¶ … Shame in My Game: The Economic Sociology of Poverty
Poverty in America is such a politicized topic that it can be difficult for even the most neutral people to discuss. Part of the reason that poverty is so political is that most Americans have a romanticized notion of the free-market system and believe that the American dream is easily achieved if one applies sufficient hard work. However, the reality is that while America may be a free-market economy, it is also an economy where the wealthy have much greater access to politicians than the average individual, and where much of the socio-economic political structure has been developed to preserve wealth for the upper-class. Another reason that poverty is such a political issue is because poverty is so linked to race in America. Many people reject the notion that the fact that so many minorities are trapped in lives of poverty is linked to the history of slavery and other forms of racial oppression in the United States, but if one only looks at the fact that people are likely to die as a member of the same socio-economic class to which they were born, then race is obviously linked to poverty. However, these two issues are very uncomfortable for many Americans. Therefore, a mythology has developed around the impoverished, and this mythology supports the idea that the poor are somehow subhuman, and deserve to live in poverty.
After all, when one looks at image of the impoverished in popular media, one gets the image of people who are morally and emotionally impoverished, as well as financially poor. The poor are frequently portrayed as criminals who commit a wide variety of crimes. For example, the poor are portrayed as more likely than others to engage in drug use, be involved in gangs, be involved in prostitution, deal drugs, and engage in theft. The poor are portrayed as valuing human life less than those who are not impoverished; there is a suggestion that human life is cheap in urban environments. They are portrayed as having a lack of family values, with a willingness for men to readily abandon their families, and for women to do so as well. Many portrayals of impoverished people show extended family raising children, with the whereabouts of the parents unknown. They are shown as being dependent upon government handouts, with housing, clothing, food, utilities, and medical care coming as the result of government subsidies. Frequently, the impoverished are portrayed as being sexually indiscriminate, with children from multiple partners, and without the desire to marry or stay married. However, this portrait of the poor is inaccurate. Of course, there are people among the impoverished who seem to make these stereotypes true, but they do not speak for all of America's lower socioeconomic class.
Katherine Newman's book, No Shame in My Game, which explored the working poor in Harlem, a notoriously poor, historically black community, explodes many of the myths surrounding poverty. It tackles the idea that the poor are lazy or unmotivated, but instead shows many of the poor as hard workers. It challenges the idea that the poor are without pride, and even discusses how pride plays a role in continuing economic oppression. It also shatters the notion that the poor lack family values, by demonstrating the value that family plays in the community. Furthermore, it demonstrates that the impoverished do form communities, and that they can play vital roles in those communities. Many times the poor are seen as impotent victims of circumstance, who are powerless to change those circumstances because of a lack of financial ability. While Newman does not suggest that money is not interrelated with power, she does demonstrate that poverty is not the equivalent of powerlessness.
The author mentions being inspired by a cab ride through Harlem, which challenged the idea of an urban wasteland. Two things have frequently been assumed about lower-class neighborhoods. The first thing is that the people in them do not work. However, Newman recounts seeing people anxiously trying to get to their jobs (Newman, p.x). The other thing is that poor neighborhoods are believed to lack the social institutions that hold other neighborhoods together. However, Harlem, like many poor neighborhoods, has churches, schools, and stores unifying it, just like neighborhoods populated by those of higher socio-economic status. These two observations led her to question the other assumptions that people made about the poor, and to come up with...
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