LCCREF Panel Explores Interrelationship between Race and Poverty
Feature Story by civilrights.org staff - 12/19/2005
The "poverty that came as an apparent surprise to so many Americans by way of Katrina" is pervasive and, if unchecked, will continue to be widespread, according to a new paper by Peter Edelman, Georgetown University Law Center professor, for the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund (LCCREF).The paper, "The World After Katrina: Eyes Wide Shut?" identifies two primary frames for the problem of poverty in the United States: low-wage work and the concentrated poverty of the inner city.
Highlighting the connection between race and poverty, Edelman states, "Poverty appears among all races and ethnic groups. But there can be no ignoring the fact that the intersection of race and poverty - among both long time and recent Americans - occupies an outsized place in the picture of poverty, and must be of special importance to anyone specially concerned with racial justice."
According to Edelman, "the story of the two groups--those trapped in low-wage work, and those trapped in the inner city--are intertwined." He writes that good-paying jobs have moved to other countries or to automation and the jobs replacing them pay far less. The issue of low-wage work goes beyond those we would call "poor," Edelman says; he estimates that those who have trouble making ends meet includes those with incomes up to twice the poverty line.
In addition to low-paying jobs, the inner cities face a host of other problems. Edelman writes that the civil rights movement and enactment of fair housing laws allowed the middle class to move out of racially segregated, but economically integrated, communities, leaving behind the poor with very few resources.
Edelman released the paper at a panel discussion convened by LCCREF on December 7, where panelists discussed it in the context of what Leadership Conference organizations should be doing to alleviate poverty in America. Panelists included; Mary Frances Berry, Geraldine R. Segal Profesor of American Social Thought at the University of Pennsylvania; William L. Taylor, chair of the Citizens' Commission on Civil Rights; and Cecilia Munoz, vice president of the Office of Research, Advocacy & Legislation for the National Council of La Raza.
Both panelists addressed the isolating effects of poverty. Munoz said that feelings of isolation in many communities in the Gulf Coast was exacerbated by the ways aid was meted out.
Taylor said that mobilizing isolated communities living in poverty to push for policy change at all levels of government was critical, underscoring the need to find "ways of establishing human connections."
While there are no simple solutions, "silver bullet [or] magic wand," Edelman said, investing in the children and education, implementing "place-based" policies that focus on individual community needs, and raising the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour, were just some of the ways to alleviate the burden on poor Americans.
"The hurricane...exposed the enduring problems of race, class, poverty, and inequality in American life like nothing we've seen in many years," said Dr. Berry. "The question we face now is whether Hurricane Katrina has also provided a unique and meaningful opportunity to address these issues in a positive way."
