Review Paul Gorski’s “The Myth of the Culture of Poverty” by clicking on the link below. Discuss your reactions to his claims and compare what Gorski talks about to commonly held beliefs in our culture regarding poverty.
In his article, Paul disputeS the works and research of Oscar Lewis who came up with the concept “culture of poverty”. In his book, “The Children of Sanchez: Oscar describes poor people having no sense of wanting a better future. He goes ahead to state that poor people promote violence in the society and lack a sense of history. In his article, Paul Gorski does not support these assumptions. In his defense, Paul states that research by Oscar Lewis only considers a small community and these findings do not represent the whole world. I agree with Paul’s statement that there is no such thing as a culture of poverty.
It would be wrong to assume that all poor people are the same. It would also be wrong to state that all poor people suffer the same fate. It is true that there are poor people who desire to have a better future. These are the hard working poor people who can even have two jobs and work in shifts. Paul’s statements about the commonly held myths about poor people are true. Paul, however, fails in the fact that he tries to paint a picture to justify why poor people remain poor. Some poor people are lazy have no plans for their future.
It would be wrong to justify why these people are poor, whereas, it is because of their laziness that they continue to remain poor. Not all poor people have discipline and good values. Some of these poor kids are undisciplined and grow up to be criminals in the society. It is, however, true that the majority of poor people are poor because of lack of opportunities whereby they come from poor backgrounds. It is, however, someone’s choice to decide to work hard and make a better future. In this world, anything is possible. These beliefs about the culture of poverty are what make the society lag behind. The deficit theory states that poor people are poor because of their mental incapability. The culture of classism gives us a better outlook of the poor people in society. Paul states that it shows us of the attributes that poor people have in common such as lack of basic needs.
Reflection
I can use my family’s life-experience as an example. It would be best to comprehend that not all poor people are the same and suffer the same fate. Coming from a poor background, I had a terribly hard upbringing whereby most of the time we lacked the basic needs in life. Teachers chased out of school now and then because of lack of school fees. With my father unemployed, and my mother a homemaker, it was hard to get basic needs. My dad used to do ordinary jobs such as a manual laborer in construction of buildings. Although this enabled us to have a meal, every day, other basic need such as education and clothing were hard to get. This made life extremely hard. This, however, did not deter us from working hard. My dad later on, through his hard work started his own construction company through the small money that he used to save. Life has been smooth since then as his business is successful and he is generating substantial income to cater for all needs.
Discuss how various groups, perhaps including the government, justify the practice of racial profiling in relation to the attack on 9/11/01 and/or the bombing of Pearl Harbor. What affect does this racial profiling have upon the lives of various racial and ethnic groups in the US?
The United States is a large country. In the US, there are many people of different races. This makes the subject of racial profiling becoming a common thing in the country. The presence of many races in the country leads to one race having hatred towards another race. This leads to enmity and racism in the country. The main thing that led to the development of racial profiling in the United States is because the country has been a target by terrorist groups. The terrorist attack that occurred in America generally referred to as the 9/11 led to Americans branding Iraq as an enemy of the country. After the attacks, airport security became a crucial factor in consideration to protect the country from further attacks.
The growth of racial profiling in the country has led the people to believe that most terrorists are brown people. They forget that their people too who are white may be involved in terrorists activities, in their own countries. Americans hate people from the Middle East and believe that they are terrorists. The American government justifies racial profiling with the fear of terrorist attacks. According to them, this is just a way for them to protect the citizens for terrorist attacks. Although the cause of racial profiling is good, it has made some people living in the United States face discrimination making their lives hard. Most brown people from the middle in the United States face discrimination as the white people regard them and their people as terrorists.
Reflection
Living in America is hard if someone belongs to a race that the Americans hate. Most Muslim people in the country do not live in peace. This is because Americans hate the Muslim religion and believe it is the main cause of all terrorist activities in the country. The American people, although they may not have ill intentions, regard Muslims in the country, as terrorists. This is evident in that there was a student at Virginia Campus, killed by a fellow student. The young man was of Korean decent named Cho Seung-hui.
I do not know if Americans have ill feelings towards Koreans, but one thing I do know is that my life has never been the same ever since. My mother calls me every day to ensure that I am safe and out of harm’s way. I constantly live with the fear of receiving threats from my fellow students who are Americans.
