Who has the authority to speak about poverty?
Poverty has been an ongoing crisis in the United States. Many essays and articles are written on the topic by “sociologists and academics, individuals far removed from the realities that define the lives of the poor” (88). Jo Goodwin Parker bridges that gap with her essay “What Is Poverty?” which was originally published in the anthology America’s Other Children: Public Schools Outside Suburbia. The anthology’s intended audience were teachers and helping them teach students who were under the white middle class in 1971. Some of these students included: immigrant’s children, children coming from poverty, black children, Mexican American children, and American Indian children. The purpose of the anthology …show more content…
Parker explains, “Poverty is living in a smell that never leaves. This is a smell of urine,” and “the smell of milk which has gone sour because the refrigerator long has not worked, and it costs money to get it fixed. It is the smell of rotting garbage” (88-89). Most people know at least one of these smells, maybe your child or pet had an accident on the carpet, maybe you went on a long trip and came home to rotten garbage or rotten milk. Whatever the cause, most people know at least one smell, if not all. To imagine all three smells together is awful, and Parker uses this to her advantage. She wants you to know how horrible poverty is. Parker describes poverty as “an acid that drips on pride until all pride is worn away. Poverty is a chisel that chips on honor until honor is worn away” (91). With the way Parker describes poverty you can see that it slowly eats away at a person. It slowly chips a person down into a shell of what they once were. You stop fighting, you stop …show more content…
Parker explains, “poverty is watching gnats and flies devour your baby’s tears when he cries” (89). “Poverty is seeing your children forever with runny noses” (89). She uses that parental instinct every human has to create emotions; she makes you feel her pain as she watches her children suffer with her through poverty. Parker also writes, “Your children won’t play with my boys. They will turn to other boys who steal to get what they want. I can already see them behind the bars of their prison instead of behind the bars of my poverty. Or they will turn to the freedom of alcohol or drugs, and find themselves enslaved. And my daughter? At best, there is for her a life like mine” (91). Parker uses her pain to get your attention and to draw it towards other topics concerning her children and the struggles of
Poverty has been an ongoing crisis in the United States. Many essays and articles are written on the topic by “sociologists and academics, individuals far removed from the realities that define the lives of the poor” (88). Jo Goodwin Parker bridges that gap with her essay “What Is Poverty?” which was originally published in the anthology America’s Other Children: Public Schools Outside Suburbia. The anthology’s intended audience were teachers and helping them teach students who were under the white middle class in 1971. Some of these students included: immigrant’s children, children coming from poverty, black children, Mexican American children, and American Indian children. The purpose of the anthology …show more content…
Parker explains, “Poverty is living in a smell that never leaves. This is a smell of urine,” and “the smell of milk which has gone sour because the refrigerator long has not worked, and it costs money to get it fixed. It is the smell of rotting garbage” (88-89). Most people know at least one of these smells, maybe your child or pet had an accident on the carpet, maybe you went on a long trip and came home to rotten garbage or rotten milk. Whatever the cause, most people know at least one smell, if not all. To imagine all three smells together is awful, and Parker uses this to her advantage. She wants you to know how horrible poverty is. Parker describes poverty as “an acid that drips on pride until all pride is worn away. Poverty is a chisel that chips on honor until honor is worn away” (91). With the way Parker describes poverty you can see that it slowly eats away at a person. It slowly chips a person down into a shell of what they once were. You stop fighting, you stop …show more content…
Parker explains, “poverty is watching gnats and flies devour your baby’s tears when he cries” (89). “Poverty is seeing your children forever with runny noses” (89). She uses that parental instinct every human has to create emotions; she makes you feel her pain as she watches her children suffer with her through poverty. Parker also writes, “Your children won’t play with my boys. They will turn to other boys who steal to get what they want. I can already see them behind the bars of their prison instead of behind the bars of my poverty. Or they will turn to the freedom of alcohol or drugs, and find themselves enslaved. And my daughter? At best, there is for her a life like mine” (91). Parker uses her pain to get your attention and to draw it towards other topics concerning her children and the struggles of