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Analysis Of The Controversy Today: Culture Of Poverty And Social Structure

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Poverty Today: Culture of Poverty and Social Structure
A controversy plaguing American society today is the issue over whether or not the social theory of a culture of poverty is in fact, the cause of why poverty is continuously growing. The term, culture of poverty, was first coined by the anthropologist, Oscar Lewis, and has been defined as when “The subculture [of the poor] develops mechanisms that tend to perpetuate it, especially because of what happens to the worldview, aspirations, and character of the children who grow up in it” (Perrin PowerPoint October 2015). Although several have come to accept Lewis’s social theory due to an increase of government programs supporting those struggling to reach financial stability, others criticize …show more content…

For that reason, I agree with Lewis when he states “The people in a culture of poverty have a strong feeling of marginality of helplessness, of dependency, of not belonging. They are like aliens in their own country convinced that the existing institutions do not serve their interests and needs” (Pilisuk & Pilisuk 1971). However, this does not justify the commonly held belief that many of the poor go on welfare and become dependent on the government’s programs. There have been cases where individuals have taken advantage of government program but that is not the case for the majority. For instance, in my community, several refuse to even take help from the government in the first place. Most tend to see it as a last resort when considering the future of their family. Overall, my experiences with those struggling economically is that they work hard and are not in the situation they are in because they are lazy. If there is something that as a community we share, it is the belief that working hard and receiving a proper education is our way out. We motivate ourselves and others to aim for a higher education but at times, this can be difficult due to our social class setting us up with minimal resources. Like Klinenburg noted, we most often can not afford to attend private schools, SAT preparation courses, personal tutors, and overall, college tuition (Manza et. al. 2013). We have to guide ourselves through grade school and hope that we do enough to stand out and receive

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