English 1A: Final Essay on Poverty Stereotypes

Eva Tovar Gil

Professor Monique Williams

English 1A

December 17, 2013

Final Essay: Poverty Stereotypes

Todays, America’s poor economic has become liberal as it welcomes a new face to the bunch. Former middle class individuals, whites among them all, are now impoverished due to the economic downturn that is existent within the nation’s domain. All races, creed, and colors are now coping with poverty. Millions of Americans have lost their luxuries, means of transportation, jobs, class, finances, homes, and even their food. America’s elite, alike House Speaker Newt Gingrich who “labeled President Barack Obama the ‘best food stamp President in American history’,” as mentioned in The Rich and the Rest of Us by authors Tavis Smiley and Cornel West, for instance, are after all making poverty a racial stereotype against the African American; the supreme are blaming blacks for being the “originators” of existent of this meager state inside the nation. However, the elite are quite aware that none of this is true; they are conscious that the blacks are not responsible for the sudden depressing economic collapse in America, nevertheless they are still blaming the black. The elite are completely responsible for drawing America’s people into an economic sinkhole as they satisfy their greed; as the incomes of the nation’s one percent have risen intensely the incomes of the ninety-nine percent have dropped drastically. Yet the blacks have been unfairly used to conceal the sinful actions of the elite. African Americans alike numerous other Americans in the United States are being impoverished by the factors of the Great Recession, the only absolute difference they have that differentiates each other from one another is that the African Americans are being bombarded, by the elite, as characters of wrong for the nation, and although this is a pretext to conceal the actual reason for which why the nation’s economy is at downturn, many Americans are believing these untruthful statement and avoiding the black.

In the United States the top-notch, one percent define poverty as dark skinned-toned. The elite have built a delusive ethos against the Blacks. America's politicians, or just to be more precise let us say the rich CEOs who buy, empower, manage, and manipulate the nation and its people in a self-pleasing approach , stereotype all African Americans as, and the cause of, poverty within the nation. "Politicians have color-coded poverty, making it a Black . . . thing.” (Smiley, West 72) Laziness has been unfairly oppressed upon blacks' unjust poverty. According to the rich, African Americans' sluggish conduct has driven them to their own poor economic living status. In other words, blacks have willingly chosen to become poor, or at least that is what the rich argue. Having the advantage of owing 40% of the nation’s wealth, the supreme take advantage of their money to empower the nation’s beliefs through media, campaigns and other sources. Being wise enough to spill out the truth, these elite minimize and manipulate the information that is exposed to the public and keep unmentioned what does not benefit them. Blaming the blacks and their unwillingness to work which leads them to an alleged high demand for social services for being the reason for which poverty exists in America is just a distraction to withdraw the attention from the real economic problem in this nation: for in reality greed increase within the already supreme is the reason for which we find poverty in America. Blacks have been long and well maligned by the rich: made up beliefs have been manufactured about their poverty. Conjointly with their poverty and their supposed laziness, they have been disdained as a destructive disease. They have been targeted to be denied alike a deadly, permanent virus from which a cure is non-existent. This ungenerous racial stereotype, however, has been done with a vast purpose. America's one percent rich have purposely defined poverty to be an African American entity and for it making it seem hazardous, for the purpose of keeping others from associating with these individuals, and heck have they done it quite well.

Millions of Americans, white in particular, are unconsciously beguiled by the rich to derive themselves away from the African Americans. The elite brainwash the white and instill negative notions about the black; they are being induced to believe that the blacks are poor for their own will and that their laziness, the cause of their poverty, is a malignant disease that should be avoided. The problem, however, is not the fact that the one percent is purposely doing this to favor on their very own side, rather it is the sad fact that the rest of the Americans are naïve and ignorant enough to not comprehend that all these wrongdoing, evil individuals are doing is harm to the nation. Plentiful of Americans, who don’t make up part of the one percent, sit in front of their screens or attend to political campaigns, trust every single statement that penetrates their hearing (not their conscious), buy the lies of politicians, and as a result they avoid the existence of the black for fear that “Acknowledging the poor opens the door to perilous thoughts. [They] are forced to consider: ‘Can it happen to me?’” (Smiley, West 72) By fear that these (white) individuals cannot tolerate to even picture themselves submerged in failure and coping with the difficulties brought along with poverty, in this manner they are persuaded not only to avoid yet also disconnect themselves from the black; although sensing fear in relation to poverty is indeed very ironic specifically when America’s middle class is on its way to extinction, meaning that poverty is as of now living among all but the elite Americans. History has thought us that in the past centuries whites in America were given a sense of superiority to the black. Despite the generation, century, and economy in which we are in, we have quite well adopted these old mindset, we have not yet let go off them and they have become practical in our daily basis. We are, however, living within a collapsing 21st century new economy in which our beliefs or the bogus beliefs of anyone else matter the least of all and in which the matter of acting upon figuring out ways to solve or at least fight the nation’s poor economy matters most of all.

