- Essay -
Reflecting Upon America's Poverty…
By Tessey Jose
Tens of millions of people are hungry each night, including millions of children
who are suffering disease and malnutrition. In New York City, one of the richest
cities in the world, there are children who live below the poverty level, deprived
of minimal conditions that offer some hope from a life of misery, deprivation
and violence. Although there is no apparent solution to the problem of poverty,
the underlying rationale behind poverty in our country can be linked to several
social factors. From careful consideration of Jonathan Kozol's Amazing Grace
and Lisa Dodson's Don't Call Us Out of Name, it is evident that poverty
in the United States is due to the lack of financial stability, opportunity,
and moral principles.
According to George Bernard Shaw, "The seven deadly sins are food, clothing,
firing, rent, tax, respectability and children. Nothing can lift those seven
millstones from Man's neck but money; and the spirit cannot soar until the millstones
are lifted." Sadly, money is the only means of providing an individual
with the basic necessities to live a decent life. It is quite apparent that
the lack of financial stability is directly related to the high levels of poverty
and depression. The new rise in poverty levels over the past two decades does
not seem to be an accident, but comes directly as a result of the massive gaps
in income between the rich and the poor.
Kozol's target is Mott Haven; "Brook Haven, which is the tenth stop on
the local, lies in the center of Mott Haven, whose 48,000 people are the poorest
in the South Bronx. Two-thirds are Hispanic, one third black. Thirty five percent
are children. In 1991, the median household income of the area, according to
The New York Times, was 7,600" (Kozol 1). If America is the richest
country in the world, then why should there be a clear line of separation between
the richest and poorest districts? According to the 2001 poverty cut off marks,
a single individual should have over $8,590 per year to be considered not poor.
With these figures, we can understand that the poorest in our country live with
basically nothing to make ends meet. "The $150 million spent to build the
dazzling new structure..., is almost exactly the same as what they city spent
in the same year to purchase the massive prison barge that it has moored at
Hunts Point in the South Bronx, where it accommodates the graduates and dropouts
of much less attracting high schools on six floating floors of prison cells"
(Kozol 153). In this excerpt taken from Amazing Grace, Kozol presents
to us, social problems, such as segregated and unequal schools. There is no
doubt that kids who have been accepted to Stuyvesant High School have come from
backgrounds of accelerated specialized schooling and expensive tutoring services
that prepare the kids for the entrance exam. Taking a step back, we can see
that if more money was put into the schools that the kids from the South Bronx
attend, there would be an increase in the literacy rate, better educational
resources, as well as a better learning environment for kids to escape to from
their miserable lives at home. Kozol succeeds in humanizing these social issues
not by dictating what seems to be the problem, but by involving the reader intimately
with particular individuals who are directly affected by the issues.
In Don't Call Us Out of Name, Dodson explains, "In poor America,
keeping people safe and families intact is excessively difficult…Meeting
eligibility requirements, monitoring the moving target of changing legislation,
managing the case-review demands of housing, health, food stamps, and income
assistance are all part of poor family labor" (Dodson 47). Dodson continues
to explain, "Yet keeping families going in the face of unending hardships
is labor, which is essential to low-income community survival. Alongside overworked
parents, invisible girls take care of family life in poor America, and they
do so at no small cost to themselves" (Dodson 49). Dodson depicts for us
that families don't even have time to be a family because of financial issues.
Many of the women Dodson interviewed spent all their time running around trying
to keep up with the legislation changes and maintaining a job that pays very
little so there might be some food on the dinner table that night. Despite the
difficulty that already existed, on August 22, 1996, President Clinton signed
the Public Responsibility Act, in which he emphasized that welfare should be
a second chance and not a way of living. There is no longer any federal guarantee,
and blocks of grants were dispersed to the states. Although our country can
never reach a utopian world, there are measures we can take to alleviate the
level of poverty. Both Kozol and Dodson have implied that throwing some money
to these areas would help. It is most definitely true that raising the minimum
wage, subsidizing childcare, increasing the amount of social workers and even
reevaluating our social policies would enhance the lives of those suffering.
