Shelby Steele's "On Being Black and Middle Class", discusses the concept of victimization. Steele believes that the use of victimization is the greatest encumbrance for African Americans. In Steele's perception, white Americans see blacks as victims to ease their guilty conscience, while African Americans attempt to turn their status as victims into a kind of currency that will purchase nothing of authentic or continual value. Hence, Steele firms that blacks must seize "buying into this zero sum game" by adopting a "culture of excellence and achievement" without relying on "set asides and entitlements". By victimization, Steele is referring to the fact that humanity transforms their historical experiences of injustice into the centerpiece of cultural and group identity, for example blacks today are freer than at any other point in history, yet the identity is more acquainted with victimization than ever before. Steele's usage of the term affects his argument through his thoughts of why black middle-class Americans are unintentionally expected to celebrate the black underclass as the "purest" representation of African American identity. Steele presumes that the mistake that grew out of America's desire to fix the racial problem was that it inadvertently made victimization itself a kind of currency of power. Victimization now brings certain benefits, preferences, and entitlements. Steele claims that by "rewarding" victimization, the human population encourages blacks to think of themselves as victims. Other terms that could be used to counter Steele's argument would be every group that's seeking atonement from society - Hispanics, Asians, African Americans, even women. The "victim" mindset causes these groups fall farther and farther behind in American mainstream. The tragedy of victimization clutches much…
Many Americans would describe poverty as destitution: an inability to provide a family with nutritious food, clothing, and reasonable shelter. A poll called “Poverty Pulse” was taken in 2002. It asked "How would you describe being poor in the U.S.?”…
Hunger in America can be hard to recognize. With how the economy is now, the effects of hunger are more severe. Many Americans are relying on food stamps and private organizations to help with this crisis. Millions in this nation are currently suffering from hunger in America. Half of that being from job loss. More than 12,000,000 children suffer from food insecure hunger because of limited or uncertain access to nutritious food. About 900,000 are hungry in the three- country Detroit metropolitan area alone. The hardest hits are the elderly, the unemployed, immigrants, and the mentally and physically impaired.…
There are many factors why a person may end up in poverty. There are causes that have remained the same, such as paying for basic necessities such as food, shelter, and medical care. As of recent, a new factor has disabled the poverty ridden even further. The American Recession of 2008 weakened the United States economy, and because of this, many Americans lost their jobs. Wages remained the same, while the cost of living went up. Many hoping to sell their homes were crushed when the housing market crashed, reducing the value of their property. Mortgages and rents increased, many Americans could not keep up on these crumbling bills with their stagnant wages, some were pushed to the extreme, homelessness (“Helping the Homeless” 1). The United States Census Bureau determines poverty as one adult and a single related child living in a household with a $15,030 or less annual income. Extreme poverty is depicted as those whose income is 50% less than that of the poverty rate (“Poverty facts and figures” 1). This income is not entirely at the disposal of the individual. This income must first go through taxes, and must then be split to accommodate other aspects of the person's life-such as debts and expenses that they may have accumulated. After all these needs are met, there is not much left, assuming that this person has a steady paying job. To make ends meet, the individual may seek assistance from the government in the form of money, food, or…
Poverty in the US is a problem, as it is anywhere else. It’s a relevant subject today in 2015 as it was in Stephen Crane’s time in 1893. Stephen Crane was known for his work in Naturalism, Impressionism, and Realism, in a time of Romanticism. Crane wanted to let others know what was really going on, and what those experiencing poverty went through. He bluntly got his point across in his novel, Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, he was able to make everyone else aware of what was going on. Poverty changes people in negative ways and makes them behave in animalistic ways. It can change the way they look at life and everyone else around them. It can significantly change the chances of one reaching the “American Dream”. Poverty attacks everyone, it doesn’t see gender, color, or religion.…
Poverty is not just a problem in America, poverty is not just a problem in foreign countries, poverty is not just among a certain race, poverty is a worldwide issue that can affect anyone, even your community. Seeing examples of poverty throughout life can be very emotional, it lives all around. Pretty much anywhere there are people who are homeless, maybe begging for food or money. People walking to get where they need to go because they can not afford a car or possibly gas. Seeing kids at school come in without a jacket on when it is snowing outside because their families can not afford a winter coat for them. These are all examples of poverty.…
America is viewed as the “Land of Opportunity”, yet 13.2 percent of the population is in poverty, with 3.5 million people homeless. ( ) But it is never considered…
Flash forward to today, America has over forty-three million people that struggle with food security and over one-third of these people are children (Hauptmann, Cole). In terms of poverty, America is slightly worse as over forty-four million people are beneath America’s poverty line. While America has it way better than most other countries that have huge problems with hunger and poverty, America is definitely not perfect. The systems set in place in the 1970’s to alleviate hunger and poverty in America are now overtaxed and misused. Over 25% of federal disability claims were found as unnecessary and seemed to take advantage of only minor…
What’s poverty? Poverty is the state of being extremely poor, or unable to get money. One thing about poverty is that it is immutable. It is also a natural outcome of a competitive economy. One thing for sure is that Full-employment policy is too costly to consider, thus making it harder to acquire money. Poverty is a complicated problem that will most likely never be solved.…
in his world it was believed that "What was not thought by all men cannot…
Poverty in the United States today has many faces. There’s the pleading face of a middle-aged man on a city street holding up a sign that says “Hungry, Need Help.” There’s the anxious face of a young child in a schoolroom somewhere, whose only real meal today will be a free school lunch. There’s the sad face of a single mother who doesn’t have enough money to buy clothes for her children. And there’s the frustrated face of a young man working at a minimum-wage job who can't afford to pay his rent.…
Nobody wants to be considered to be below the poverty line. Unfortunately, for fourteen percent of the people in this country, that is their reality. Fourteen percent of the people currently living in the United States’ basic needs for food, clothing, and shelter are not being met. Poverty is experienced at different levels in different parts of the country. The causes and effects of insular poverty are experienced differently in rural and urban areas in the United States.…
After I read through the article " Sex,Lies, Advertising" of Gloria Steinem, I ran to the store to buy the Elle magazine which is sold for women. I understood more deeply about Steinem's criticizes for nowadays women's magazines. All most content in these magazines are only for advertising. Steinem who is a cofounder for Ms. magazine fight for all women's magazine. She saidthat these magazines need to be changed with more articles about cars, finances, cooking lessons... which is neccessery for women's life, it's not useless advertisings. "Goodbye to cigarette ads where poems should be…
"Money Hungry" by Sharon G. Flake. The following book is about a thirteen year old girl named Raspberry Hill and her mother. Raspberry is known to be obsessed with money and will do almost anything to get it. Unfortunately, it's not a rumor, but it is true for one reason. Raspberry and her mother use to be homeless, and when they finally got a place in the projects, she promised herself she would never go back to being homeless again. She starts to make money the best she can, saving and never spending it.…
Today, there are 37 million Americans living in poverty, and at 12.7 percent of the population, it is the highest percentage in the developed and industrialized world.…