The book examines poverty in America, specifically African Americans, and the racial inequality they experience. The main objective Wilson touches upon, is the meaningful debate around the cultural factors that contribute to urban poverty. The Richard Ford from the New York Times wrote an article about, “Why the Poor Stay Poor”, and it focuses on Wilson’s book making a case that both institutional and systematic barriers and cultural deficiencies keep poor blacks from escaping the underclass. Systematic barriers include racial discrimination and how as a country, we separated the races early on into segregated neighborhoods. Our neighborhoods are divided into upper and middle class workers such as doctors, teachers, lawyers, management, etc. While the lower class has little education skills and their jobs are consistent with that. Today, many ghetto residents have almost no contact with mainstream American society or the normal job market (Ford). Regarding Lewis’s culture of poverty, Wilson argues that the legacy of racism and changes in the economy matter more than the dysfunctional culture of the ghetto. Wilson rejects the culture of poverty because he believes blacks are not responsible for their financial status, insisting that it is necessary to break the cycle of
The book examines poverty in America, specifically African Americans, and the racial inequality they experience. The main objective Wilson touches upon, is the meaningful debate around the cultural factors that contribute to urban poverty. The Richard Ford from the New York Times wrote an article about, “Why the Poor Stay Poor”, and it focuses on Wilson’s book making a case that both institutional and systematic barriers and cultural deficiencies keep poor blacks from escaping the underclass. Systematic barriers include racial discrimination and how as a country, we separated the races early on into segregated neighborhoods. Our neighborhoods are divided into upper and middle class workers such as doctors, teachers, lawyers, management, etc. While the lower class has little education skills and their jobs are consistent with that. Today, many ghetto residents have almost no contact with mainstream American society or the normal job market (Ford). Regarding Lewis’s culture of poverty, Wilson argues that the legacy of racism and changes in the economy matter more than the dysfunctional culture of the ghetto. Wilson rejects the culture of poverty because he believes blacks are not responsible for their financial status, insisting that it is necessary to break the cycle of