Final Essay

Anusha Kothare
Ms. Williams
English 1A 9:00
22 December 2013
The stereotypes people have to go through in their lives are always heartbreaking. Whether it is the comical saying, “White people can’t dance” or the rather depressing “all Muslim men blow things up”, there is a stereotype for everything. Lazy, selfish, poor, uneducated, are just some of the adjectives that first come to the minds of people who think about the word poverty. I am going to be honest and say yes, I thought of those words as soon as I heard poverty. Seeing pop culture and hearing stories about has implemented the idea about how they live. But after reading the book, The Rich and the Rest of Us, by Tavis Smiley and Cornel West, and also reading stories and articles about the poor, I have made a grim realization. Society has made stereotypes on everything and it not only affects us emotionally but it brings us as a whole down humanity wise. Saying “there still is humanity left in the world” has become smaller and smaller.

People living in the poverty class not only deal with pitiful stereotypes but have to keep striving everyday to prove those labels wrong. And because of that, the poverty level is now part of a new class. The Social Exclusion class. They are being excluded from everyday things just because they are not living up to the social status quo. For example, a woman and her kids are barely making by to survive the holidays. The mother is working 50 hours a week at a pain staking job and the children have also taken up odd jobs to help around. Due to all her savings going into the children’s education and nourishment, she does not have a roof to supply her kids over the holidays. And since she is technically “homeless”, people will stereotype her into someone who can’t keep a stable job and give shelter to her family. We are quick to judge when we hear a summary of a person’s life. We give big statements about helping the less fortunate but when it is time to react and do, we get cold feet. Only because we think that they themselves have caused that situation. That is where the stereotypes come in place. Even a previous president is guilty of such a crime. “The story was as suspect as Reagan’s compassion for the downtrodden. He used a blatant stereotype of a conniving, lazy welfare cheat to justify cuts to programs that help poor men, women, and especially children” (77). If we get rid of that hesitancy to help others and unite, we will lose that exclusion class. If we can open up a bit to others and lend not just a hand but also an ear to their story, we won’t be as bitter as everyone stereotypically thinks about Americans.

We all hope from the bottom of our hearts, that our future is going to be amazing even though it will be one hell of a ride. Whether there will not be a poverty class in the near future is highly unlikely we still hope for it to happen. However, the quote, “When poverty ends, everybody wins – the economy of the nation as a whole, all classes, races, creed, and neighborhoods” (148).  That is a very big claim. Regardless of how that happens, someone or another will not be happy about poverty ending. It simply can not happen. We try so hard to cover up so much of reality that we start loosing the main touch of life. I feel that there should be a class system, which does not divide people by race, color or sex. It should mostly be about financial status. I mean, in all honesty, no one is going to want deal with you if can not keep yourself stable. There should be a right amount of competition to get people where they need to be. Having a communist type of nation doesn’t benefit anyone, where everyone is treated with the same amount of value. If we keep striving for that mediocre spot around us, we don’t win anything by that. We need to have some sort of level for us to keep going on.

Coming up with a solution for such a complex system about how poverty is made, that too made up of corrupt, selfish, and powerful people is simply unheard of. It will take a lot of time, money, experience and sweat just to make one of them have a little change in heart. I am not saying it can not be done, it’s just that it is very unlikely of it happening anytime soon. To break apart such a hard piece of rock is no easy task. And the fact that it has been growing immensely over the years does not help. If we were to slowly make one then two then three and etc. realize the big effect they have on society, then we can make it big and slowly take apart the system. My big point is that slow and steady always win’s the race. If we take down any system slowly it will benefit everyone.  

Writing through this essay has caused me to have mixed emotions about the society classes in general. When I first started this essay, I had it straight in my mind that there should be a balance with everyone and that some stereotypes were true to some extent. But after awhile I realized that we stereotype anything that moves. Be it a snail to the fictitious character of Big Foot. We try so hard to make changes in things and we keep striving for things that are so difficult to achieve. For example, a high paying job or even the American Dream. We have even stereotyped the way jobs are given to people and we see it as no problem. And since we have been stereotyping for such a long period, we have forgotten the fact that we are really insulting everything. The real solution isn’t just trying to change oneself but to change everyone little by little. Getting rid of a little portion of a problem is always better than nothing changing. Slowly getting rid of a problem is faster and more effective than just one person changing. And who knows, maybe having a small change can always lead to bigger changes and a better future for the next generations.  

Side Note: Thanks for being my first English teacher at Chabot! I know my PIE sucks, but…. at least I had fun learning about it! Hopefully this essay won’t tank anymore than the others. J

Poverty...

