Black Poverty: Moving Past Negative Stereotypes

The media focuses too much on conflict between commentators such as Tavis Smiley, left, and the president on black poverty and not enough on solutions.
By Joy Moses | September 26, 2011

This weekend President Obama addressed the Congressional Black Caucus to suggest a unified agenda to reduce black unemployment and poverty. This was after a couple of weeks of ongoing media focus on divisions among the Congressional Black Caucus, the president, and outside commentators such as Tavis Smiley and Steve Harvey over the amount of time the president spends talking about economic challenges currently facing African Americans. Maybe it’s the media’s need to highlight conflict, present things in black-and-white terms, and constantly frame everything around the next election. But whatever the reason, the media’s magnification of infighting eclipses a constructive discussion of the problem and solutions—you know, all the other stuff the CBC and commentators were talking about and those carefully laid out policies offered by Obama on Saturday. And it highlights a bigger and long-lasting problem in this country about how we talk about black poverty.

First of all, the media is missing the fact there is consensus among these groups. The president, Congressional Black Caucus, and a broad range of progressives agree that we need to pass the American Jobs Act, which stands to benefit a broad range of Americans. This includes African Americans, who are faced with a 16.7 percent general unemployment rate, and 32.9 percent of African American youth are out of work. With those kinds of numbers we should be pushing legislation that creates jobs for youth, subsidized jobs, new jobs that rebuild infrastructure and schools, incentives to hire veterans (2.6 million of whom are black), and antidiscrimination protections for the unemployed. This is of course a little less sexy than the media’s obsession with who called who an “Uncle Tom.”

But moving beyond the agreement on jobs, larger questions remain that will take far more than sound bites to sort out. Those concerned about black poverty and unemployment (and poverty and unemployment far more generally) are frustrated about the lack of national attention to this issue. Some point the finger at the Obama administration for not talking about it enough, and the administration tends, in turn, to point to its successful efforts to increase black employment, the Recovery Act, and the recently proposed American Jobs Act.

But it’s short sighted to speak of the issue as if it’s something new or that the lack of a robust national dialogue is solely attributable to the fact that we have a black president. We have a long history of demonizing the poor and unemployed and associating both with being the lazy and unworthy “other” (urban black and Latinos). This took on new significance with the rise of certain media outlets and conservative organizations, such as Fox News and the Heritage Foundation, from the 1980s forward. This “other” narrative is a part of our American culture, and as a result, it influences the actions of politicians of all stripes and at all levels of government as well as other public figures, the private sector, nonprofits, and justice movements.

It’s not that people don’t care or that they aren’t doing anything to affect the issue. It’s more that they’re operating within the current cultural context, which is arguably shaped by:

Nasty racial narratives. It’s hard to forget Ronald Reagan’s creation of the welfare queen, a stereotype of a black woman on welfare who is too lazy to work and is taking advantage of the government. Today groups such as Media Matters are still documenting ways that media outlets subtly, and sometimes not so subtly, link antipoverty efforts to unhelpful stereotypes.
Generation gaps. The generation that remembers the 1960s, when a spotlight was placed on the effects of Jim Crow and the civil rights movement was at its peak, likely views poverty and the race-poverty connection differently than later generations. Those of us who work on these issues still have some work to do to successfully create and broadly sell new reasons for new generations to care and be invested in solutions.
A complicated past. African Americans have a complicated history. On one hand, we have achieved tremendous successes since the times of Jim Crow, in part attributable to government programs. On the other hand, we have an enduring history of higher rates of poverty and other bad outcomes—something that discourages us and possibly leads others to believe we are a lost cause.
Undoubtedly, many have thought long and hard about how to address these dynamics. And indeed it may be helpful to continue to pressure President Obama to use his national stage for this purpose. But given the challenges it’s doubtful that approach will be enough. A cultural sea change is necessary, and African Americans should play a critical role in this effort.

First, we should more aggressively reclaim our image. The stereotypes about poor people and poor black people need to go.

Second, we should move the nation toward Generation Next—finding new ideas that cause a broad range of people to care about black poverty and poverty in general.

Finally, we must untangle the complicated history of our struggle for economic justice and tell a new and simplified narrative—one that celebrates our progress while also acknowledging the need to do more.

In these ways we can contribute to a future in which we not only have a constructive national dialogue about poverty, but we are finding and implementing appropriate solutions.

Joy Moses is a Senior Policy Analyst at American Progress.

--- This article focused on some of the main reasons that black poverty & racial tensions still exist. The main reasons include negative stereotypical beliefs about African Americans as well as the joblessness that so many of the youth face, even though people would like to say that minorities are lazy & just want to live off of welfare. If there are no opportunities afforded to you, then how can you be expected to even try to change your circumstances for the better? There are just as many if not more (in some cases) non-minorities on welfare or getting some type of government assistance. Redeeming the quality and importance of black life outside of slavery, poverty, drug dealers, alleged athletic superior complexes and rappers there are many educated and talented people of color who go unmentioned in the daily news. The media has always had a way of portraying & reaffirming political & socioeconomic fallacies for the public middle and upper to lay blame on. I think it's great that Obama (who many believe does nothing as our first president of color) brought up that something needs to be done.

