questions to consider before one dismisses the urban poor

*last updated September 17th, 2020 

my heart is grieved with the division i see within the nation (acutely highlighted with the events of this past week), within my cultural circle, and even within myself. in the midst of the chaos i have been reminded to take a step back and not so much seek to be understood (important as that is) but to understand (and Lord knows there needs to be more of that) if there is to be any progress.

i grew up middle class (and if i consider the context of global poverty, probably upper class).   somehow from there i found myself teaching at an inner city high school in one of the poorest neighborhoods in LA for eight years. for the past three years now my family and i have chosen to live in a urban poor neighborhood. through walking a little with the urban poor i have learned some things in terms of understanding my neighbor that i hope will be helpful in your journey.

let me first start by making clear this is not a post to justify any kind of violence. if you want to read about a response to that there are those who have articulated the temptation of that sentiment much better than I could.

now then, i believe that all people have equal value.  but I also recognize that not all have been afforded equal resources.  it may be tempting to think achievement in life is gained simply by working hard enough and making good choices.  hard work is great and with hard work amazing things can be accomplished.  but not all have the equal amount of hard work they must endure and not all hard work produces equal results.  we should also definitely make good choices as there are consequences to our choices.  however, not all circumstances are within our control to choose.   none of us always make good choices but not all of us have the same safety nets should we make a wrong choice.   please consider some of these questions with me before you are tempted to dismiss the experience of the urban poor…

BACKGROUND

• were you unable to choose the neighborhood that you were born and raised in?
• did you grow up in a setting where people having a college degree or salaried career was a minority?
• have you witnessed or experienced someone close to you being killed?
• have you or a family member been pulled over/aside by law enforcement even though you had committed no crime?
• did you grow up in a culture that has a heritage of being conquered/oppressed?
• are you a part of cultural group that to this day does not enjoy the privileges or receive the same benefit of the doubt that most other citizens of your country do?

PARENTING

• did you grow up in a single parent household?  did your parent(s) grow up in a single parent household?
• were you raised by someone who was not your parent?
• did you your grow up without knowledge or relationship with your biological father?
• did you grow up in a home where at least one parent was laid off or unemployed for an extended period of time?
• did your parents work minimum wage jobs and have difficulty providing for your physical needs?
• did your parent/s have limited education (no high school or college degree)?
• were your parents unable to help you with your homework?
• were your parents not home when you were home?
• did you grow up having different people coming in and out of your house?
• were you emotionally, physically, and/or sexually abused as a child?
• did you have a parent addicted to some chemical substance?
• did you ever have to buy food with food stamps or experience not being able to eat for extended periods of time?
• were your parents unable to afford or have the social connections to choose where they wanted to live?

HEALTH

• did you grow up in a neighborhood with or near higher levels of environmental pollutants?
• were you and your family members unable to get medical care when you needed because you did not have health insurance or affordable health care options?
• was pain medication withheld from you as a child or was your physical pain dismissed by a health care professional?
• were you uninformed of healthy sex education and/or kept from access to healthy birth control option?
• did you grow up in an area with where affordable healthy fresh food was a rarity and/or there was little to no plots for growing food?

EDUCATION

• did you have to be careful not to be robbed by people or accosted by gang members to and from school?
• did you miss school because your parent needed help with translation or needed you to take care of younger siblings?
• did you have to take care of younger siblings when you came home from school?
• did you have classes in which there were not enough seats, books, or resources for students?
• did you go to a school where having a teacher new to teaching was a common occurrence?
• did you have classes in which learning interruption by students being kicked out of class for disruptive behavior was a common occurrence?
• did you have classes in which teachers quit or left inexplicably before the school year was over?
• did you grow up in a school setting in which achieving academically was ridiculed or interpreted as trying to act like another race?
• did you often have teachers who would just show videos for the duration of the class?
• did you have classes where the assignments were frequently to copy things out of a book?
• did you go to a school that lost their librarian or had inconsistent library staff?
• did you meet with an adult in your high school for academic counseling only once or less?
• were you expected to shoulder the financial needs of your family once you passed the age of 18?
• did you have to work while going to community/college in order to make ends meet?
• were your educational goals sidelined because of car troubles, health emergency, or other unexpected financial need of yourself or family member?

if you answered “no” to most of these questions consider that you may have had an upbringing of privilege or at least an upbringing that was more conducive to having a variety of options in life.  maybe we are where we are not simply through our own hard work and choices but through the contributions, connections, and capital of others we have not fully acknowledged.   maybe because we have been recipients of generosity we can afford to be more generous.

if you answered “yes” to most of these questions consider that you may have something within you greater than you think to have survived what you have.  maybe you have more to offer than you might currently believe.  maybe i can learn something from you.