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The Other America
An EnduringShame:Katrinaremindedus, but the problemis not new Whya risingtide of peoplelive in poverty,who theyare-and whatwe
can do aboutit.
By JonathanAlter
Newsweek
Sept.19,zoo5 issue- It takesa hurricane.It takesa catastrophelike Katrina to strip awaythe old evasions,hlpocrisiesand not-so-benign
neglect.It takesthe sight of the United Stateswith a big black eye-visible aroundthe world-to help the rest of us beginto seeagain.For the
moment,at least,Americansare readyto fix their restlessgazeon enduringproblemsof poverty',raceand classthat haveescapedtheir attention.
Doesthis meana new war on poverty?No, especiallywith lGtrina's gargantuanprice tag. But this disastermay offer a chanceto start a
skirmish,or at leastmakeWashingtonthink harderaboutr+,hypart of the richestcountryon earthlool<slike the Third World.
"I hopewe realizethat the peopleofNew Orleansweren'tjust abandonedduring the hurricane,"Sen.BaraekObamasaid last weekon the floor
of the Senate."Theywereabandonedlong ago-to murderand mayhemin the streets,to substandardschools,to dilapidatedhousing,to
inadequatehealthcare,to a pervasivesenseofhopelessness."
can createa seachangein public perceptions."Americanstend to think of poor peopleas being
The questionnow is whetherthe floodr,raters
responsiblefor their own economicwoes,"sayssociologistAndrewCherlinofJohns HopkinsUniversilv."But this was a caselvherethe poor
were clearly not at fault. It w-asa reminder that we havea moral obligation to prol:ide everyAmerican with a decentlife."
In the last four decades,part of that obligationhasbeenmet. SocialSecurityand Medicarehaveall but eliminatedpovertyamongthe elderly.
Foodstampshavemadeseverehungerin the United Statesmostlya thing of the past.A little-known programwith bipartisansuppoftand a
boring name*the EarnedIncomeTax Credit-supplementsthe puny wagesof the workingpoor, helpingto lift millions into the lower middle
class.
But after a decadeof improvementin the 199os,poverly in Americais actuallygettingworse.A rising tide of economicgro'n'this no longer
lifting all boats.For the first time in half a century,the third year of a recovery(zoo4) alsosaw an increasein poverty.In a nation of nearly3oo
million people,the numberliving belowthe povertyline ($14,68ofor a family of three) recentlyhit 97 urillion, up more than a million in a year.
With the strain Katrina is placingon the gulf region (andon familiesputting up their displacedrelatives),it will almostcertainlf increasemore.
in part becauseit doesn'tincludesomesupplementalprograms.But it's the
The por,-ertyrate, r2.Tpercent,is a controversialmeasurement,
highestin the developedworld and more than twice as high as in mostother industrializedcountries,which all strike a more generoussocial
contractwith their n'eakestcitizens.Evenif the real numberis lower than 37 million, that's a nation of poor peoplethe sizeof Canadaor
Moroccoliving insidethe United States.
Their fellow Americansknor,r'little aboutthem. In the last decade,povert-vdisappearedfrom public view. TV dislikespoor people,not personally
is a donner and-accordingto ratingsmeters-causesviewersto hit the remote.Powerfulpoliticiansaren't much
but becausetheir appearance
friendlier: poor folks vote in small numbers.Republicanswin little of their supportand Democratsoften take it for granted.
Until Katrina,the pressurewas off. After PresidentClinton signednelfare reform in 1996,the chatteringclassesstoppedarguingaboutit. With
lvelfarecaseloads
cut in half-more than 9 million womenand childrenhar.eleft the rolls-even many liberalsfiguredthe trend lines were
headedin the right direction.The real-worldchallengesof welfarereform explainedin JasonDeParle'slandmark2oo4 book, "American
Dream,"went unheeded,as Clinton initiativesand the boom of the rggos pulled 4.r million of the workingpoor out of poverty.(Goodtimes
don't alwayshavethat effect.The Reaganboom of the 198osdid the samefor only So,ooo.)Meanwhilecrime plummetedin citiesacrossthe
country,dornnto levelsnot seensincethe r95os.Few noticedthat progressin fighting povertystalledn'ith the economyin eoo:.
