OKAY THERE IS A REASON FOR THIS. I AM NOT SAYING HE IS RIGHT, BECAUSE HE ISN’T, BUT HE IS NOT THE FIRST PERSON TO SAY THIS AND HE WILL NOT BE THE LAST.
In the 1960s, sociologist Oscar Lewis proposed the culture of poverty thesis (1), which states that IN THE PRESENCE OF SYSTEMIC SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC BARRIERS TO SUCCESS, people who live in poverty develop a mentality and lifestyle in REACTION TO THOSE SYSTEMIC CONDITIONS.
This mentality includes instant gratification (spend money on what you need now because you don’t know when you’ll get money again), dejection (because generations’ worth of hard work have not been enough to get you out of poverty), anger (because how fucking hard should it be to get out of poverty in the goddamned ‘land of opportunity’), and rebellion (if I play by the rules and I’m STILL fucked, then fuck you, I’m throwing out the rules and doing what I want with my life).
THIS HAS BEEN OBSERVED. People who are faced with intergenerational barriers react to those barriers, because IT IS VERY HARD NOT TO REACT TO THINGS. Obviously, not everyone who experiences poverty reacts the same way, but intergenerational poverty tends to result in similar mentalities. Please note that in the US, a significant portion of intergenerational poverty is experienced by Black people, because as a nation we are still very much experiencing the effects of slavery, particularly in the form of residential segregation (2).
The thesis THEN goes on to say that EVENTUALLY, THIS MENTALITY CAN BECOME AN INDEPENDENT FACTOR OF POVERTY.
This is true, but THIS IS ALSO WHERE LITERALLY EVERYONE GETS IT WRONG.
Since the publication of this thesis, people have routinely ignored the first tenet and only focused on the second, and use it as a way to blame poor people for their poverty. So let’s compare:
What the thesis actually says: long-term structural barriers prevent certain groups of people from rising out of poverty. In response to long-term poverty, these people adopt certain habits, attitudes, and beliefs that affect how they interact with the economy. If the structural barriers remain in place, these adjusted mindsets can themselves become a barrier.
What people THINK the thesis says: poor people are poor because they have bad values.
THIS IS INCREDIBLY RACIALIZED. A very common term you hear thrown about is “defective culture.” Poor people are poor because they have a “defective culture.” Black people are often poor, therefore they have a “defective culture.” “Black culture is a defective culture.”
And then suddenly you have a bunch of white assholes running around, blaming Black ppl for their own poverty while simultaneous justifying their own fucked up beliefs about white superiority, and backing it up with “”“sociological evidence.”“”
If you want to quote the culture of poverty thesis, you NEED TO ACKNOWLEDGE THE EXISTENCE OF STRUCTURAL BARRIERS. These include residential segregation (especially redlining, and the historical practice of concentrating Black communities in areas of deteriorating industry and unhealthy environments), hiring discrimination (a white man with a felony record is more likely to get hired than an otherwise identical Black man WITHOUT criminal record) (3), and the paradox of educational requirements (you need a good job to get out of poverty, but to get a good job you need a college education, but to get a college education you need to be able to pay for college, but you’re literally living paycheck to paycheck and can’t save any money because you need every goddamn cent because you’re living in POVERTY).
Who imposed (and maintain) these barriers?
But not just any white people!
🎉🎊WHITE PEOPLE WITH POLITICAL POWER!!!🎊🎉
But wait - which white people have political power?
👏🏻🎉🎊THE ONES WHO CAN AFFORD THE EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE AND EXPENSES REQUIRED TO RUN FOR POLITICAL OFFICE!!!!!🎊🎉👏🏻
So who’s to blame for the poverty of Black people?
🙌🏻👏🏻🎉🎊RICH WHITE PEOPLE (who are often but not exclusively men)!!!🎊🎉👏🏻🙌🏻
and that is how you do sociology thank you and good night
(1) “Culture of Poverty Thesis” by Oscar Lewis
(2) “American Apartheid” by Douglas S. Massey and Nancy A. Denton
(3) “Discrimination in a Low-Wage Labor Market: A Field Experiment” by Devah Pager, Bruce Western, and Bart Bonikowski
p.s. yes I am aware that Ben Carson is Black but that doesn’t mean he isn’t profiting from and perpetuating the rhetoric of rich white politicians who have been keeping Black people impoverished for CENTURIES because it fit their personal and political agendas.
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