There are many social problems throughout society; however one prevalent issue is poverty that affects billions of people each year worldwide. This is a social problem that has terrible ramifications, because people cannot meet their basic needs of survival. President Lyndon Johnson first addressed the War On Poverty in 1964, but it is still an area that needs constant improvement. First to explain who is in poverty, the poverty line is used and based on a calculation that considers the minimum required to feed an individual. While each society has a different threshold, poverty is an issue that greatly affects minorities such as African Americans in the United States. Notwithstanding, using the second principle of symbolic interactionism,
…show more content…
This issue enhances the ongoing problems of racism because African Americans are more susceptible to be poor than whites. There are false ideas about blacks and according to the book Black Theology: An International Journal, “Poverty is deeply racialized in America and is often associated with inner-city ghettos, which are culturally imagined as communities of Black welfare mothers” (Day 2011: 27). This is harmful to society because it labels blacks in a negative way. When blacks are labeled in a way that makes them look inferior, they start to internalize such label and make it a reality because others view them in that way. In addition, “there is an illusion that Blackness and poverty hold a casual relationship- Blackness produces poverty and deprivation in America, which leads to crime, violence, and teenage pregnancy. This connection affects how society conceptualizes the causes of poverty” (Day 2011: 30). American’s perception of African American’s is wrong because they are not the cause of poverty: African Americans are victims of poverty. Some of these causes that lead to black poverty are discrimination, high unemployment rates, high incarceration rates, and neighborhood entrenchment. Clearly, African American’s have a harder time of maintaining the resources necessary to …show more content…
If African Americans take this negative feedback from an interaction and use it to their advantage, they will be able to address the problem of race and focus on race as the main factor. For instance, according to the Thomas Theorem people define situations as real, and in turn those consequences become real. If society starts to realize that African Americans are having a more difficult time reaching the basic necessities of life because of their skin color, we will be able to define this situation as a real social problem. Once that occurs, the consequences will be to actively fight for equality of African Americans. Clearly, we can use information derived from any given situation to see what the issues in society are and how to fix the problem at
This issue enhances the ongoing problems of racism because African Americans are more susceptible to be poor than whites. There are false ideas about blacks and according to the book Black Theology: An International Journal, “Poverty is deeply racialized in America and is often associated with inner-city ghettos, which are culturally imagined as communities of Black welfare mothers” (Day 2011: 27). This is harmful to society because it labels blacks in a negative way. When blacks are labeled in a way that makes them look inferior, they start to internalize such label and make it a reality because others view them in that way. In addition, “there is an illusion that Blackness and poverty hold a casual relationship- Blackness produces poverty and deprivation in America, which leads to crime, violence, and teenage pregnancy. This connection affects how society conceptualizes the causes of poverty” (Day 2011: 30). American’s perception of African American’s is wrong because they are not the cause of poverty: African Americans are victims of poverty. Some of these causes that lead to black poverty are discrimination, high unemployment rates, high incarceration rates, and neighborhood entrenchment. Clearly, African American’s have a harder time of maintaining the resources necessary to …show more content…
If African Americans take this negative feedback from an interaction and use it to their advantage, they will be able to address the problem of race and focus on race as the main factor. For instance, according to the Thomas Theorem people define situations as real, and in turn those consequences become real. If society starts to realize that African Americans are having a more difficult time reaching the basic necessities of life because of their skin color, we will be able to define this situation as a real social problem. Once that occurs, the consequences will be to actively fight for equality of African Americans. Clearly, we can use information derived from any given situation to see what the issues in society are and how to fix the problem at