Classism And Poverty

The issue of poverty is an ever-present one – classism shows itself through all of history, the uneven distribution of wealth rearing its head as soon as wealth became available in human civilization. It’s a tenacious condition, and often a hereditary one, latching itself onto those unlucky enough to fall into its trap and not letting go for generations, even after centuries. The institutional discrimination that so much of our country’s government and economy are built on must constantly be fed with poverty, and while the victims of poverty are consumed by discrimination, the victims of discrimination are likewise consumed by the seemingly inevitable poverty promised to them by their own identities. But what constitutes poverty? It has many
In the United States and other first-world countries, poverty becomes a problem as soon as you’re unable to pay rent, or when you are forced simplify your diet beyond what’s healthy in order to afford other necessities. It can manifest in the form of sacrificing a month of fresh food in order to pay rent, or eschewing transportation in favor of food, or foregoing several of these necessities at once because this month you really, really need to replace your year-old toothbrush and your three-year-old pillows and sheets. For those with dependents, poverty can mean ignoring your own needs to make your children comfortable. Still, as distressing poverty is no matter what form it takes, many are of the mindset that poverty isn’t a problem until you’re starving to death or living on the streets. The middle- and upper-class in wealthy countries habitually deny poor people the ability to call themselves poor, and will attack any institution or service created to assist the poor. Welfare, for instance, allows anyone whose income is less than a certain amount yearly to request help buying food, paying energy bills and insurance premiums, and in some cases as much as assistance paying rent on a monthly basis. These services are much needed and appreciated by those who are able to use them, but the controversy they raise is ridiculous. Welfare, to those above it – those who hold enough wealth to be unqualified
Let’s start with the most obvious and oft-addressed: Race. There is a misconception amongst those opposed to welfare that the majority of people using it are black (this goes along with the assumption that they also live in a “ghetto” area. In reality, actually, the majority of welfare recipients are actually white – being 37% of welfare recipients in America, white people make up 15% more of the population on welfare than black people, according to the 2013 Nutritional Assistance Program Report from the USDA. Yet, the myth of the average welfare recipient being an uneducated black person in the ghetto persists – and why? The short answer is “racism.” There is a leftover stereotype of the black person, as decided by slavery and its offshoots all the way until the civil rights movement of the 1960’s, as a lazy, unintelligent person with no work ethic, and often a violent or criminal nature. This stereotype condemns the human being behind it to poverty in more ways than one – having been significantly disadvantaged by outright institutional racism in this country’s economy as recently as half a century ago, it’s incredibly difficult for any one black individual, much less an entire family, to pull themselves out of poverty in the modern day. The fact is that stigmas against the poor black