Effects Of Poverty In America

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INTRODUCTION “Because of racial segregation, a significant share of [minority] America is condemned to experience a social environment where poverty and joblessness are the norm, where a majority of children are born out of wedlock, where most families are on welfare, where educational failure prevails, and where social and physical deterioration abound. Through prolonged exposure to such an environment, [minority] chances for social and economic success are drastically reduced,” (Quillian, 2012). Poverty in America has always been a widely discussed and politicized topic. Through the War on Poverty, welfare, Medicade, food stamps, and free and reduced housing costs poverty has changed very little. I hypothesize that my data will show that since 1990, minorities have consistently been poverty stricken compared to that of their white counterparts. Defining who qualifies as poor is the first problem. Researchers alike have all created their own definitions of the poor. Ken Auletta, a journalist defines the poor as a group of individuals who share common attributes such as high school dropouts, delinquents, and the homeless (Ricketts, & Sawhill, 1988). Psychologist Kenneth Clark and political scientist Richard Nathan describe the poor as those who share the same status and are involved in a number of characteristics that are against dominant culture and behavior. Finally, sociologist William J. Wilson views the poor as people who lack training and skills, experience prolonged periods of joblessness, engage in criminal activity, and have a dependency on welfare. As a result, most of America has the conception that the poor can be characterized by the status and behaviors that deviate from dominant culture such as joblessness, delinq... ... middle of paper ... ...uld investigate why minorities contribute to the personal and economic reasons they migrate to different types of neighborhoods which concerns segregation. Research should also focus on why poverty pockets tend to be in older neighborhoods and what effects the environment of the neighborhoods has on these individuals. Experiments on wage rates should also be considered for future research. Because minorities live in impoverished neighborhoods they tend to have less employment opportunities which may result in lower than average wages. If wages increased to stands or slightly above standard minorities might have a chance of obtaining economic success and ultimately leaving poverty behind. If everyone stepped up to help those in poverty, through education and job skills and training courses I believe poverty could be decreased to just a fraction of what it is at now.

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