The quote, “When poverty ends, everybody wins – the economy of the nation as a whole, all classes, races, creed, and neighborhoods” (148).  I feel like that is a very big claim. Regardless of how that happens, someone or another will not be happy about poverty ending. It simply can not happen. We try so hard to cover up so much of reality that we start loosing the main touch of life. I feel that there should be a class system, which does not divide people by race, color or sex. It should mostly be about financial status. I mean, in all honesty, no one is going to want deal with you if can not keep yourself stable. There should be a right amount of competition to get people where they need to be. Having a communist type of nation doesn’t benefit anyone, where everyone is treated with the same amount of value. If we keep striving for that mediocre spot around us, we don’t win anything by that. We need to have some sort of level for us to keep going on.  

There is a man made border between the ultra rich, the middle class and the poverty class. The border can not be seen but can be felt by everyone. To get over the border requires a huge amount of knowledge and connection with big named people and an amount of money that the eye can never physically see. Which is why the top 1% has made such a border for themselves. They do not want to associate with people underneath them for obvious reasons, such as the main fact that they have no power in the world. Why would they want to associate with someone who has no effect on them whatsoever? It is kind of like the political system in a way. A good man tries to come out of nowhere and wants to change the wrongdoings of people. But in the process of removing the wrongdoings, he himself is engulfed in the vicious system and becomes part of the wrongdoers. The rich world is exactly like that. You may want to come in and change how the rich live and prosper but in the end you simply become one of them. You simply can not change the natural fact of people adapting to their environment around them.

            Coming up with a solution for such a complex system made up of corrupt, selfish, and powerful people are simply unheard of. It will take a lot of time, money, experience and sweat just to make one of them have a little change in heart. I am not saying it can not be done, it’s just that it is very unlikely of it happening anytime soon. To break apart such a hard piece of rock is no easy task. And the fact that it has been growing immensely over the years does not help. If we were to slowly make one then two then three and etc. realize the big effect they have on society, then we can make it big and slowly take apart the system.

Prison Systems

The article U.S. Prison Myth vs. Mayhem talks about prison system and how a reform is needed. The whole system is somewhat of a joke now for some reason. The ideology of people going to prison and coming out as a changed person is a thing of the past. It is now more of a miracle if that were to happen. People stay the same when they come out prison and there is no reform happening about it. The prison system is more like a day care for criminals. The documentary Extreme Prison Gangs shows how easy it is for criminals to make alcohol with the food they get. I saw a vending machine with different types of sodas available for the inmates. These criminals should not be receiving these types of luxuries after committing heinous crimes. The way we can change the system is to eliminate all luxuries and provide real basic materials. We should also implement a type of therapy for the criminals so they can at least change if they were going back out in the real world. 

Compassion

I think compassion makes the difference between humans and robots. Without compassion and emotion, we would only be thinking logically all the time. Sometimes, we need a little love in our life. It’s what keeps us sane a lot of the times. We need to have a balance between our mind and our heart. With the right amount of emotion and logic, we can most of the time make proper and right decisions. Of course there will be some times where they both clash into each other .For example, choosing the love your life and choosing you dream job thousands of miles away. Are you going to sacrifice your love or your dream? Both the situations are conflicted with each other. The logical approach would be to take the dream job; you are doing what you love and receiving money to keep you financially stable. For the emotional side, choosing the love of your life would make sense. You are most likely going to be spending the rest of your life together, why cause any rifts in it? For both sides to balance each other out, you would need to have a balance of both situations. If you think from both sides, you can have the best of both worlds. In the previous situation, you could have a long distance relationship and still keep the dream job. We need compassion to balance out our thoughts. This goes to same with rationality.  Two halves combined together make a whole. That is how we receive a harmonic virtue. 

Positives and Negatives

With the amount of technology and materials we have today, it really is easy to get any information at the tip of our fingers. Regardless of who you are, there is information ready for you faster than the speed of light. And with that information, we are able to analyze where the problem lies in a situation. For example, an average person needs at least 2 meals to function. If they do not get enough food in their system, then that person cannot make it through the day. Regardless of how wealthy or poor you are, you need food to function. However, there are different methods of obtaining that food to eat. Again, depending on how wealthy or poor you are, you need some type of job or a way of receiving money to get access to food. Of course, the wealthy have no problem with this situation. They have the money to gain food 24 hours a day. The poor on the other hand, well it isn’t that easy. The word poor itself has a bad connotation. Anyone having to live with that connotation is obviously not going to have all the hopes and dreams in the world.

            Living in a dog-eat-dog world, we have grown accustomed to the circumstances that have risen in society. We ignore the problems which have been with us for several decades. We simply have given them the blind-eye and no longer see it. Society has done this for centuries, not because there isn’t an answer for any of the problems but simply because we do not know where to start.  We don’t know where to dive in first. The problem for taking advantage of the poor is such a massive hole, so that where ever you start, you end up falling. Tackling such a big issue will require a big effort and most importantly, will need to the acceptance of the average and wealthy people. If we don’t get their acceptance or even acknowledgment from them, there really is no point in continuing forward. After all, they are the people to keep carrying it onward after the initial stages.  

