The Underclass: Culture and Race
Lecture 13
Today’s Readings
• Schiller Ch. 8: The Underclass: Culture and
Race
• Bane and Mead, Lifting Up the Poor, pp. 28-35,
58, 66-68,121-125, 142-143
• DeParle, Ch. 11: Opal’s Hidden Addiction:
Milwaukee, 1996-1998
Why are some people
persistently poor?
• Possible answers examined (debunked)
in Chapter 8
– Because they are mired in a culture of
poverty
– Because they are members of an inferior
race
The Culture of Poverty
• The poor lack sufficient desire and
motivation to escape poverty
• They don’t behave in ways that would
help them escape poverty. I.e. that
prolong their impoverishment
– They are self-indulgent and unable to defer
gratification
Validating the Culture of Poverty
• Schiller gives two standards that must be
satisfied to validate the culture of poverty:
– “It must be shown that the norms and aspirations-not just the behavior--of the poor are different and
that these differences impede escape from
poverty.”
– “It must also be shown whether and to what
degree such differences would disappear under
changing socio-economic circumstances.”
– Source: Schiller, p. 142
Validating the Culture of Poverty, cont.
• Why isn’t it sufficient to document
differences in behavior? Why must we
verify differences in norms and
aspirations?
• What methods can we employ to verify
that the persistently poor have different
norms and aspirations?
Validating the Culture of Poverty, cont.
• What kind of data could we collect to
test the hypothesis that the persistently
poor would not join the mainstream if
their socio-economic circumstances
changed?
A test of deferred gratification
• We saw in the last lecture that birth rates for
women with family incomes less than
$10,000 (95.8) are almost twice that for
women in families with incomes of $75,000
and more (54.8). Is this evidence that the
poor seek more immediate gratification than
the nonpoor?
Schiller’s 4-way test
• We can conclude that values and not
circumstances differ if:
– The satisfaction being deferred is equally important to the
poor and nonpoor;
– There is equal opportunity to defer the satisfaction;
– The poor and nonpoor suffer equally from deferment; and
– The probability of obtaining gratification at the end of the
deferment period is equal for both groups;
If any of these conditions is violated,
observable differences in behavioral
outcomes must be due to differences in
situations.
Wilson’s Underclass Theory
• Persistent urban poverty is the result of the
combined, interacting effects of joblessness,
deteriorating neighborhoods, and the
oppositional culture these forces generate:
– Work disappears
– Stable, working-class families move out
•
•
•
•
Employment networks disintegrate
Role models disappear
Number of two-parent families declines
Community institutions dependent of resources provided
by middle-class families decline or disappear
Wilson’s Underclass Theory, cont.
– poor youth become socially isolated from
mainstream social networks that facilitate social
and economic advancement, and become more
vulnerable to:
•
•
•
•
Gangs
Drugs
Dropping out of school
Teen pregnancies
– These behaviors impede their economic and
social mobility
Wilson’s Underclass Theory, cont.
• What types of policies are dictated by
the Culture of Poverty Theory?
• By Wilson’s Underclass Theory?
• Do the two sets of policies overlap?
Explain.
Experiences from American Dream
• Did you find any evidence regarding
direct tests of aspirations in the
chapters about the lives of Angie,
Jewell, and Opal that support or refute
the culture of poverty theory? Explain.
• Can you cite passages that suggest that
any of the women were content with
their lives? Which ones?
Experiences from American Dream, cont.
• Did you find any evidence in the
chapters about the lives of Angie,
Jewell, and Opal that supports Wilson’s
theory that the poor respond positively
to expanded economic opportunities?
Explain.
The Racial Inferiority Theory
• Any questions about pp. 148-154?
• We will assume that Schiller is correct
when he concludes that racial theories
of black poverty based on the theory of
racial inferiority have been discredited.
The Racial Inferiority Theory, Cont.
• Even so, we have to contend with the views
of the American public:
– White Americans favor a racial explanation for the
overrepresentation of blacks among the poor 3 to
1.
– 1 in 2 whites believe blacks have less ambition
than whites
– Fewer that 1 in 6 whites believe racial
discrimination is a serious problem
The Racial Inferiority Theory, Cont.
• Clinton said, “I really believe that if we passed
welfare reform . . . we could diminish at least
a lot of the overt racial stereotypes that I
thought were paralyzing American politics?
(152).
• In your view, has this happened? Explain.
Has debate over welfare reform been
cleansed of racism?