Baldwin believes poverty in general stems from the government’s failure to improve society. The land of opportunity is only accountable to a select few of individuals and therefore cannot be a standard for the entirety of the nation. Baldwin acknowledges the existence of Black and White poverty, but in a way he is signifying white poverty do not experience the same caliber of social suffering as those of blacks. He is certainly correct in the fact that black individuals are subjected to immediate discrimination because of the color of their skin.

Baldwin believed public housings were an insult because the infrastructures demonstrate people of African-decent as meaningless and less than human. Baldwin, when referring to the first housing