BELIEFS ABOUT THE POOR ARE MIRED IN FLAWED STEREOTYPES

[Janelle2002 3,865]

VJers, it is up for discussion. Are beliefs about the poor flawed because of stereotyping? Do you believe people can be blinded from the truth because of stereotypes that has been stuffed down your throat by the media, your family or even your friends?

BELIEFS ABOUT THE POOR ARE MIRED IN FLAWED STEREOTYPES By Cynthia TuckerMar 22, 2014 1:00 AM

Can we have an honest conversation about the nation's poor and near-poor? Can we discuss the subject as if we want to find solutions and not just pass judgment on the less fortunate?

If we were to have an honest conversation, one based on verifiable facts, hard data and empirical evidence, we wouldn't use the inartful term "inner city," as GOP star Paul Ryan did recently -- serving up a phrase that suggests that poverty is primarily a condition limited to darker-hued citizens. That's simply incorrect.

Getting it right matters if we care about policies that help people climb the ladder toward financial stability and if we want to fund programs that give folks a hand up. If we don't really understand the problem, it's hard to find the right solution. (If we only want to look down on the have-nots from our positions of superiority, making ill-informed judgments will suffice.)

As chairman of the House Budget Committee and an alleged GOP policy wonk, Ryan ought to know better; however, he is certainly not the only American to make wrong-headed assumptions about poverty and race. Since Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty, which 50 years ago highlighted the abysmal living conditions of so many black Americans, many have assumed that poor equals black. That notion is woven through our politics.

But it's wrong. As American Prospect writer Paul Waldman noted recently, 41 percent of the nation's poor people are white. That's a substantial plurality. Drawing on government data, Waldman pointed out that blacks make up 23 percent of the nation's poor, while Latinos account for 28 percent. (Other ethnic groups account for the rest.) So, to recap, 41 percent of the poor -- close to half -- are white, not black or brown.

But that's not the public conversation we are having. The assumption -- whether revealed in phrases such as "inner city" or not -- is that poverty in America is a problem of black and brown "pathologies." As long as so many citizens believe that, we're not going to come up with policies that might help the poor improve their plight. (That's especially true if you buy into the Reaganesque view that any government help simply makes the poor worse off.)

It's easy enough to understand how that fallacious notion lodged itself so deeply into public consciousness. The chattering classes often speak of the "disproportionate" poverty among black Americans, and that leads to misunderstanding. Blacks account for only about 13 percent of the population but 23 percent of the nation's impoverished; that burden has its roots in the nation's unfortunate racial history.

The notion of poverty as a black problem is also exacerbated by the news media, which have done a very poor job of explaining the issue. Some of that stems from simple logistics: Most major news organizations are located in large urban areas, where the poor tend to be black and brown. It's too much trouble to travel to rural areas, where the white poor are much more visible.

But prejudices among the news corps contribute to the myths. In the book "Why Americans Hate Welfare," Princeton political scientist Martin Gilens notes that about 60 percent of the poor people shown on network news and portrayed in the major news magazines between 1988 and 1992 were black.

Compounding that are the racial resentments of far too many white Americans, who simply insist on believing that poverty is a black thing. In their book, "Us Against Them: Ethnocentric Foundations of American Opinion," political scientists Donald Kinder and Cindy Kam show that many conservative whites detest traditional "welfare" programs, such as food stamps, because they associate them with black recipients. Those same conservatives, however, support much more expensive entitlements such as Social Security.

"In defending and praising Social Security ... political leaders say that (it) is for us: for the people, for our parents, for our children, for ourselves, for Americans, for us all. ... (In other words) Social Security is for white people," they write.

Unfortunately, too many politicians, especially Republicans, are content to pander to stereotypes -- as Ryan did -- rather than confront voters with the facts: Poverty is multi-racial, complex and demands a multi-pronged approach. And until we can get past our easy but inaccurate assumptions, poverty will also remain widespread.

(Cynthia Tucker, winner of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for commentary, is a visiting professor at the University of Georgia. She can be reached at cynthia@cynthiatucker.com.)

http://news.yahoo.com/beliefs-poor-mired-flawed-stereotypes-050007696.html

[Karee 4,190]

Inner cities need disaster relief, too

BY JESSE JACKSON jjackson@rainbowpush.org June 17, 2013 9:58PM

Source:

http://www.suntimes.com/news/jackson/20795981-452/inner-cities-need-disaster-relief-too.html

Al Sharpton Starts ‘Occupy the Corner’ to Combat Inner City Violence

Added by Staff on September 17, 2012.

Saved under Black News

Tags: Al Sharpton, Big Apple, gun violence, National Action Network, National Rifle Association, New York City, OK, OTC

Al Sharpton has started a new movement to combat inner city violence. For the last four weeks, the MSNBC Politics Nation host has been overseeing a movement that monitors different corners in the city between the hours of 11pm and 1am.

Source:

http://blacklikemoi.com/2012/09/al-sharpton-starts-occupy-the-corner-to-combat-inner-city-violence/

PROBLEMS AND PROMISE IN THE INNER CITY*. By Barack Obama. Over the past five years, I've often had a difficult time explaining my profession to folks.

Source: http://www.gatherthepeople.org/Downloads/WHY_ORGANIZE.pdf

[deleted-05292014 331]

VJers, it is up for discussion. Are beliefs about the poor flawed because of stereotyping? Do you believe people can be blinded from the truth because of stereotypes that has been stuffed down your throat by the media, your family or even your friends?

http://news.yahoo.com/beliefs-poor-mired-flawed-stereotypes-050007696.html

Welcome back Janelle

What Paul Ryan said we all know what it was code for. Tactic outlined by Lee Atwater.

