I know that one of the main critiques that I received about this blog was that I talk too much about myself. I make far too many "I" statements. However, I feel as though with the subject matter at hand, this time it is warranted. We've been talking about the concept of a living wage in our class for the last week. I know that it could be a touchy subject, but I was not expecting the sheer amount of insensitivity that I would be witnessing in the class discussions and further research.
I don't like playing the emotion card when discussing things such as politics, but i'm willing to make an exception here. The reason is that when people talk about politics, they talk about taxes and budget cuts. These things are abstract monetary concepts. Inherently, they are difficult to fully understand. However, when we begin talking about living wage and welfare, we're talking about human beings. We're talking about people who need assistance. We're talking about single mothers and people who have been laid off by giant corporations. I hate to sound like such a bleeding heart liberal, but I'm actually emotionally invested this subject.
Here's where I pull the bullshit pity card. I grew up as one of those kids in the documentary. That poor kid that offered to give his mother his allowance money? Yeah, that was me. Not initially, i will admit. I was born into a perfectly normal middle class family with three kids. I was the youngest and I had everything I needed or wanted. At some point my life things drastically changed. You can cite a divorce or maybe a failing business as the cause. It doesn't really matter what was the cause. The end result was that I ended up spending a series of years living in poverty. Now that I'm in a better situation -college, 4 jobs, somewhat of a bright future-I can look back on it and appreciate the hardships. Those years helped me develop a sense of empathy and compassion that I would not have, had I led an average middle class life.
This nation is lacking in empathy, common decency, and a sense of what it means to have human decency. Because of our misconceptions regarding the "American Dream," it's relatively easy to dismiss the poor as a lazy and shiftless lot. I'll tell you the truth, I've known dirt poor people that have worked ten times harder than anyone I've met at this university. Rich Republicans often complain about the welfare queens bleeding this nation dry, but they have no idea what it's like to watch a woman drive two towns over to use her food stamps. The privileged have no clue what it's like to see your mother weep over a box of church donated food. They don't know what it's like to feel completely overwhelmed by debt. It's a constant feeling of being held under the surface of the water. The system is designed to keep the poor in poverty and shame. Drive Mitt Romney to Hillcrest Apartments in N. Asheville and let him find one damn person who's proud to need government assistance. I doubt that will make the news. Of course it won't. The poor are a blight on this country.
Don't believe me? Jon Stewart has an amazing segment on the media's war on the poor. I'll link it here. The basic gist of the segment is that the upper class has absolutely no idea what it means to be poor. The newscasters are astounded that 99 percent of the so called "poor" own a refrigerator. Really? God forbid the poor want to keep their food. This disconnect is readily evident in our class discussion Thursday. Some of my classmates were completely unwilling to believe that the poor should receive a living wage. They cited that they -as upper-middle class, white, government scholarship supported- individuals, could survive easily on minimum wage, why couldn't the lazy shiftless folk in the documentary do the same? It's nowhere near the same. First and foremost, people that are in this college have already been afforded advantages that not one of those people in the documentary have. They have a high school education, are in their final year of college education, and most likely have amazing prospects ahead of them. The poor on the other hand have a series of institutions keeping them down. Anyone that can't see this is gazing through the rose tinted glasses of middle class white privilege.
I often make the mistake of looking at my local news' facebook page. It's a disgusting mix of thinly veiled racism and anti-poverty ranting. One of the very worst that I have encountered is a frequently posting individual who i will just refer to as Paul. I will quote some of Paul's comments right now:
That comment received 9 "likes" and that bums me out. In the process of writing this blog post, I have gone from angry to enraged to disheartened. To tell you the truth, I have no idea how to fix the idea that someone needing help is somehow a terrible gutless quality. Where do we begin? This clearly isn't a political idea, it's too pervasive for that. This is a social construct built off of years of middle class privilege.
"One one hand, the Obama Administration buys advertising to get more people on food stamps.
On the other hand, the National Park Service warns that we shouldn't feed the animals, as they might become dependent and not learn to take care of themselves."
I don't know anymore. It's damn near impossible to change people's minds it seems. So, I guess the best I can do is to try to help those who need it.
"My friend Erin says it best, "we're all two or three bad decisions away
from becoming the ones we fear and pity"
and Tony says it's important to bear some witness when you can
and that’s not hard to do in the city that I live in." - AJJ
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