Discussion Board Posts
Main post starting a thread: The Intersection of Poverty Discourses by Debra Henderson and Anne Tickamayer.
Honest and open discussions on how racism, stereotyping and other forms of prejudice impact the lives of the poor are necessary in order to overcome the society’s resistance in assisting the categories of poor people labeled as ‘undeserving’, and in order to create more opportunities for these people to secure jobs, complete their education and to become self-sufficient. In their article, “The Intersection of Poverty Discourses”, Debra Henderson and Anne Tickmayer discuss the notions of deserving and undeserving poor. The undeserving poor, who are perceived as having done nothing to deserve their fate, are treated with compassion in public discourses on poverty, and there is greater willingness to commit public resources in their favor (Henderson and Tickmayer 121). However, as the authors show, deciding who deserves and who does not deserve to be helped is surrounded by great prejudices, and certain categories are stereotyped as undeserving, simply due to their racial, age and gender characteristics. For example, a young African American male is more likely to be labeled as undeserving poor, because he is considered able to work, but unwilling to do so, whereas a single white mother with young children is more ‘deserving’ in the public eyes, particularly when she is a widow. The reluctance to help people from African American communities who struggle with the lack of education, jobs and feelings of alienation is based on the idea that people in these communities do nothing to change their own fate, and prefer living in this state of poverty, instead of taking responsibility for their own actions.
Poverty is often associated with lack of employment, but, in today’s economy, it is clear that people who work all day long are equally threatened with poverty. Matt Vidal argues in his article that analysts and politicians are “missing the mark” (Vidal 272) because they emphasize education as the solution for poverty. While education does have a crucial role in any society, laborers are equally important in a healthy economy, and their work is not only undervalued today, but the lack of unionization causes them to become very vulnerable in front of corporation interest. The lack of protection for workers means that they are likely not to be able to make a living from their own work, which has not been the case historically (Vidal 270). Understanding how workers are unfairly treated according to present legislation is a first step in acknowledging the injustice, and creating new federal laws that are best suited to protect the workers, and making sure that they enjoy decent salaries that allow them to meet the basic life necessities and avoid falling into poverty.
Post Responding to Others’ Discussion Thread: "Only Ricos Have Credit," from A Cup of Water Under My Bed by Daisy Hernandez
Daisy Hernandez’s article illustrates the traps of the American dream, which affects minority youth who dream of a life with no worries. However, they soon realize that credit cards are not the answer to their yearning for a better life, but on the contrary, it causes them to become the ‘slaves’ of the banks and companies, because they only work to repay their debts. In her article, Hernandez (132) complains that she cannot explain her yearning for expensive consumer goods, when she is a feminist and consequently, she should know better than being tempted by items like lap dogs and organic lettuce. However, as she explains from the beginning of the article, her yearning for expensive goods is triggered by her need to ‘fit in’ and t be part of the majority. Her rejection of the poor class living style that her relatives have, and her attempt to be part of the American middle class, and even upper-middle class, causes her to buy items that she associates with ‘rich’ people. Racism and prejudice are indeed the sociological factors that affect her choices. As she tries to escape the discrimination that affected her parents’ life, she loses control of her own finances.
Main Post Starting a Thread: Exploring the Intersections of Race, Ethnicity, and Class on Maternity Leave Decisions, by Tiffany Manuel and Ruth Enid Zambrana.
While in the past, wages were high enough, and the costs of leaving were low enough to allow all women to stay at home, while men provided for them, today, many women cannot afford to stay at home even when they have to take care of their newborn babies. The problem of how race, ethnicity and class affect maternity leave decisions is discussed by Manuel and Zambrana in their article. The authors explain that racial minority women are more likely to be unable to take a leave after the birth of their child, because they may not be able to rely on their partners’ financial support, because the employer may not allow them to miss from work. White women are more likely to have husbands who earn more, and to work in positions that allow them to take paid leave from work.
However, for many minority women, this is an impossible dream. Instead, they rely on surviving strategies and have to be very inventive in order to find solutions for themselves and their children. The authors’ study showed in this respect that women with college degrees and maternity leave benefits took longer maternity leave than other categories of women, including White women from poor backgrounds. Furthermore, even Black women from the middle class took shorter leaves than their white counterparts. This shows that race plays an important role in the decisions women take in this period, because minority women, even when they are employed in high earning positions, are more likely to face job loss or other types of consequences, when they take a longer maternity leave they may not have the support of a working partner.