What people also fail to realize is that the majority of the poor are children. To me as a nation we are all tied together, we sink or swim as one nation. You can't denigrate one piece of the population without it coming back on you eventually.

[lostinblue 1,989]

Johnson's great society....... Once on the government plantation you never leave. ... Now how come social security is just for whitey ......I missed the part that says black folk need not apply...Maybe you could point me in the right direction. Pull up something from the congressional record or such that forbids black folk from drawing SS benefits.

[We Keep Receipts 9,238]

Hey J,

Hope you got your gloves ready...

[Danno 1,228]

Johnson's great society....... Once on the government plantation you never leave. ...

Not only can't you leave but if anyone speaks ill of the Plantation they must be destroyed which of course brings us to Paul Ryan.

I love when folks like Paul Ryan try to wade into these train wrecks of society and try to offer solutions or to join together with others in addressing these problems I chuckle.

NOTE TO PAUL: The plantation has a shelf life.... let it fall of it's own weight. Then we can push aside the debris and rebuild as we did in Nagasaki. Bro, I know you want to help all these millions of innocent people caught up in the enterprise but you can't fight it or cut funding so just let the thing run it's course.... you get too close and you will be pulled down the drain with it.

[Janelle2002 3,865]

Welcome back Janelle

What Paul Ryan said we all know what it was code for. Tactic outlined by Lee Atwater.

What people also fail to realize is that the majority of the poor are children. To me as a nation we are all tied together, we sink or swim as one nation. You can't denigrate one piece of the population without it coming back on you eventually.

Glad to be back.

But there are many, not including myself, who believe that it is the parents' fault the kids are poor and do not believe it is their civil or humanitarian duty to help these children. What do you think?

Source:

http://www.suntimes.com/news/jackson/20795981-452/inner-cities-need-disaster-relief-too.html

Source:

http://blacklikemoi.com/2012/09/al-sharpton-starts-occupy-the-corner-to-combat-inner-city-violence/

Source: http://www.gatherthepeople.org/Downloads/WHY_ORGANIZE.pdf

Well, we do know that Al Sharpton does not speak for all black people.......

[Janelle2002 3,865]

Hey J,

Hope you got your gloves ready...

Hi!!!!!

[Sousuke 1,214]

Not only can't you leave but if anyone speaks ill of the Plantation they must be destroyed which of course brings us to Paul Ryan.

I love when folks like Paul Ryan try to wade into these train wrecks of society and try to offer solutions or to join together with others in addressing these problems I chuckle.

NOTE TO PAUL: The plantation has a shelf life.... let it fall of it's own weight. Then we can push aside the debris and rebuild as we did in Nagasaki. Bro, I know you want to help all these millions of innocent people caught up in the enterprise but you can't fight it or cut funding so just let the thing run it's course.... you get too close and you will be pulled down the drain with it.

Its a little odd to reference a city that suffered a nuclear attack don't you think?

[mota bhai 2,675]

Not only can't you leave but if anyone speaks ill of the Plantation they must be destroyed which of course brings us to Paul Ryan.

I love when folks like Paul Ryan try to wade into these train wrecks of society and try to offer solutions or to join together with others in addressing these problems I chuckle.

NOTE TO PAUL: The plantation has a shelf life.... let it fall of it's own weight. Then we can push aside the debris and rebuild as we did in Nagasaki. Bro, I know you want to help all these millions of innocent people caught up in the enterprise but you can't fight it or cut funding so just let the thing run it's course.... you get too close and you will be pulled down the drain with it.

I like how you address Congressman Ryan as "bro"

[Janelle2002 3,865]

Johnson's great society....... Once on the government plantation you never leave. ... Now how come social security is just for whitey ......I missed the part that says black folk need not apply...Maybe you could point me in the right direction. Pull up something from the congressional record or such that forbids black folk from drawing SS benefits.

Keeping people on the plantation in a modern society is......

Mass incarnation

Separating families by,.. discriminating against black men for employment opportunities, long term welfare benefits in place of the father, war on drugs

Underfunded schools in minority neighborhoods

Harassment by police

Should I go on?

Please show me the black people protesting social security. I don't get that part of your statement. Just because their is no congressional record stating they cannot, doesn't mean that it is or has not been made hard for black people to do. Just like there is supposed to be equal employment opportunities but we see how that goes.

[deleted-05292014 331]

Glad to be back.

But there are many, not including myself, who believe that it is the parents' fault the kids are poor and do not believe it is their civil or humanitarian duty to help these children. What do you think?

Well, we do know that Al Sharpton does not speak for all black people.......

If we want to have a great society I believe we need to show compassion for the least amongst us. Republicans care more about a fetus and a group of cells than they do about the welfare of a child born into poverty.

And for the record not only do I respect Rev. Al Sharpton but I admire him greatly for the work he has done in his life in regards to Civil Rights.

[mota bhai 2,675]

... not only do I respect Rev. Al Sharpton but I admire him greatly for the work he has done in his life in regards to Civil Rights.

Well, allrighty then.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Al Sharpton. He is not as big an opportunist as Jesse Jackson, but he is trying. He is not all bad. He gets it right often enough. On that count, he has beat Jessie. You never see Al dipping his shirt in the blood of a fallen civil rights leader just to get some cred.

[We Keep Receipts 9,238]

Poverty knows no color. But it's more feasible to focus on urban groups rather than rural areas. This keeps up the narrative about most minorities.