Over the past decades the elite have well taken for granted the capacity to manage this nation on their account. Whites and blacks have long unfairly been used to prosper the supreme. As the elite have taken delight in their riches and ability to overpower this nation, the whites unconsciously along with the blacks have been, for quite a good time now, overflowing in poverty; too many whites along with blacks have been coping with factors of the Great recession, which was generated by the rich, and experiencing poverty. There are, however, many remaining whites that are still beguiled to believe that poverty is a black entity which is in all aspects not true. Poverty, unlike politicians, is non-discriminant; impoverishment has always kept the white and black good company, although, today as the wealthy hog most of the nation’s wealth, impoverishment is clinging onto these individuals leaving them at no difference. Today’s Americans, black and white in particularly, should use approaches to better their living alike the ones certified in the 1660’s and 1670’s by African and white of indenture servant status in which “they would get together . . . to ferment rebellion against the elite to try to get a better deal for themselves on the basis of economic necessity, and economic justice.” said Tim Wise on White Privilege. Whites need to join hands with the black in order to wake up from the long slumber in which they have been under-spelled for years and to realize that the long maligned blacks are not what the wealthy have said to be. Joining hands together, blacks and whites, can be outnumbered and together indeed attain the ability to destroy the brilliant, racist-stereotype, long-lasting lie that the elite built against the African Americans. Together, they can make out of this nation a better community for their own benefit, from creating jobs to abolishing racism all in their own; something the elite would have not, even in the least of intentions, intent to do as long as they, themselves live a fine life; in reality they don’t give a rat’s ass whether the rest of the white, non-rich Americans suffer. Americans join along with one another to become alert of the real world that surrounds within their existence, to stop being the elite’s fools, to eventually make this country a better home for tomorrow.

Particularly for the last thirty years the elite have been using African Americans as a trick to fool the whites and hog the nation’s wealth. For all Americans, but the rich, the economy has been leading to a tipping point, which is why for the sake of these individuals that the elite should halt hogging the economy, although probabilities that they will certainly do so (as asked) are at ground-level. Whites for that reason, must gain consciousness and stop believing the stereotypes about poverty concentrated against their black fellows, unite with them to surpass their strength and become unbeatable as they insubordinate against the elite. Due to the fact that if they don’t unite together neither will be enduring adequately to defeat the elite, the poor economy will, without exceptions, come collapsing over the least unprepared meaning, not blacks, but the white, not forgetting that various by now are impoverished, who never imagined seeing themselves in poverty. Companionless, we will not be strong enough to resist or attack the elite or an astonishingly beggared economy. Being apart will get us nowhere if one day the economy for the rest of us bottoms. If we continue to be distant from one another because of illusionary stereotypes we will never determine the factual reason for which one this economy went down for the ninety-nine percent non-rich Americans. The whites will continue to blame the black and never find a way out of the sinkhole of the nation’s suffering economy. Apart, we will not be able to combine our imaginations to make a prosperous nation out of this America.

Works Cited

Smiley, Tavis, and Cornel West. The Rich and the Rest of Us. New York: SmileyBooks, 2012. Print.

ChallengingMedia. Tim Wise: On White Privilege. YouTube. 19 February 2008. Web. 17 December 2013.

English 1A: Reflection on College Conspiracy

Eva Tovar Gil

Professor Monique Williams

English 1A

December 17, 2013

Reflection: College Conspiracy

As the last and oldest sibling around my house my priority is to take care for my loved ones and provide them with sustainable resources for their living and with what is necessary for their comfort. I am currently looking forward to becoming a register nurse in the medical field to make a decent income and provide my family members with a fair, supportive living. Becoming a register nurse will take me about four years according to the counselors at the college. I, however, am looking forward on attaining a higher position in the medical field but this will require for me to transfer to a four year university. I have been quite aware that a university level education is of high expense and yet I don’t have the assets to cope with such expenses. As many of the numerous loan borrowers who have meet with high debts I will be required to apply for loans in order to pay for an expensive education and alike them will be forced to find myself in loan debt. It will take me years to pay back the loans, yet it will take me even more to pay back the loans combined with the interests. I fear that because of my future borrowed loans and the high interest rates I will never be able to free myself from debt; that college will become my new house without getting a real house, that I will become indentured for life. Although, I fear the fact that one way or another debt is going to financially hunt me down, I don’t fear it as much as the thought that because of high debts I will not be able to carry out the promise of providing my family the comfort of a home. I fear that I will not have the resources to calm their hunger and keep them warm.

