Examples Of Systemic Poverty In Reservation Life: Life On The Reservation
Systemic Poverty in Reservation Life
Let’s imagine for a second, you come from a low income family in an impoverished neighborhood, and due to these circumstances you attend an under resourced school. Crowded classrooms, underpaid teachers, with students hungry for anything but knowledge. You attend this school and receive a less than stellar education, and because of this you can’t get into college, and without college you can’t hold a steady, high income job. So then you’re back to square one, and this is how systemic poverty works. Life on the reservation can be a compared to this type of systemic poverty in the U.S. The kind of poverty that last a lifetime, the kind of poverty that is typically seen in black and brown communities alike. …show more content…
Instead of addressing the problem and doing our best to find a solution, instead people look down on these people and attribute everything to individual responsibility. Due to this notion, examples of “escaping the ghetto” or “beating the odds” has become the basis for blaming victims of racism and poverty, while at the same time maintaining racism and poverty. A prime example of this is Junior, he leaves the reservation to live in a white community and attend a white community, even when he left he was still stereotyped, when a Mexican janitor assumed Junior’s diabetic flare up was the result of him being drunk. While he did get a better education than rest of his reservation counterparts once he left, this type of thinking isn’t healthy. We should be trying to heal a community not tear it down.
“Back home on the reservation, my former classmates graduate: a few can’t read, one or two are just given attendance diplomas, most look forward to the parties. The bright students are shaken, frightened, because they don’t know what comes next.”
As we can see in this excerpt people who stayed at the reservation received a less than stellar education which has left even the brightest of students ill prepared for the future. Meanwhile Victor graduated valedictorian of his school and we can see that they will have very different futures.
“Victor said, “Why should we organise a reservation high school reunion? My graduating class has a reunion every weekend at the Powwow
Let’s imagine for a second, you come from a low income family in an impoverished neighborhood, and due to these circumstances you attend an under resourced school. Crowded classrooms, underpaid teachers, with students hungry for anything but knowledge. You attend this school and receive a less than stellar education, and because of this you can’t get into college, and without college you can’t hold a steady, high income job. So then you’re back to square one, and this is how systemic poverty works. Life on the reservation can be a compared to this type of systemic poverty in the U.S. The kind of poverty that last a lifetime, the kind of poverty that is typically seen in black and brown communities alike. …show more content…
Instead of addressing the problem and doing our best to find a solution, instead people look down on these people and attribute everything to individual responsibility. Due to this notion, examples of “escaping the ghetto” or “beating the odds” has become the basis for blaming victims of racism and poverty, while at the same time maintaining racism and poverty. A prime example of this is Junior, he leaves the reservation to live in a white community and attend a white community, even when he left he was still stereotyped, when a Mexican janitor assumed Junior’s diabetic flare up was the result of him being drunk. While he did get a better education than rest of his reservation counterparts once he left, this type of thinking isn’t healthy. We should be trying to heal a community not tear it down.
“Back home on the reservation, my former classmates graduate: a few can’t read, one or two are just given attendance diplomas, most look forward to the parties. The bright students are shaken, frightened, because they don’t know what comes next.”
As we can see in this excerpt people who stayed at the reservation received a less than stellar education which has left even the brightest of students ill prepared for the future. Meanwhile Victor graduated valedictorian of his school and we can see that they will have very different futures.
“Victor said, “Why should we organise a reservation high school reunion? My graduating class has a reunion every weekend at the Powwow