Matthew Desmond addresses the intersection between race, class, and gender in Evicted. The case studies Desmond uses take place in Wisconsin, which serves effectively as a microcosm for the United States. While the overarching issues Desmond discusses can be one of the book’s main draws, it is the details in each of the stories that compels readers to take action or learn more about issues like institutionalized poverty, institutionalized racism, the perpetuation of the housing crisis, and systematic economic exploitation. The people Desmond profiles lack the power to stimulate change, and yet through collective action and self-empowerment it becomes possible to foresee policy change or at least normative changes in addressing the needs of the poor.
As the title suggests, Evicted focuses on the causes and ramifications of both legal and quasi-legal evictions that take place with alarming frequency. By conducting field research separately in predominantly white and predominantly black neighborhoods, Desmond also shows how race factors into the causes and effects of poverty and housing insecurity. Housing insecurity affects each person and their family differently, but ultimately does cause tangible problems linked to instability and fear. Discrimination and segregation compound the problems that African American families face. While technically discrimination is illegal, race-based decisions on housing still exist and few have the resources—time, energy, or money—to turn to litigation when their next bed and meal remains an uncertainty. Bias certainly exists, though, as Desmond demonstrates with quantitative data showing that white landlords are more likely to rent to white tenants than black or Hispanic ones, even when other variables are controlled for (346). Race-based segregation also prevents solidarity among the poor—the type of solidarity that could facilitate policy and legislative changes.
All of the individuals Desmond profiles use coping mechanisms to subvert or undermine their condition and status in society. Even when those coping mechanisms do not actually work in bringing about real change or self-empowerment, they do allow for psychological resilience or social networking. Lying is a common coping tactic, used to influence landlords (Desmond 3). Many of the single moms also need to lie to their children in order to protect them from the harsh realities of the world, or to insulate them from fear, anxiety, and pain. A few actually hide their children from landlords, who prefer not to rent to single mothers (Desmond 26). Some people effectively subvert the system in other ways, such as by “stealing electricity (Desmond 66). Tenants can sometimes pay off part of their rent via under-the-table work for landlords, a process that provides landlords with easy access to cheap or free labor while helping the tenant avoid eviction (Desmond 135). Those who have state or federal assistance like food stamps can manipulate or stretch the ways these meager resources are spent.
All of the people need to stretch their meager resources, using the majority of their income to pay their rent while figuring out creative ways to circumvent starvation or unsafe, unsanitary living conditions. Some of the individuals self-medicate with drugs or alcohol, and others suffer grave psychological and physical illnesses due to their circumstances. Many do not cope well, while others seem to have a sense of humor and hope...
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