What I think is unfair is the beliefs that, of others who have succeeded, are being induced into one. What I think is most unfair of all, however, is the fact that the promises and beliefs are coming at such high expenses of time and money without being worth it all. At a drastic economic in America politicians, media, and other ambushing sources unbelievably still find the guts to lie in the face of those that are too naïve to stop dreaming of an American dream. Experts like such, persist on lying that the only way to come out of poverty is through education, a fine expensive education like that of theirs. But we are too poor to even achieve those expenses and the careers we are preparing ourselves for are not being worth the cost of time and money. In recent years, too many new undergraduates are not finding jobs in the fields they have knowledge on and once dreamed of. There are millions of students getting their degrees and not being recruited within the field of education of which they studied in, spent thousands of dollars, and tons of precious time, instead if lucky enough many are working at fields in which have nothing to do with what they’ve studied. And that’s millions of people who followed the rules in order to achieve the American Dream who are not being paid back with what they were once promised with. So, trying to fit on these fellows’ shoes, almost nothing makes me think that my degree will any more worth than theirs’. If the time spent following the rules to succeed in America after all isn’t going to pay off, being lied at to believe that education “will” get us at the horizon of achieving the American Dream, when too many are currently unemployed or employed at different fields, is unfair. Too many Americans are falling in high debts believing this or these debts will pay off because that’s what the nation’s politicians, media, etc. promised them, that with hard work and sacrifice comes good fortune but those promises are false statements for today’s generation.

English 1A: Essay Outline

Eva Tovar Gil

Professor Monique Williams

English 1A

December 11, 2013

Essay Outline: Poverty Stereotypes

Prevents Connection

TS: Middle class Americans avoid relating themselves to the poor for fear of their poverty becoming viral against them.

“Acknowledging the poor opens the door to perilous thoughts. We are forced to consider: ‘Can it happen to me?’” (72)

“To many, poverty is regarded as a personal declaration of failure, a measure of fundamental unworthiness, or, as in Caradine’s case, a blight on an upstanding community. (72)

“Empathizing with the psychological toll that poverty takes on the poor is impossible if we pretend it’s not in our midst.” (75)

Defined by the 1%

TS: Politicians and the rich blame the poor for the expanse of poverty within the nation.

“House Speaker Newt Gingrich invoked the familiar specter of negative racial stereotypes when he labeled President Barack Obama the ‘best food stamp President in American history’ and called African Americans in particular to ‘demand paychecks and not be satisfied with food stamps’.” (21)

“Although politicians hate to address poverty, the media are delving into the plight of the poor because the escalating numbers of the ‘new poor’ and ‘near poor’ are white citizens who are now struggling alongside long-suffering citizens of color.” (45)

“Politicians have color-coded poverty, making it a Black or brown thing.” (73)

“Cain boasted. ‘If you don’t have a job and you are not rich, blame yourself.” (82)

“I don’t want to make Black people’s lives better by them somebody else’s money.” (82)

“I’m not concerned about the very poor. We have a safety net there.” (82)

Solution

TS: Resignation and acceptance upon poverty not being caused by stereotypical beliefs can open up the rich and judgmental imaginations to finding ways to better the nation’s economy.

“We have the resources, experience, and knowledge to virtually eliminate poverty, especially long-term poverty, but we do not yet have the political will.” (46)

“Unless and until we rethink, re-imagine, and redefine how we confront poverty, it will never be eradicated.” (69)

“The truth about poverty must be affirmed . . . Affirmation leads to validation, which compels us to action.” (72)

“Love for us means everyone is worthy of a life of dignity and decency—just because . . . The sheer humanity of each and every one of us warrants our steadfast commitment to the well-being of each other” (134)

“He (President Truman) engaged minds, hearts, and imaginations and challenged Congress to see themselves as protectors of the nation’s welfare.” (143)

“To achieve this (end of poverty) goal, it’s necessary to change outmoded 20th-century mindsets, perceptions, and attitudes as we dare to bring the subject of poverty into the mainstream.” (148)

“In America, the wealthy one percent now find themselves in the grip of highly contagious social-media campaign ignited by five undeniable and power words:

‘We are the 99 percent!’” (152)

“With imagination, we can stem the decline of stable and long-neglected neighborhoods.” (160)