Inner City Poverty Essay

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Social Factors Affecting Inner City Poverty

Poverty has stricken the country with thousands of inner city families facing dilemmas that contribute to their inability to reach a higher economic social status. Each year, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issues updates for the U.S. Federal Poverty Measure. These updates report thresholds that determine eligibility for particular federal programs, and also is used to set an income measure which allows the National Census Bureau to estimate the percentage of the population who are indeed suffering from poverty (The 200 HHS Poverty Guidelines). These poverty-stricken homes have very few ways to escape the economic trap that they are in. Forty-two percent of all poor live in metropolitan areas of 300,000 or more (Harris 12). By examining the factors that affect the poverty within America’s inner cities, one can easily see the economic damage that each can cause. Three major factors that affect poverty in the inner cities are the lack of educational and occupational opportunities to those who live in the communities, racial and economic segregation, and governmental ignorance and abandonment of the urban communities.

Over twenty percent of all children under age eighteen are now living in poverty (12). Impoverished students tend to have much lower test scores, higher dropout rates, fewer students in demanding classes, less well-prepared teachers, and a low percentage of college-bound students (Orfield 56). “More parental involvement in active learning (including programs that teach parents how to help and teach their children) should be fundamental in improving the system” (Dreir 114). Without the education or skills to obtain a job, these students will most likely fall into the trap that poverty has already set upon them. “The federal government must train the people of the inner cities. The only way to stay permanently out of poverty is to be well trained to attract high-wage, high skill, and high productive jobs.” In February of 1997 the total unemployment rate in the U.S. was 4.7 percent (Harris 10). The government must stimulate national economic growth and create jobs (with the goal of full-employment economy), focusing major investments in the national physical infrastructure (Dreir 111). The lack of educational and occupational opportunities places economic restraints on those who might otherwise succeed financially and become productive members of society.

Racial and economic segregation is another important factor affecting inner city poverty. Ghettos are signified by “an older central-city area surrounded by expanding, more affluent suburbs with the central city area disproportionately African American, Hispanic, and Asian, while suburban communities have remained disproportionately white (Kerner). Sub-urbanization, which is the increase of outlying suburban communities, has permitted whites to satisfy liberal ideals revolving around activist government, while keeping to a minimum the number of blacks and the poor who share in government largess (Edsel 107). The populations of today’s ghetto neighborhoods are almost exclusively made up of the most disadvantaged segments of the black urban community (Wilson 19). Not only are ghettos racially predominant, they are underclass communities typified by high rates of family disruption, welfare dependence, crime, mortality, and educational failure (Massey 329). There are less effective institutions such as schools and local government offices, weaker informal networks like community outreach programs, and social milieus that discourage collective supervision and responsibility, as well (Quane et. Al, Ch.4). The residents in the racial ghettos are also significantly less healthy than most other Americans. They suffer from higher mortality rates, higher incidence of major diseases, and lower availability and utilization of medical services (Kerner 1968). To state this fact otherwise, the residents...

Barnes, Fred. “Up Against the Mall.” New Republic, October 21, 1991.
Boger, John C. “Race and the American City: The Kerner Commission Report in
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Dreir, Peter. American’s Urban Crises: Symptoms, Causes, and Solutions. UNC Press:
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Edsel, Thomas B. and Mary D. “Chain Reaction: The Impact of Race and Rights”
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Harris, Fred R. “Kerner Report Thirty Years Later”. Locked in the Poorhouse.
New York: Rowman, 1998.
Katz, Michael. “Reframing the Debate.” Democracy in America. New York: Hillshire,
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Quane, James M., et. al. The New Urban Poverty: Consequences of the Economic and
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Schneider, Thomas A. Suburban Century. September, 1992.
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