Debunking the Big Lie Right-Wingers Use to Justify Black Poverty and Unemployment

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.alternet.org/economy/151830/debunking_the_big_lie_right-wingers_use_to_justify_black_poverty_and_unemployment_/?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzRss&utm_campaign=alternet_workplace

Economic factors and changes in public policies, not manifestations of "black culture," explain African Americans' relatively poorer economic outcomes.
July 29, 2011 |


In April, the Oklahoma legislature passed a constitutional amendment that would do away with affirmative action policies in the Sooner State. Sally Kern, a state rep vying for the coveted title of Most Extreme Lawmaker in America, explained her rationale for supporting the amendment, saying (among a slew of nutty things) that “it's character that ought to count, not whether you're white or black... it should be your willingness to say, 'I'm going to become everything I can become.'"

Kern suggested that blacks simply don't work as hard as whites. “I’ve taught school,” she said, “and I saw a lot of people of color who didn’t study hard because they said the government would take care of them.”



Kern was simply advancing one of the most enduring and pernicious untruths in America's political economy. It holds that poverty – in general, but especially within communities of color – doesn't result from purely economic factors. Rather, the poor are where they find themselves as a consequence of some deep-seated cultural flaws that keep them from achieving success. They're held back, the story goes, by what is known alternatively as a “culture of poverty,” or a “culture of dependence.” It's a popular fable for the right, as it absolves the political establishment for public policies that harm the working class and the poor.

It's also thoroughly and demonstrably untrue, flying in the face of decades of serious research findings.

It's a myth that should be put to rest by the economic experience of the African American community over the past 20 years. Because what Kern and other adherents of the “culture of poverty” thesis can't explain is why blacks' economic fortunes advanced so dramatically during the 1990s, retreated again during the Bush years and then were completely devastated in the financial crash of 2008.

FULL story at link.

[dkf]

1. All I know is teachers say poverty is responsible for low test scores.

While I say every child has an opportunity to learn given enough support.

[jwirr]

2. I agree with you. Many schools in poverty areas do not even have

books and supplies to teach with.

Used to know an elderly lady who would continually tell anyone who listened that "no child is born bad". I think she was thinking in terms of the tabula rosa idea. If children are not given the right support it can hurt them.

[w8liftinglady]

3. My partner agrees with you,too

As a teacher in a 99% below-the-poverty-line school,he has seen an extraordinary surge in test scores...because of an increase in supplies.Every year for 9 years.
Now,Texas is drastically cutting back educational funding and laying off teachers.what do you think will happen?