Poverty. It’s hard for me to have anything but the most visceral, gut reaction to poverty. Coming from a city that is both the seat of the national government and that has the biggest income difference between the top and bottom quintiles of any major city in the country has imbued in me a serious, emotional, and resolute attitude towards poverty. I am a definite proponent of pragmatic political and social thinking. But when it comes to poverty, pragmatic thinking seems so often to steamroll over the lives of those who are already so down, that I cannot adopt any of this thinking or weave it into my worldview or ideology without feeling like I have betrayed and given up on myself, my city, and millions of American and billions of world citizens. The way in which we think about and frame the problem of poverty and inequality is not one that will facilitate lasting change. It is time for a new frame.
It is time for a new approach to clearing this great and long-lasting hurdle of poverty. Few things are of as much importance to me as ending the dehumanizing language and thought associated with those in our society who don’t have the means to make ends meet. We must change the language in which we discuss, and the ways in which we think about, overcoming this momentous challenge. This will help us clear the hurdle.
Thinking in terms of upper, middle, and lower class perpetuates injustice. This paradigm sets a frame in which some people MUST be at the bottom—how can there be an upper and a middle if there is no lower. We need to begin to see these issues in a more honest and open light: there are those who are materially affluent, those who are materially secure, and those who are materially struggling for survival. Thinking in terms of affluent, secure and struggling does not put in mind a system where there must be people swimming at the bottom of the tank.
In addition, we should think about what applying the term “class” to this gradient of material well-being implies. Class has the double meaning right now of place on the socio-economic ladder, and also a sort of code word for a quality of taste, discretion and manners. To imply that those who have more materially also have more “class” in this sense is more than an underhanded insult—it is nothing short of perpetuating culture-wide stereotype. I am not suggesting that we stop quantifying and gathering statistics or start ignoring the facts in order to make ourselves feel better. I am simply suggesting that our language needs to take on a more honest and encompassing tone, reflecting a more honest and encompassing vision.
I also witness the relapse of some of America’s oldest cities (Washington, Philadelphia, Baltimore, etc.), and shake my head—not out of lament for the inevitable regression of modern urban centers, but in exasperation that no one has stood up to stop the backsliding of these luminous pillars of our nation in their ability to offer a viable mode of life to the majority of their residents. The opportunities sit right in front of us! Expansive social policy derived from in depth local and national research, public investment in urban planning, and a renewed dedication to large-scale public transit are all called for. With dedication, these historically American cities, long viewed as embodying “the times” through the generations, could embody a new American vision of sustainable development, security, integration and accessibility for all inhabitants.
I have written before, and I believe to my very core, that every person on our planet is deserving of life, quality of life, and life choices. For us, in our prosperous and bountiful nation, to ignore those spurned by a system that largely does good is to discount the American Dream for all those who have achieved it. We must provide more opportunities for people to dream—this does not mean putting people on welfare or in a job which does not allow for making ends meet. And I feel that, until we change some of our thinking and our language, it will be increasingly hard to for us to help people out of this cycle of poverty. This, as much as any other crisis, is the call of our generation.
Look next week for a post that will delve further into policy relating to poverty.