PresidentBush,preoccupiedwith terrorism and tax cuts,madeno mentionof it. His main involvementwith po\€rby-issueshasbeenon
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education, where he sharply increased aid to poor schools as part of his No Child Left Behind initiative. Democrats have offered little on
education beyond opposition to NCLB. They've shown more allegiance to the teachers unions (whose eontracts are models ofunaccountability)
than to poor kids. Bush's other antipoverty idea 'nas to bolster so-called faith-based initiatives by shifting a little federal funding of social
programs to religious groups. Pbst-tfutrina, this will likel-v be extended. But it's a Band-Aid, not an antipoverty strategy. The last notable poverty
expert u'orking in the \Atrite House, John Dilulio, departed in zoor after explaining that the administration had no interest in real policy
analysis.
The president has made a point of hiring more high-ranking African-Americans than any of his predecessors.But his identification with blacks is
a long way from, say, L&I's intoning, as he did in 1965, "Their cause must be our cause,too ... And rve shall overcome." Bush rarely meets with
the poor or their representatives. His mother made headlines when she visited the Houston Astrodome and said: "So many of the people in the
arenas here, you know, lvere underprivileged anyway. So this is working very well for them"-as if sharing space with to,ooo strangers was a
step up.
Who are the poor? With n'hites making up 72 percent of the population, the United States contains more poor whites than poor blacks or
Hispanics. In fact, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reports that the increase in white povertl.'in nonurban areas accounts for most of
the recent uptick in the poverty rate. But only a little more than 8 percent of American whites are poor, compared with zz percent of Hispanics
and nearly a quarter ofall African-Americans (in a country that is rz percent blach. This represents a significant advance for blacks in recent
decades,thanks to the growth of the black middle class, but it's still a shamefully high number. By contrast, immigration has sent poverty among
Hispanics up, though it has not been as intractable for them across generations.
After 4o lears of study, the causes of poverty are still being debated. Liberals say the problem is an economic s''stem that's tilted to the rich;
conservatives blame a debilitating culture of poverty. Clearll', it's both-a tangle of financial and personal pain that often goes beyond
insufficient resources and lack of training. Family issues are critical. Married-couple families are significantly less poor than female-headed
households. While hunger, crime, drugs and overt racial discrimination have eased, other problems connected *'ith poverty ma.v hale r,r'orsened:
wage stagnation, social isolation and a more subtle form of class-basedracism. Each can be found in New Orleans, pre-Katrina.
The primary economic problem is not unemplol'rnent but low wages for workers of all races. With unions weakened and a minimum-wage
increase not on the GOP agenda, wages have not kept pace with the cost of living, except at the top. (In 196S,CEOs made 24 times as much as
the averageworker; by 2oog, they earned r85 times as much.) Since zoot, the United States has lost 2.7 million manufacturing jobs. Nerv
Orleans's good jobs left much earlier, replaced by employment in the restaurant and tourism industry, which pays less and usually carries no
health benefits. Medicaid covers poor children but few poor adults, who put off seeing the doctor, cranking up the cost. For the poor, the idea of
low-wage jobs' covering the basic expensesof lil'ing has become a cruel joke.
Consider the case of Delores Ellis. Before Katrina turned her world upside down, the 5t-year-old resident of New Orleans's Ninth Ward was
earning the highest salary of her life as a school janitor-$6.5o an hour, no health insurance or pension. Pregnant at 17 and forced to drop out of
high school, she went on welfare for a time, then bounced around minimum-wage jobs. "I worked hard all my life and I can't afford nothing,"
Ellis sa1s. "I'm not saf ing that I *ant to keep up with the Joneses, I just want to lil'e better."
