Need Opinions- Race and Poverty

CR83 - 12-9-2005 at 05:03 PM

I was watching the news w/Mrs. Reed83 (a social worker) and the story was about the poor not being able to afford their heating bills in the winter. Why is it that they always just show black people in stories like this? Secondly, why are the poor in our cities usually black and the poor in rural areas usually white?

Neither of us had an answer. Thoughts?

clevohardcore - 12-9-2005 at 05:50 PM

education?

JawnDiablo - 12-9-2005 at 07:15 PM

not to be a dick, but i live in an area (on the outskirts of phila) that is riddled with shitty HUD / section 8 homes full of shitbags on public assistence who instead of working to support themselves, just sit around popping out kids collecting welfare. in this same neighborhood there are people that work 2-3 jobs to support their families and would never think of living like this. PECO (phila electric) had been adding in a fee to cover the expenses of those who dont pay their bills. fuck that. ok im gonna stop now before i go to far and get banned

tireironsaint - 12-9-2005 at 07:50 PM

I think it has a lot to do with how America sees Class as a taboo subject while Race gets brought out on a constant basis. Class division is not supposed to exist in our society and Racism is supposed to be at the root of all our socio-economic troubles. Basically we are supposed to believe that everything is completely equal for everyone across the board ("everything" meaning opportunities, education, living standards, etcetera), EXCEPT for people who aren't white. We are supposed to believe that slavery and racial oppression throughout history has left people physically incapable of doing as well for themselves as whites, regardless of their economic background. At least that's the subtext I get from all the media bullshit (including our "history" classes in school).

I think that the media portrays "the poor" as being only minorities because we're supposed to believe that all whites have the same opportunites regardless of economic background and the ones who don't take advantage of it are to blame for their bad situation, while the poor blacks are not responsible because of things that happened to their ancestors. Obviously, if that's not the case then the "American Dream" is a lie because not everyone can make it. Not everyone does have the same possibilities or chances. Poor people are not in that situation because they're too lazy to take advantage of the opportunities available to all of us because those opportunities are NOT available to all of us and never were. The current administration definitely knows this and prefers to keep things this way, look at what they've done with things like constant cutbacks in all the social services while giving more and more tax breaks to the richest part of the population.

defstarsteve - 12-9-2005 at 07:55 PM

there are hard working people who need help, and there are lazy bastards who will mooch all they can, it's not a race thing,
I know just as many lazy white folk as any other race...

noone should have to be without heat in winter...
but if you can't pay, and you don't work, you should have to do something in order to pay for the services....
make them stand out in the cold and take collections to pay for the free services, like the salvation army guys do, or any kind of community service...

there is plenty of work to do, you want free services, then you gotta do something...

as for more poor white in rural areas and blacks in urban...

it's jsut demographics
there are lots of poor black rural communities in the south, well not that many around new orleans anymore...(bad humor)

and almost all rural areas seem to suffer from a low living standard, white black, whatever...

as for urban areas having larger concentrations of poor black people...
might have to do with post civil war migration/industrial revolution economics,

the ex-slaves couldn't afford land but could get work in factories, moved in the the cities, as the boom died down the white factory workers adjsuted more easily in to white color lines of work, thanks to segregation, and the blacks had no where to turn... and now there are genreations of people having been born into poverty who will never see their way out of it

poverty is a tough cycle to break and yes there are opportunities to escape it, I know that I personally have, but you also have to have a support system in place for those to take the opportunities...

if kids have to drop out of school to support their parents all the opportunites in the world wont help them, and this happens everyday

it's a big cycle of shit, and our elected leaders don't give a shit

JawnDiablo - 12-9-2005 at 08:05 PM

defstar steve and tire iron saint are much better at laying out the words than me. thats more or less what i was trying to say.

CR83 - 12-12-2005 at 05:06 PM

Wow, Tire Iron and Def Star bring great ideas. I try not to lean into the "Media Bias" of race but I can see why people might think that way.

There will always be lazy people (black, white, yellow, green...*insert favorite color here*) who will have their hand out.

If someone of color truly worked their ass off, got educated and worked twice as hard as a white person, do they get the same opportunities (for work and andvancement) as a white person? I say, not always. I still think there is too much racism in our country whether we admit it or not.

tireironsaint - 12-12-2005 at 06:23 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by ChrisReed83
If someone of color truly worked their ass off, got educated and worked twice as hard as a white person, do they get the same opportunities (for work and andvancement) as a white person? I say, not always. I still think there is too much racism in our country whether we admit it or not.

But that's what I see as the media's viewpoint. I don't think it matters as much what race the person is, I think what matters is the economic background or class they come from. I see plenty of people getting ahead because their family has the money to send them to the best schools and get them the best connections and all that even when they might not be the best person for the job they're shooting for. There might be a person better suited to that job, who is smarter and would work harder, but because they couldn't afford to get the big name University education (or maybe no education whatsoever) they were never seriously considered.

I dunno, I certainly don't have the answer, but I am tired of the focus being all about race when there are clearly other factors that mean just as much, if not more in these things.

CR83 - 12-12-2005 at 06:31 PM

VERY good point Tire Iron

defstarsteve - 12-12-2005 at 08:49 PM

I come from a very poor family,
and I did extremly well in school
In 89 I was a sophmore was voted by the faculty the best programmer in my high school in L.A. the next year I was to write my own course in advanced programming language
but due to my parents lack of money we had to move back to d.c. to live with family over the summer

I didn't touch a coumpter again until the year 2000 as the h.s. in d.c. barely had money for books let alone computers... and not having money to buy one didn't do shit for me. I could have stayed in L.A., but I moved to help my family out in their hard times.... which never got any better for them.

I ended up dropping out of school in d.c. and was going to hit C.C. , but yeah no money for that...I did end up going back to L.A. and finishing High School with my friends, but by then things were alreay set into motion.

If I'd have stayed in L.A. I would proabably have gone to college, which I still haven't done at 32, and would have a cush ass job at microsoft or some game company...

my race, white, had nothing to do with the fact that my family was poor...
it didn't help me 1 fucking bit and never has.

I work my ass off to support my women and kids, and will never have them denied an oppertunity because of being too poor. We may not have a lot of money, but I will work my fingers to the bone before I see them have to do half the shit I had to.

if we would have stayed in L.A. I'd probably still