Introduction
Poverty is defined as a lack of access to or provision of an essential supply of food, water, and shelter for oneself or one’s family. It persists to varying degrees in each country and is unlikely to go soon. Amidst being the wealthiest country on the planet, millions of people live in poverty in the United States (Smeeding, et al. 68). Poverty may be measured in two ways. Absolute poverty refers to a person’s incapacity to get products and services. Relative poverty investigates how one socioeconomic group compares to others in need poverty (Smeeding et al. 68).
On the other hand, opponents contend that the authorized system for calculating poverty levels in the United States, which was developed in the 1960s, has not been updated in a long time. The concept of race comes from the belief that the human species is separated into several groups based on external and behavioral characteristics of poverty. This study will investigate why the poverty rate is distinctive and how race serves as a discrimination and social division mechanism.
The United States ranks near the top regarding poverty and inequality. The narrative is the same whether one looks at poverty rates among children, working-age adults, or single-parent households. The United States has the highest poverty rate (Burt, Callie Harbin et al.). Furthermore, compared to other developed countries, income and wealth disparity in the United States is high.
A Policy Failure
Compared to many other nations, the United States has failed to offer policies and programs that intend to prevent or decrease poverty. These decisions are made through the institutions and governments that control society, subsequently institutionalized through welfare states. Equality has been established in low poverty areas (Burt, Callie Harbin et al.). There has been a failure to institutionalize equality when poverty is pervasive, as evidenced by the United States. In other words, nations that are proactive in ensuring that few families fall below a certain poverty threshold have far lower poverty rates than countries that follow a more laissez-faire approach. The social policy may have a considerable impact on alleviating poverty across countries. Programs aimed at reducing inequality and poverty often result in decreased poverty rates.
A Basic Safety Net
Minimalist descriptions of the American welfare state are more accurate than other Western wealthy countries; the US devotes much less funding to initiatives that assist the poor (Fay). Almost every industrialized nation pays a smaller proportion of its GDP to social safety net programs than the United States. As a result, the United States has earned the moniker of a “reluctant welfare state.” In contrast, most European nations and Canada offer a wide range of social insurance policies that help keep families out of poverty. As a result of these social policy disparities, Europe and Canada have significantly reduced poverty, but American social policy has had only a minor influence on poverty reduction.
Race as a Discriminatory and Socially Divisive Mechanism
Classifications according to race emerged in North America and afterward in other parts of the globe as a kind of social isolation based on supposed fundamental differences between human groups (Varner et al. 175). From the 18th through the 20th centuries, a study of North American fables, social regulations, and racial customs demonstrates the emergence of a distinct and basic ideology addressing human differences. This idea, sometimes known as a “race worldview,” is a systematized and institutionalized collection of ideas and attitudes that consists of the following elements: To begin, all of the world’s peoples are divided into categories, which are physiologically distinct, distinct, and exclusive groups. There are only two ethnicities that a human may be (Fay). Second, phenotypic characteristics, or recognizable bodily distinctions, serve as markers or symbols of racial identity and status. Racial scientists devised an unseen internal ingredient, “racial essence,” to explain such anomalies in the early twentieth century. An individual may be a member of a racial group but lack any or all of the corresponding physical traits. Third, each race has its personality, moral code, disposition, and intelligence. As a result, each race is associated with specific behavioral features connected to its phenotype in popular culture. Fourth, there is an imbalance in race relations. They may and should be graded on a scale of poor to excellent. Finally, distinct races must be segregated from other races and permitted to create their organizations, cultures, and lifestyles.
Conclusion
These ideas wax and wane but never completely disappear from the core of the American perception of racial differences. The race-based theory has always ascribed Africans or Native American heritage to a lower social status. This viewpoint was entrenched via laws, social processes, and the development of societal mechanisms to maintain status inequalities. The United States government may participate in various initiatives to lower the rate of poverty. Put another way, poverty alleviation is about introducing growth processes to impoverished places. Because disadvantaged places may benefit from technological and organizational breakthroughs developed in other parts of the globe, it is now feasible to generate productive employment more quickly and in more significant numbers than ever before in the history of the world. The question is what aids in disseminating such “best practices.” It is necessary to save money and spend it on education, resources, and new technologies, which are very simple to get.
Works Cited
Burt, Callie Harbin et al. “Racial Discrimination, Ethnic-Racial Socialization, And Crime”. American Sociological Review, vol. 7, no. 4, 2012, pp. 648-677. SAGE Publications, doi:10.1177/0003122412448648.
Fay, Bill. “Poverty in The United States.” Debt.Org, 2022.
Smeeding, Timothy, and Céline Thévenot. “Addressing Child Poverty: How Does the United States Compare with Other Nations?” Academic pediatrics, vol. 16,3 Suppl, S67-75. doi: 10.1016/j.acap.2016.01.011.
Varner, Fatima A. et al. “Racial Discrimination Experiences and African American Youth Adjustment: The Role of Parenting Profiles Based on Racial Socialization and Involved-Vigilant Parenting.”. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, vol. 4, no. 2, 2018, pp. 173-186. American Psychological Association (APA), doi:10.1037/cdp0000180.