Urban Poverty The Underclass Essay - 2609 Words

In tackling the problem of urban poverty, William Julius Wilson calls for a revitalization of the liberal perspective in the ghetto underclass debate. He claims that liberals dominated the discussions with compelling and intelligent arguments until the advent of the controversial Moynihan report in 1965, which claimed that â€Å"at the heart of the deterioration of the Negro society is the deterioration of the Negro family† (Moynihan), After that, liberals avoided any research that might result in stigmatization of particular racial minorities. During the 1970s, a period of liberal silence, the conservative argument emerged as the new dominant theory of the underclass debate. Thus, by the 1980s, the traditional liberal†¦show more content†¦In accordance to his rejection of a link between culture and ghetto behavior, Wilson proposes a solution that looks beyond race-specific issues to address the more fundamental problem of social dislocation caused by changes in the industrial society. Anderson, Newman, Ellwood and Jencks all agree that economic changes had much to do with the plight of the underclass. However, they disagree over the debate on culture vs. structure regarding causes of ghetto-specific behavior. They also focus on different aspects of ghetto behavior such as family structures vs. violence. I believe that the concept of the underclass is important insofar as to address the problem of urban poverty in terms of poor economic conditions (I believe most of these readings also focus on the black underclass). However, eventually, we must tackle the rest of impoverished America, which includes other minorities, whites and the rural poor, w hose behaviors can be distinguished from that described by the concept of the underclass. The underclass according to Wilson is the â€Å"heterogeneous† grouping of urban poor that is characterized by behavior that differs from that of mainstream society. These behaviors and characteristics are out-of-wedlock childbearing, teen pregnancy, single parent families, joblessness, serious crime and drug use. By heterogeneous, Wilson means individuals whoShow MoreRelatedUrban Poverty And The Urban Underclass Essay939 Words   |  4 PagesAccording to Curley (2005), urban poverty has been a huge issue for hundreds of years. The people living in inner-city neighborhoods were the primary target for poverty. It had a tremendous effect on the black population; it increased by 164 percent in ten years alone. Finding a job became hardly impossible. Therefore, neighborhoods began to segregate, leaving the disadvantaged poor behind. The neighborhoods relied on welfare to make ends meets. This resulted in an increase in crime rates (pRead MoreThe Underclass Of The United States1449 Words   |  6 PagesAn underclass does not exist in the United States. It is a function of conservative’s imaginations. The relevance of their creating of an underclass serves one large purpose and that is to be an emotional ploy to keep people pol itically occupied with small issues. This allows corporations to ensure that their competition will be busy fighting other battles while they continue to push policy and laws that will represent the interests of the country’s wealthiest and most powerful. A distraction isRead MoreThe English Underclass in Dr. Theodore Dalrymles â€Å"Life at the Bottom1138 Words   |  5 Pagesto express his views of the English underclass. He believes their impaired ways of life, are the cause of poverty in England, â€Å"not the economy†. Those who pledged to serve and protect, on many levels, are neglecting their responsibilities, either in fear of being judged themselves or by simply turning a blind eye to continuous problems within England. No one wants to accept the reality of England’s horrendous situation. Therefore their endless battle with poverty, suffering and misery will continueRead MoreThe Existence And Persistence Of Poverty1458 Words   |  6 Pagesto be the explanations for the existence and persistence of poverty. The first account is the Dependency-Based Explanation that puts the blame of poverty to the individual or to their cultural background. The Exclusion-Based Explanation and Structural-Based Explanation are the next two which establishes the society that condemns people to poverty. Dependency-based Explanation Individual Deficiency. This explanation views that poverty is caused by the individual’s choice. Influenced by New RightRead MoreFactors Contributing For Criminal Activity Among African Americans1587 Words   |  7 PagesAmericans. Throughout his study, he observed that if men are moved from different environments, they began to lose harmony with the environment that results in crime (Shaun L. Gabbidon,2015). Dubois used variables such as age, unemployment, and poverty to explain crime (1899). Furthermore, Dubois study became a template to be used in studies that come to follow. During the 1900’s, cities such as Chicago began to experience some of the same challenges that were previously studied in PhiladelphiaRead MoreEducation Funding For Inner City Schools945 Words   |  4 PagesWhile all these possibilities from providing increased educational funding to inner city schools seem to provide a solution to the educational difficulties, the underclass is a multifac eted problem with several contributing factors. For example, the issue of students dropping out of school is not only affected by simply the quality of their education and resources. The appealing allure of drug dealing and belonging to a gang, both behaviors that involve criminal actions that could lead to incarcerationRead More The Two Major Causes of the Urban Underclass Essay1870 Words   |  8 PagesCauses of the Urban Underclass nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Today in the United States, as well as in many other affluent, industrialized nations, there exists an urban underclass, which is defined as a class of people that comprises members of low-income households who have little or no participation in the workforce (Gilbert 2003, p. 274). Currently there are predominantly two distinct, conflicting views of why the underclass exists. On one hand, there is the notion that the underclass is simplyRead MoreInequities in Access to Quality Programs: A Detrimental Factor in Continued Strife Within the Urban Underclass 2004 Words   |  9 Pageswithin the urban setting suffer from poverty levels much greater than those in rural communities. Mona Scott (2012), explains that minority groups suffer from the effects of the inequity of poverty. African American communities experience an unemployment rate of 15 percent, whereas white communities have an unemployment rate of 10 percent (p. 177). Great strides must be taken in order to reverse the negative effects of poverty overall, and the magnified negative impact poverty has in the urban communityRead MoreRacial Segregation Within The United States780 Words   |  4 Pagesthe distinctive patterns of poverty among African Americans revolves around the question, â€Å"is it class or race that causes (and perpetuates) such misfortune of African Americans?† Scholars have looked at patterns of residential segregation in their attempts to answer such a question. Massey and Denton explore racial residential segregation in the United States throughout the 20th century. They argue that the making and concentration of the (African American) underclass in inner cities resulted fromRead MoreAnalysis Of The Movie Trainspotting 1513 Words   |  7 PagesFilms). When the book was published Welsh was condemned for glamorizing heroin abuse, to which he responded that he was only depicting what was going on, what he knew, and who he knew. The book and the mo vie mirror the reality of the creation of an underclass in Edinburgh in the late 1970’s and 1980’s. Historically opiates have been a part of Edinburgh since the late 1600’s. After heroin was synthesized and began being used as a painkiller in 1894 Edinburgh became the capital of opiate production as