Dick Gregory Not Poor Just Broke

The Little Boy Who Was Not Poor, Just Broke
Imagine that somebody was on a street and they have nothing. The story of “Not Poor, Just Broke”, tells a story, written by Dick Gregory. The story is about a little boy, named Dick Gregory, who lived in the city slums of New York in the 1930s. There are several reasons that cause his hardships knowing he has no dad to help his mom, his environment is not great and his background of being an African American.
First not having a father and the consequences is stated mainly throughout the story. Many of the kids would have a father who taught them, obedience them, and just help out his wife who is working all time. A dad would take time and help the mother to look after Gregory. Money a huge embarrassment

in his life knowing he did not have a father his mom would not be making a lot to support them all. In the passage when the school teacher talked about the Community Chest. The teacher simply ignored him. It was then when Gregory raised his hand and stammered out “My Daddy said he’d give … fifteen dollars.” (Gregory 390). It was then the teacher who responded “We are collecting this money for you and your kind, Richard Gregory. If your Daddy can give fifteen dollars you have no business being on relief.”(Gregory 390). He then left the classroom knowing he was called out and was full of shame and never came back to school ever again.

The environment was dirty and not clean.

Gregory stated “Pregnant with dirt and pregnant with smells that made people turn away. (Gregory 389). He here is simple explaining on where he comes, city slums, the smell that went with him all his life. There was no way of removing the smell. The house will be visited by rats. The rats were well fed with leftovers

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became a family who lives all in one house. He also stated “I remember how that social worker would poke around the house, wrinkling her nose at the coal dust on the chilly linoleum floor, shaking her head at the bugs crawling over the dirty dishes in the sink.” (Gregory 387). He said we clean our house often but we do not every time a social worker comes. The social worker is making sure that if the house is clean then something is obviously wrong. They think well poor people they are too lazy to clean their house and the mothers most likely be a maid for her boss (the white man). The idea of not being able to communicate also described the dangerous situations that happen. His mother here shows the importance of a telephone “Keeping her fingers crossed that the telephone hidden the closet wouldn’t ring.” (Gregory 387). A phone cannot be used during this time simply because the idea of changing everything in life may upset the social workers.
Finally, his background of being an African American an example is the sit assigned to him in school.

He stated “It was on Thursday. I was sitting in the back of the room, in a seat with a chalk circle drawn around it. The idiot’s seat, the troublemaker’s seat. The teacher thought I was stupid. Couldn’t spell, couldn’t read, and couldn’t do arithmetic. Just stupid.” (Gregory 389). So here we can see he easily discriminated cause of his color and social status in the pyramid. The teacher had never thought he could not function because he did not have enough to eat and would not give him a chance to learn. All the teachers and others would do nothing and never thought of him as a boy or human for once in his life. He has been distinguished already every time he would walk up and down the street wearing the brown and orange and white plaid mackinaw with a hood. So people will think of him like a poor welfare boy. He tried throwing

it

away but his mother would hurt him simply because he felt tired of being a welfare one and he should be thankful for everything.
These three all describes Gregory poverty state and how he needed to change his understanding and it was simply that he does need to grow up.