Young people are delaying taking the steps that traditionally represent movement into adult life

Only 55 percent of young Americans have jobs, lowest since WWII
By Zachary Roth | The Lookout – 12 hrs ago

Unemployment among young adults is at its highest point since World War II, new data show. And it's having a disconcerting impact on the trajectory of their careers and lives.

"We have a monster jobs problem, and young people are the biggest losers," Andrew Sum, an economist with the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University told the Associated Press.

Just 55.3 percent of people between 16 and 29 were employed in 2010 on average, the according to new figures released by the Census Bureau. That represents an enormous drop from 67.3 percent in 2000. Among teens the figure was less than 30 percent.

The result? Young people are delaying taking the steps that traditionally represent movement into adult life: moving to a new place, getting married, and buying a new home. Just 4.4 percent of 18- to 34-year olds moved across state lines -- again, the lowest level since World War Two (though such moves have been declining since long before the recent downturn, it's worth noting).

Roughly 5.9 million Americans between 25 and 34 lived with their parents. That's up by 25 percent since before the recession began in late 2007. (Men are nearly twice as likely as women to move back in with Mom and Dad.) The marriage rate for those between 25 and 34 fell to 44.2 percent, also a new low. And home ownership declined for the fourth straight year.

"Many young adults are essentially postponing adulthood and all of the family responsibilities and extra costs that go along with it," Mark Mather of the Population Reference Bureau told the AP. If that continues, it would make the U.S. more like Europe, where youth unemployment is far higher and many people continue to live with their parents into their 30s.

In addition, studies have shown that when people experience unemployment at a young age, it depresses their likely earning power over the course of their entire career.

"These people will be scarred, and they will be called the 'lost generation' - in that their careers would not be the same way if we had avoided this economic disaster," Richard Freeman, an economist at Harvard, said.

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I thought it was interesting that the age range spans from 16-29 years old which is mid-high school career into young adults in the workforce on a more permanent basis. This is the type of dilemma that we discussed in class regarding the law that Vermont is putting into place which reduces long term career opportunities for young adults between the very ages listed in this article. Clearly, this problem is affecting everyone and something needs to be done to create more economic opportunities.

Katrina: How Black & White the details of poverty really are...

"Even now, these powerful tools of white racism are used to justify racial inequality and perpetuate the still fundamental racist relations of the United States. Under the watchful eyes of white elites, New Orleans and the United States generally, have developed structurally over fifteen generations now to maintain these alienated and alienating racist-relations in major societal institutions. In this manner, white elites, as well as rank-and-file whites, have kept a large proportion of our African American citizens in unjust poverty—with chronically underfunded schools, diminished job opportunities, and limited housing choices. This unjust impoverishment takes place within a continuing framework of well-institutionalized racism, which provides most whites with the current benefits and privileges coming from many generations of unjust enrichment."

That quote encompasses just about everything I've been saying for over a decade. Katrina isn't the first time in history that the importance of the lives of people of color have been diminished. Slavery was an economical period of injust that allowed Whites to capitalize from the labor of blacks while abusing, degrading and reducing them to servants only good enough to wash their clothes, work on their farms and raise their children. This has greatly affected the women of color as result. As many commentators dispute the racial claims, it's hard to think of anything but blatant racism when clear & consistent measures weren't taken to have residents, mainly of color and in a lower class, evacuated prior to the hurricane. Hurricane Irene recently hit New England in a way it's never experienced before and all measures and precautions were taken to be certain that lives & properties were preserved. Is New Orleans, a historically racially divided city, any different than the affluent and highly Causcasian populated Northeast? Well of course it is. Even though the very backbone of New Orleans was created at the expense of a culture's identity, those people still weren't good enough to try to save along with their livelihood.

Not only did New Orleans divide the black community against each other (light skinned free slaves against darker skinned black people -- which is still a cultural dispute to this day) but they made it economically, politically and socially difficult to advance as a resident of color in that region. What I don't understand is how a whole group of people are good enough to ensure the financial stability of another people, yet once freed, are denied their basic civil rights by the same race that they helped lift up. In many ways, the aftermath of slavery as well as Katrina are still vivid indicators that society views African Americans as second class citizens, still not worthy to do more than clean, cook and be subservient to the financially dominant race. Although Whites are at the financial threshold of our society, they are actually becoming the minority, with the United States as well as other countries giving new meaning to the term "melting pot." Class analysis is important because not only can we see the disparities between gender, race & economic status but we can further identify how they intertwine, intersect and run together like lines written in ink on a wet paper.

