Inner City Working Poor

Paper Summary:

The paper relates that in "No Shame in My Game" Newman kept track of the movements and attitudes of those working long hours for the minimum wage. The paper explains the recurrent theme that the middle class misses the point of poverty and what it's like to be a kid in the inner city trying to survive and become somebody important. The paper then turns to an article by Peter Dreier entitled "Poverty in the Suburbs" that reveals that the working poor are no longer limited to the inner city, but they are also in the suburbs. The article addresses rising rental, food and gas costs that are leaving the lower middle class strapped for cash. Finally, the paper discusses how this problem can best be addressed. The paper posits that the greatest challenges to African Americans of poverty and a lack of education must be addressed and then looks at the promises of Barack Obama, John McCain and Hilary Clinton on this issue.

From the Paper:

"The book by Katherine S. Newman, who is an anthropologist, shows that many of the portraits painted of the inner city by journalists and social scientists are at best incomplete and at worst flat wrong. Many accounts of the inner city tend to focus on the unemployed, the homeless, and the gang banging boys who never had a dad as a role model. Those things are indeed part of the depressing ghetto. For Newman, though, she sees the vitality in a place like Harlem; even though people going to work aren't making much money, they have the Burger Barn as their destination and their place of economic survival."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Armour, Stephanie. "Minimum wage increase kicks in today." USA Today. 24 July 2007.Retrieved April 14, 2008, from http://www.usatoday.com.
• Brentin, Mock. "The Greatest challenges to African-Americans in 2008." Essence 38.8 (2007):168-168.
• Dreier, Peter. "Poverty in the Suburbs." The Nation. 20 September 2004. Retrieved April 15, 2008 from http://www.thenation.com.
• Goodman, Peter S. "From Welfare Shift in '96, a Reminder for Clinton." The New York Times11 April 2008: Retrieved April 15, 2008, from http://www.nytimes.com.
• Jones, David R. "The Urban Agenda." New York Amsterdam News 98.1 (2006): p. 5.

More papers on Inner City Working Poor:

• Term Paper # 107016 : "Inner City Employment"
• Analytical Essay # 45271 : "The Plight of Inner City Youth"
• Article Review # 137089 : "The Working Poor in the Inner City"

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