The society should put greater focus on care giving in the first year of life of a baby, and should support primary caregivers by implementing more effective leave policies which could support working mothers regardless of their racial and ethnic characteristics. Presently, the maternal leave policies benefit White, college graduate women who have good maternal leave benefits as a result of working in good positions in large companies, but do not have any kind of positive impact on the lives of minority women, and White women from the working class, who cannot afford to take a leave. Stricter federal regulations should support and protect the rights of caregivers to take a leave after the birth of their children, and should oblige companies to offer them leave benefits that could cover the basic needs of mothers regardless of their social or racial background.
Post Responding to Others’ Discussion Thread: "Rethinking Families and Community” by Naomi Gerstel
I believe that the author’s argument about the negative aspects of focusing on marriage as the basic family unity of the society is extremely interesting. The authors make an important point in explaining how the emphasis on marriage at the level of the society reduces the importance of other blood relatives in people’s lives. People in many cultures continue to live close to their relatives throughout their lives, and in fact the lack of close family ties is a characteristic of the Western civilization, in particular, American culture, and does not represent the norm for most of the world, but on the contrary. Moreover, even in the united States, as Gerstel has shown, Latino an African –American people leave close to their relatives and having extended families nearby often proves a necessity because people have their relatives to rely on for practical purposes. Instead, Whites rely on friends for help, or hire nannies and other types of assistants in order to help them cope.
Marriage hinders family relations because often, people move very far from their relatives, and also because the society continues to emphasize the role of the small family unit, composed of mother, father and dependent children, and ignore the role of extended families. By doing so, it critically impacts relationships which are extremely important in the life of an individual. I have been very close to my grandparents from my father’ side, because I was fortunate enough to leave close enough to them to be able to visit often. However, I was estranged from my mother’s family, which affected me to a great extent, because I often regret not having had the opportunity to get to know my cousins well enough. I believe that the extended family is extremely important in a person’s development. Women often leave very far when they get married, but this harms them because they cannot rely on their parents or other family members for support, and often, it is they who need emotional and practical support the most.
Post Responding to Others’ Discussion Thread: Two Classes, Divided by ‘I Do’, by Jason de Parle
In his article, de Parle discusses the role of marriage in the lives of people of different social classes. The lack of education, early marriage and having children before finishing school is often the reason why so many people from the lower classes end up being single parents. However, it is not being a single parent in itself which creates the class divide, but rather, the fact that, as compared to the past, it is much more difficult to live on a single wage than it used to be. Furthermore, many single parents are not as close to their blood relatives today, and thus, they enjoy lower practical and financial support from them. For example, in discussing Ms. Scairer’s lack of time as a single mother, no mentioning was made of her parents or other relatives, who could have helped (deParle). Therefore, the unfair situation in today’s America, where it is almost impossible to manage on a single wage due to the high cost of living and low wages, creates a situation where a woman in a management position has to rely on food stamps. Furthermore, the disconnection from the larger family also affects the life single mothers, who have to take care of the children all by themselves. The fact that a person needs to be married in order to leave a decent life in the United States shows how the society almost forces people to get married, and stay married, and so, maintaining the ‘traditional family values’ becomes a necessity.
Works Cited
DeParle, Jason. “Two Classes, Divided by ‘I Do’. The New York Times. 2012. Web.
Gerstel, Naomi. “Rethinking Families and Community”. Sociological Forum 26.1 (2011): 1-20.
Henderson, Debra and Tickamyer, Anne. “The Intersection of Poverty Discourses”. Race, Gender, Class-An Anthology. Eds. Margaret L. Andersen, Patricia Hill Colllins. Cerngage Learning. 2015. 121-128. Print
Manuel, Tiffany and Zambrana, Ruth Enid. “Exploring the Intersections of Race, Ethnicity, and Class on Maternity Leave Decisions” Race, Gender, Class-An Anthology. Eds. Margaret L. Andersen, Patricia Hill Colllins. Cerngage Learning. 2015. 307-313. Print.
Vidal, Matt. “Inequality and the Growth of Bad Jobs”. Race, Gender, Class-An Anthology. Eds. Magaret L. Andersen, Patricia Hill Colllins. Cerngage Learning. 2015.270-272. Print
Hernandez, Daisy. “Only Ricos Have Credit”. A Cup of Water under My Bed. Beacon: Beacon Press. 2014. Print.
