Anti-Poverty and Anti-Racism
by Paul C. Gorski gorski@EdChange.org
What We (Think We) Know
Class and Poverty Awareness Quiz
– Humility is key
– Cognitive dissonance is inevitable
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Introductory Stuff:
The Agenda
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Introductory Stuff (in progress)
Stereotypes of Low-Income People
Reconsidering Key Concepts
Shifts of Consciousness
Being an Anti-Poverty, Anti-Racism
Activist
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Part II:
Oppressors Are Us:
Stereotypes of Low-Income
People
Stereotypers Are Us
Pairs: Name all the stereotypes you know
about low-income people
And note where they come from
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Stereotypers Are Us
Stereotype: Laziness
Ah, but: According to the Economic Policy
Institute (2002), poor working adults spend
more hours working per week on average
than their wealthier counterparts.
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Stereotypers Are Us
Stereotype: Don’t Value Education
Ah, but: Low-income parents hold the exact
same attitudes about education as wealthy
parents (Compton-Lilly, 2003; Lareau &
Horvat, 1999; Leichter, 1978; Varenne &
McDermott, 1986).
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Stereotypers Are Us
Stereotype: Substance Abuse
Ah, but: Alcohol abuse is far more prevalent
among wealthy people than poor people
(Galea, Ahern, Tracy, & Vlahov, 2007). And
drug use equally distributed across poor,
middle class, and wealthy communities
(Saxe, Kadushin, Tighe, Rindskopf, &
Beveridge, 2001).
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Stereotypers Are Us
Stereotype: Crime and Violence
Ah, but: Poor people do not commit more
crime than wealthy people—they only
commit more visible crime. Furthermore,
white collar crime results in much greater
economic (and life) losses than so-called
“violent” crime.
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Stereotypers Are Us
Stereotype: Language-Deficient
Ah, but: Linguists have known for decades
that all varieties of English (such as “Black
English vernacular” or Appalachian
varieties) are equally complex in structure
and grammar (Gee, 2004; Hess, 1974;
Miller, Cho, & Bracey, 2005).
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Stereotypers Are Us
Where, then, do these stereotypes come
from, and whose purposes do they serve?
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Part III
Revisiting Key Concepts
Key Concepts
1.
2.
The ‘Culture of Poverty’
Deficit Theory
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Key Concept:
The ‘Culture of Poverty’
The “hidden rules” quiz
 Where you’ve seen it in

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Key Concept:
The ‘Deficit Theory’
Example: Payne’s reflections on Katrina
(see handout)
 Where you’ve seen it

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Part IV
Shifts of Consciousness
Shift of Consciousness #1
Must be willing to think critically
about those things about which I’ve
been taught not to think critically
– Corporate capitalism
– Two-party political system
– Work of IMF and World Bank
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Shift of Consciousness #2
Must acknowledge class-related
inequities and oppressions—and
understand them as systemic and
not just individual acts and practices
– So “lifting people out of poverty” one by
one is not the same thing as eliminating
poverty
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Shift of Consciousness #3
Must See Our Socialization
– How are we socialized to perpetuate the
myths?
– How do we perpetuate myths and
oppression even through well-intended
work?
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Shift of Consciousness #4
Must challenge stereotypes
– From youngsters, not-so-youngsters,
peers, bosses, whoever…
– And if you don’t have the information to
challenge the stereotypes, then actively
seek it out
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Shift of Consciousness #5
Must refuse to mistake
socioeconomic class or race with
“culture”
– Poverty and racism are sociopolitical in
nature—they’re done to people
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Shift of Consciousness #6
Must be willing to unsettle and
discomfort
– Institutional likeability
– Who am I trying to keep comfortable,
and at whose expense?
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Shift of Consciousness #7
Must be careful to avoid “saviour
syndrome” or “messiah mentality” or
“missionary mindset”
– This is an expression of supremacy and
privilege
– Who, exactly, is being “saved” in antipoverty and anti-racism work?
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Shift of Consciousness #8
Focus on understanding the cultures
and forces of power and privilege,
not only on the experiences and
cultures of the dispossessed “other”
– We cannot understand class and poverty
without understanding the influence of
the wealthy elite
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Part VII
What We Can Do
What We Can Do:
Fight for Low-Income Students



Fight to keep low-income children from being
placed unfairly into lower academic tracks.
And fight to get them into gifted and talented
programs.
Or fight educational tracking altogether.
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What We Can Do:
Fight for Low-Income Students

Insist on equitable schooling conditions for all
students.

Fight what Kozol calls the “savage inequalities” of
our schools
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What We Can Do:
Educate About Class and Poverty




Lack of living wage jobs
Dissolution of labor unions
Growing wealth gap
Corporate control of government and schools

Educate toward fixing these injustices rather than
“fixing” poor people and people of color
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What We Can Do:
Take Back Our Heroes

Resist whitewashing or commercialization of
social justice heroes who fought for class
equity




MLK
Helen Keller
Mark Twain
Black Panthers
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What We Can Do:
Help Individuals & Fight Systems


If all of our anti-poverty work goes into
addressing symptoms rather than the
underlying injustices, nothing will change.
If all of our work goes into fighting the
underlying injustices while ignoring
immediate symptoms, people will die.
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What We Can Do:
Self-Assess

Consider: Is your work, or that of your
organization, moving us closer to an
equitable and just society or world, or is it,
despite good intentions, sustaining inequity
and injustice?
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What We Can Do:
Do Informed Work

Reject the temptation to use popular models
(such as Ruby Payne’s) just because they’re
popular. Ask why they’re popular. And opt,
instead, for models that are based on
evidence and proved effectiveness.
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What We Can Do:
Engage Low-Income Folks


As we know, the experts are the
communities. Avoid the missionary approach
by asking what we can do rather doing what
we think we ought to do.
Work with rather than for.
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What We Can Do:
Learn

Never stop identifying our own class and race
biases. (And yes, you do have them.)
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What We Can Do:
See and Work at Intersections







Environmental Justice & Poverty
Environmental Justice & Racism
Media Conglomeration & Poverty & Racism
Privatization of Schools & Poverty & Racism
War & Poverty & Racism (see MLK)
Globalization & Poverty & Racism
And so on...
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What We Can Do:
Evaluate Materials

Make sure your organization’s materials do
not stereotype—even if subtly—economically
disadvantaged people
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Part VIII
Stages of Anti-Poverty
Activism
(see handout)
Quotes
“And one day we must ask the
question, Why are there forty
million poor people in America?
And when you begin to ask that
question, you are raising questions
about the economic system, about
a broader distribution of wealth.
When you ask that question, you
begin to question the capitalistic
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economy.”
Quotes
“I am a socialist because I believe that
socialism will solve the misery of the
world — give work to the man who is
hungry and idle and at least give to
little children the right to be born free.”
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Quotes
“In a country well governed poverty is
something to be ashamed of. In a
country badly governed wealth is
something to be ashamed of.”
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Quotes
“The distinctions separating the social
classes are false; in the last analysis
they rest on force.”
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Quotes
“We have deluded ourselves into believing
the myth that capitalism grew and
prospered out of the Protestant ethic
of hard work and sacrifices. Capitalism
was built on the exploitation of black
slaves and continues to thrive on the
exploitation of the poor, both black
and white, both here and abroad.”
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Quotes
“Who are the oppressors? The few: the
King, the capitalist, and a handful of
other overseers and superintendents.
Who are the oppressed? The many:
the nations of the earth; the valuable
personages; the workers; they that
make the bread that the soft-handed
and idle eat.”
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Paul C. Gorski
gorski@edchange.org
http://www.EdChange.org