on the learning revolution!