It isn't circumstantial; it's intentional. The ability to discriminate based on economic means forces people of color, especially African Americans, to remain at the bottom of the food chain despite the growing numbers of men and women of color with degrees from higher education. The lack of people in color in politics, the government and most law-making positions assures that their voices won't be heard. After all, if you're too busy being worried about where you will live after a hurricane, you can't possibly be focused on a future in politics or economics to better your life and the lives of those around you affected by a society that is determined to keep you from rising above the poverty level. Racism also plays on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Racism ensures that the basic needs are barely met so that people of color cannot ever hope to achieve more than the basics, if that, let alone, dreams of being in power and advancing in class, despite race. In some ways, I believe that there are people who make light of Katrina and other issues within communities of color for fear that they would one day rise above and be judged by the content of their character, not by the color of their skin like Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke of.

Katrina is just one way that racism has been institutionalized by class and race. Race is always second to class in the United States, especially in the North, when it comes to matter of treatment, but it usually is the underlying factor that influences the responses and actual reactions to things that occur. The fact that Laura Bush & other whites were able to make callous jokes about the disparity & possibly "better conditions" in hotels that Blacks faced AFTER Katrina clearly shows the lack of integrity and common respect for people of color. If someone made a joke about a hurricane or tornado in the Mid-West that affected middle class or possibly even lower class whites, it would have been a different story.

The United States constantly seeks to ignore, destroy and eliminate diversity & culture at its most basic roots, by stealing it all and claiming it as their own. So many peoples of color have suffered throughout history at the hands of capitalism, racism, sexism and other forms of prejudice. As long as the percentage of the dominant race continues to be the dominant holders of the greatest financial means as well as the best employment, education, residence, and means of advancement, then the voices of the rest of the invisible race-less, class-less will not be recognized. In fact, they don't exist, so then again, neither do I.

Class Matters -- Knowledge is like nectar for the brain

So considering I have two others blogs that I try to make time for in between my three jobs, school & handling the chaos that is my world, it only seemed like more fun to kind of add this class blog to my LEAST used one on blogspot.

I'm Ayanna...I don't think anyone but bank tellers & the people at motor vehicles really need to call me/identify me by that name. I'm cool with that. I've been given a variety of nicknames, but most people call me Ya, Aya or Yanna.

By day, I'm a retail slave & by night I'm a student with a voracious appetite for learning. That's right, I said voracious. Don't you just love the way that word sounds? Anyways, I left a really amazing full time job at an Ivy League University to continue my education on a more full time basis therefore I now am subjected to horrible hours, nights and weekends when I'm not in class, and straight-up rude people in the wonderful magical land of retail. Oh, one thing I can say is that it never is boring, but it doesn't appeal to my creative - thought provoking side.

So far this semester has been crazy. I mean really, who has a hurricane happen right before the first day of school? Pretty surreal, especially since we don't live in a region that even gets hurricanes. *sigh* It seems as if my professors, minus this clas, expect me to purchase like 30 books, read them and take tests in the next two weeks. Right, so in the real world, not the one that marvel heroes from comic books are in, this is insanely unjust when you have three jobs & barely enough time to make a sandwich or do that thing I can't remember the last time I did called "sleep"...

All in all, I get up every day, manage to smile and roll with the punches. I'm a psychology major and [new] women studies minor. Super excited about the promise that my minor holds for expanding my mind and opportunities within my own communities as well as those around me. I love learning. Knowledge is like nectar for the brain, you know?

When I'm not in class or smiling like one of the Stepford Wives at one of my multiple jobs, I am literally outside -- like at one with nature. I love visiting state parks, beaches, forests, rivers, lakes...anywhere near water where the air is so clean you cough because your lungs are readjusting. During this peaceful time away from people and the rest of the homosapien world, I indulge in three of my favorites: music, poetry & photography. You name it, I listen to it. I love music from Chopin to NIN to Lupe Fiasco to Adele. Music is a window to the soul. My poetry is what keeps me sane. I've written over 400 pieces and have been trying to get published a little longer than forever --- life has had other plans for me. I do however have a poetry/my thoughts blog attached to this one. My photography [I also have a photography blog here too] is also something I hold near & dear to me. I guess I would say my creative side suffers to the real side of my life, but you do what you have to do when you're an adult.

I try to keep life outside of work pretty stress-free. I collect swords, love my acoustic guitar and have a movie collection of indie flicks that's insane. I'm quirky, talkative, laugh a lot and love to play with words. I'm always open to meeting new people, traveling and whatever adventure is around the corner. I'm an Aries so I love a challenge, never give up and am always there for those I love. I work hard and play hard. I have a keen sense of perception and seem to know things about other people they don't know about themselves. I'm a crazy mixture, but I'll never bore you.

I am me.