The poverty that has struck our nation can be linked to several issues. Having
some money goes along with a hope for the future. Dodson, after interviewing
several women and children, explains "Universally, the impact of choice
of having more than one way to imagine yourself in the world, is immeasurable"
(Dodson 216). In our society, there is a reigning ideology that there is always
opportunity to get up on your feet and make something of yourself. There is
an ongoing battle to defend individual rights. But Dodson questions how true
this really is. In Don't Call Us Out Of Name, Annette speaks, "My
mother came home from the hospital with my baby brother and she was very sick…But
with all the work combined…I would miss days of school in the fourth grade
to do the housework. By the time I was thirteen, I would rather stay home, and
help my mother than go to school. She needed me." In a sense, these children
learn to become parents at such an early age that they never have the chance
to become children. They lack the time they need to be loved and cared for by
their parents as well as be taught the values and morals a child learns from
a family. In the Bible, there is verse in Proverbs that quotes, "Teach
children how they should live, and they will remember it all their life."
However, Dodson shows us through her interviews that the girls and low-income
children know that there are no real opportunities in the real world except
more suffering.
Another issue that must be addressed is the racism prevalent in society. Unfortunately,
America is still a segregated country. In Amazing Grace, Kozol interviews
a teacher in New York who says, "Even when Black and Latino children ride
the bus or take the train to go to school in a white area, white families often
vacate schools in their own neighborhoods" (Kozol 148). This suggests that
people in America are denied equal treatment and service because of their color.
Economic advancement for any citizen seems to be a myth. If children have no
role models and are segregated to one area, what kind of opportunity do they
have to succeed? Jonathan Kozol makes it clear in Amazing Grace: The Lives
of Children and the Conscience of a Nation that racism hinders the progress
of the nation as a whole, particularly for those who suffer destitution; racism
is woven into the very fabric of a city's social service and educational systems,
which in result, obstructs many from improving their lives because of the color
of their skin.
Aside from social factors that contribute to the poverty within this country,
it seems a lack of moral principles is the underlying reason behind all the
economic anguish. The age we live in hardly could be described as sensitive
to the needs of others. Abraham Lincoln once said, "I am sorry for the
man who can't feel the whip when it is laid on the other man's back." Much
of the world is calloused and indifferent toward mankind's poverty and distress.
Though money may be thrown around within the government, the same people will
be the ones distributing the funds unequally as they have been doing. And although
money might reach the poorest, there needs to be a revival of what's right and
wrong. Dodson quotes a woman she interview named Jackie, "I lost control,
I went crazy that night. I took the pillow and I covered her face …Then
I took it off and I did it again" (Dodson 127). Meeting the fundamental
needs of people might enable them to think more clearly as to how to treat their
own children. The examples given pertain to both the rich and the poor alike;
there must be a restoration of principles. Father Miles, a pastor Kozol interviewed,
says, "Still, I think it grieves the heart of God when human beings created
in His image treat other human beings like filthy rags" (Kozol 78). There
is no apparent solution on how to restore morality and compassion among people,
but without a change in heart, there seems to be no steps forward. Martin Luther
once said, "A dream of equality of opportunity, of privilege and property
widely distributed; a dream of a land where men no longer argue that the color
of a man's skin determines the content of his character; the dream of a land
where every man will respect the dignity and worth of human personality-this
is the dream. When it is realized, the jangling discords of our nation will
be transformed into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood, and men everywhere
will know that America is truly the land of the free and home of the brave."
Kozol and Dodson have a done an extraordinary job depicting the poverty of this
nation and why it arises. Kozol has implied that more money might be the best
solution to the problem, and Dodson shows us that the children and women have
no other options other than to become mothers and take care of housework. Social
reforms, additional support with money, better opportunities and most importantly,
a transformation in hearts of the people of this country could start to bring
about change. Until then, many have hope only in a later life as it says in
the song "Amazing Grace," "Tis grace hath brought me safe this
far, And grace will lead me home."