What is poverty: The Reality

What is poverty? Is it the poor veterans that we pass on the street, begging for money and a job? Or maybe it’s the minorities that are “always” taking government dollars from hard working citizens? These are common place misconceptions that are brought up when the poverty discussion comes up.

I know that for me personally and my family we have experienced poverty.  More specifically we have experienced situational poverty which is defined as “when income and support is decreased due to a specific change…” this definition is provided by urbanventures.org , an urban mission based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This change in my house happened due to a job loss, and health issues. For a period of around four years our family was thrown into poverty, due to our lack of resources we hung along at bare minimum until my dad was blessed with a new job. I know that my family isn’t the only ones to have dealt with situational poverty, especially after the recession  from  2007-2009. Many families were thrown into a downward spiral of debt, and used assistance from their communities and the government to get by.

As I reflect on those years I realize that situational poverty is a pretty common phase of life for most families. But there is a different poverty that is much more deeply embedded in American society as a whole, generational poverty. This "different" poverty disproportionately affects Latinos and African-Americans more than the common  American.  A lot of factors go into generational poverty but some of the key factors contain the “mother” or “grandmother” as being the center of the household and the ultimate authority. Her “punishment” for bad behavior (i.e. drug dealing, dropping out etc) is forgiveness and she is the one to go to for caregiving and rescuing.  We see this in play out not only in society  and day to day life, but also caricatures in media from series like Tyler Perry’s , Madea’s Family Reunion and The Have and the Have Nots.  While this is considered the more traditional female role in  generational poverty, the male is expected to be hard worker ,good defender, fighter, and lover. (Leona Cleveland, Magazine Elementary)

Another astronomically key factor is education and the values  and emphasis placed on education. Think about this if your family is trying to survive hand to mouth, day to day, will you be more inclined to go to school, or drop out and make “quick money” to provide for those immediate needs?  These are the questions that need to be answered when discussing poverty not things such as what’s the race, or what’s the dress of the specific impoverished group. Who cares what the phenotype is when the genotype the inside needs aren’t being met? My parents both were first generation college grads. They broke the cycle of poverty in their families so that the futures of their kids (me and my siblings) and our kids would have a chance to be secure.

Between situational poverty and generational poverty there are millions of people who are affected every minute, hour, day, year, and decade. So when the poverty debate comes on whether it be in politics or on your Facebook page, take a minute to think about the realities of poverty not just what you see but what is actually happening.

--
Kelcea Barnes
W.O.W Radio Blogger