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.