Oscar Lewis: Re-Evaluating The Culture Of Poverty

Does membership in a group that has been poor for generations’ constitute belonging to a separate culture? There are many facts and opinions that indicate it does. Oscar Lewis whom drew this theory of “the culture of poverty “asserts that the culture poverty perpetuates poverty: “It tends to perpetuate itself from generation to generation because of its effect on children. By the time slum children are aged six or seven, they have usually absorbed the basic values and attitudes of their subculture and are not psychologically geared to take full advantage of changing conditions or increased opportunities which may occur in their lifetime (Lewis, Pg. 21).

Lewis, Oscar. The Culture of Poverty. 4th ed. Vol. 215. San Francisco: W.H. Freeman, 1966. Print.

Oscar Lewis asserts that the term “culture of poverty” is the theoretical label that describes in positive terms a subculture of western society with its own structure and rationale. Also, Lewis argues that these attitudes and beliefs are handed

"Re- evaluating the “Culture of Poverty” - The Society Pages."The Society Pages Reevaluating the Culture of Poverty Comments. The Society Pages14, 14 Oct. 2014. Web. 23 Feb. 2016.

After “re-evaluating the culture of poverty,” Mario Lewis Small asserts that political commenters think of culture as the sum of people’s norms and values and of the culture of poverty as the norms and values that cause people to enter or remain in poverty. Mark Gould also argued that since most Americans believe that all people are given equal opportunities, the failure of poor communities to “succeed” can only be attributed to traits internal to them and their communities. Lastly, Gould claims that it does not matter on what traits we focus, but often it is a culture of poverty that is inhibiting the inability of the people in these communities to take advantage of the opportunities that are open to