IS
POVERTY PERMANENT?+
William DiFazio*
Professor of Sociology
St. John's University
Professor
DiFazio's leadership in hunger programs and his method of interviewing
poor people allow him to collect the personal stories of many poor
people in the New York area and to consider their long-term prospects
of moving out of poverty. These "stories" cover the long-term
public assistance mother as well as the outplaced bank worker. They
support empirical data, which indicates that poverty sadly is still
all too ordinary and commonplace in the United States, the world's
most affluent superpower. These interviews show that poor people can
identify their immediate needs: housing, health care, employment,
love, etc. It is Dr. DiFazio's conviction that until these same
people can speak in "the language of possibility" and become
politically active, poverty will remain a permanent condition for
many. Systemic social change, involving the poor themselves, is required
to eliminate poverty.
While states
report decreased numbers on the welfare rolls, poverty as a social
condition has not been reduced. Getting off welfare and leaving poverty
are not the same. Despite the economic prosperity of low unemployment
and booming markets, which have marked the 1990s, many poor lost ground
while others stay mired below the poverty level. President Bush's
"thousand points of light" and President Clinton's
promise "to end welfare as we know it" have not removed
the painful reality of living poorly for many of the employed as well
as for those who may not be immediately employable. Dr. DiFazio notes
that removing a sense of pervasive hopelessness among the poor may
be one of the greatest challenges society faces in working toward
economic justice. He sees that hopelessness, like poverty, is far
too ordinary.
Dr. DiFazio
also sees the importance of language as it has evolved in American
social science and the social policy of poverty. The shift from "public
assistance" and "social safety nets" to "workfare"
and "personal responsibility" was abrupt. The concept of
"Aid to Families with Dependent Children" (AFDC) is not
equivalent to "Temporary Aid to Needy Families" (TANF).
Discouragement can set in when the expectations and goals are set
too high in terms of time or accomplishment. Such efforts are counterproductive,
long term. Market mentality responses or inappropriate vocabulary
can not address the needs of the poor totally.
To eliminate
poverty as the shameful ordinary condition it is today, major changes
in schools, employment opportunity, housing, and nutrition are required.
Poor people will need to grow in power equal to their human dignity
so that the piecemeal struggles will be ended and the attitude of
hopelessness will be replaced by confident, creative action. The organization
ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) can
teach many valuable lessons in this regard. Dr. DiFazio concludes
that with the selforganization of the poor, the language of possibility
will be spoken and the end of poverty will be possible.
+ Professor DiFazio moderated the
panel on "Poverty in America" at the Moral Dimensions of
Poverty Conference sponsored by the Vincentian Chair of Social Justice
on October 16,1999. This paper was developed in preparation for that
event.
* William DiFazio is the Chair and
a Professor of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at St.
John's University. He earned his Ph.D. from the City University
of New York Graduate Center. Professor DiFazio is the author of The
Longshoreman, The Jobless Future and Ordinary Poverty (forthcoming)
and is active in many anti-poverty efforts. He is a member of the
Board of Directors of St. John's Bread and Life Food Program
in Brooklyn, New York.
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