            There have been several social movements in the past which have tried to disrupt the vicious cycle. While one movement started off with a main cause, it later developed other movements which in a way deal with the main topic. It has been five years since the Occupy Wall Street Movement and we have yet to see a change in our society. The movement was about the 99% against the 1%. The 1% are basically the wealthy, the people who have taken most of the country’s private money. There have been statistics about who exactly were protesting, and I feel that the numbers are true. According to a 2011 survey¹, 49% of the protesters were under 30. This technically shows who actually care about the movement. While there were many people over the age of 40, the mass majority were the younger generation. Yes, the movement did stir up quite a motion, saying how it was the next American Revolution. But here we are years later, still waiting for change.

            There is always a reason for everything. Whether it is a scientific approach or a spiritual approach, there is always a reason. And the fact that the wealthy are ahead of the poor is in fact a no brainer. The ones with more power will obviously be ahead of the others. Thus being the reason why the wealthy have a slighter edge than the poor. So the wealthy do deserve what they are receiving. In the end it makes sense.

            If we were to hypothetically let the poor flourish and give them benefits, what would be the outcome of it all? Would it benefit society in total or would everything still be the same? There is always a reason why someone is poor. It could be anything; gender, race, environment, ethics, priorities. But are we not giving them some type of benefit? I am sure that they are given some type of money from the government. But where is that money going? Are the poor using that money for education or lively use? I can guarantee that most of the time, that money is not used properly.

            Are we really providing lesser education to the poor? I feel as if the angle of how you see it matters. If you were to look at the situation from different sides, you are going to see totally different situations. From one side, the poor are getting no attention whatsoever and they are very miserable. On another side, it looks like they are getting the proper attention and materials but they are not using it properly. Another angle will show how the wealthy and normal society not caring for the problem. As you can see, there are different approaches and different ways to see a problem. You will know when a problem is big enough when all the angles and sides are showing the same thing.

¹ http://blogs.wsj.com/metropolis/2011/10/19/who-is-occupying-wall-street-a-pollster-surveys-protester/

Public Schools

The schools in the Bay Area which are being persistently low-achievers have several reasons why they are in that state. Just like the schools in Savage Inequalities, there are students which are not getting a proper and fair education. Some people will say it is environment, ethnicity, equality of teaching; it could be any of these things. These problems are part of the inevitable. We can’t change that. But what we can do is fix these problems. And we aren’t. These problems are not getting fixed and we are just watching our students suffer.  There is this big ignorance pattern which has been following us for many years. We saw it in the schools in the 80’s, and we see it today as well. Nothing has changed.

            Why do we take pride in our education, our equality, our freedom, our own self if we can’t even take care of those things? We say we have all these things when in reality, they are all cut short. And even if we did have all those amazing things, we wouldn’t use them to their full capacity. In the past thirty years, we have seen different presidents, different religions, new technology, the works. But why are the main fundamentals of our country still the same after 50 years? In one of the schools in Camden, New Jersey, they were still using type writers as a technological resource in the late 80’s. Computers were well and alive in those days. And even today, if you were to go into a low-achieving school, you would see 10 year old monitors running a system which is years older than the students using them. If we have to rely on outdated materials just to teach and make a point to our students then there truly is no hope.

            Low test scores, high dropout rates. The Bay Area has a large amount of schools in the whole area. With schools being about a couple miles away from each other, we don’t necessary have the issue of overcrowding classes. But we do have the issue of the students in the classes. Students haven’t been trying hard enough to make up their schools. Schools are receiving low grants and credibility due to the students test scores.  And since students aren’t doing well on their tests, they lose the hope to continue forward and dropout early. There are several ways to solve this problem. We need to show those students that there is help and that everyone cares. If we were to show someone who has lost hope in everything that we care, we could make a difference in that child’s life. 

Students care less because others care less. This notion or idea is very unfair to children of all ages. They are getting treated like this because some people still hold a grudge against their ancestors or their previous generations. The whole idea of moving on just doesn’t seem to be there. These kids are suffering and are losing their future due to what, environment, race, ethnicity, social standing? These children should have no idea how racism occurs or how inequality is getting the best of us. The fact that they know this and are mature about it goes to show that these kids deserve better than what they have. Why are the futures of children from a lower social class sacrificed for one wealthy child? Do the lower children not have the same priority as the wealthier children? We are using century’s old thinking instead of a modern thought which has already affected our own and the next generations future.