Ellis is hampered by cultural habits, too. Lil<ealmost ali poor evacueesintervierved by NEWSWEEK she has no bank account. Before the storm,
she did ortn a stereo, refrigerator, r,rasherand dryer, two color TVs and a rggz Chery Lumina with more than too,ooo miles on it. This, too, is
common among the poor; like more comfortable Americans, they spend on consumer goods bey'ond their means. But these are often their only
assets.The reason that more African-Americans didn't heed warnings to leave New Orleans before the hurricane hit goes beyond the muchpublicized lack of cars. They were reluctant to abandon their entire net worth to looters. John Ednards, r.r'hohas spent much of the .vearsince he
lost the vice presidency studl,ing the problems of "the two Americas," says that establishing thousands ofbank accounts is critical-not just for
Katrina e!?cuees, but for others in poverty.
Isolation is the second big factor that makes poverty even worse. While racial segregation in housing is at its lor,vestlevels since r9zo, Sheryll
Cashin, author of "The Failures of Integration," has found that only 5 to lo percent of American families lir.e in stable, integrated communities.
More than half a century afler Brown u. Board of Education, public schools are still alnost totally segregated-the result,of where people choose
to live, not law-.Blacks and whites increasingl,vgo to school with more integrated Hispanics, but not with each other. One big change is that
blacks seem only a little more interested in integration than whites.
But there's a steep price to this r,'oluntary segregation. lVhile overt discrimination is drvindling-in
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suedfor practicingit-it still exists.A 1999Universityof Pennq{vaniastudyshowedthat telephonecallersusing "black English"were offered
fewer real-estatechoices.At a deeperlevel,Harvard'sGlennC. Loury hasidentifiedwhat he calls"discriminationin contact."Informal contacts
betweenpeopleacrossraciallines break down warinessand leadto the connectionsthat help peopleflnd jobs. When perfectlylegal social
preventsblacksfrom havingsuchinformal netw,orks,they slip back.
segregation
and other inner-city blacks.Joycelln Harris hasspenther wholelife in the Ninth Ward.
This isolationhashamperedmany Katrina evacuees
One of rr children,shedroppedout of schoolat the ageof rz and went on to havefir.echildrenof her orm, later working at BurgerKing and as
Sheand her boy{riend,KennethAnthony,fled the city last w-eekwith nothingbut $9 in their pocketsand the clotheson
a hotel charnbermaid.
their backs.Theylived for a time in a New Orleanshousingprojectisolatedby hvo industrialcanalsand railroadtracks."SometimesI wantedto
backout, but 1'oucan't,"saysAnthony,who haslived in four differenthousingprojects."I felt like I was incarcerated."
includingr'r'hereHarris and Anthony
In the last decade,the governmenthastorn dorm more than 7o,ooo units of public housingnationr,r'ide,
While everyoneagreesthat housingvouchersare a good
oncelived. But too often,ihe peopleu'ho residedthere areleft to fend for themselves.
idea,the waiting list to usethem for public housingis five years.
Followingthe Gatreauxmodelin Chicago,the Clinton administrationlauncheda "scatter-site"housingprogramin four citiesthat found homes
While the movedoesn'tmuch benefit adults,their children-confrontedwith higherexpectations
for the poor in mixed-incomeneighborhoods.
and a lessharmful peergroup-do much better."It really helpedin Atlanta,"saysRep.John l,ewis,a hero of the civil-rights movement.Bush
and the GOPCongresskilled the idea,as well as the Youth OpportunityGrant program,which had shownsuccessin partneringwith the private
sectorto help preparedisadlantagedteensfor work and life. Theytried to cut after-schoolprograms-pro\renwinners-by 4o percent,then
settledfor a freeze.
poverly"is what somecall racism.Othersarguethe word is too inflammatoryfor a more subtlebut no less
The third problemexacerbating
debilitating effect.
Racismwas clearlypresentin the aftermathof Katrina.Readersof YahooNewsnoticedit whena pair of rmterloggedwhitesweredescribedin a
captionas "carrying"food while anotherpicture (from a differentwire service)of blacksholdingfood describedthem as "looters."White
suburbanpoliceclosedat leastone bridgeto keepa group ofblacksfrom fleeingto white areas.Ol'er the courseoftwo days,a white river-taxi
operatorfrom hard-hit St. BernardParishrescuedscoresofpeople from floodedareasand ferried them to safety.All werewhite. "A n--ger is a
n--ger is a n--ger," he told a NEWSWEEKreporter.Then he said it again.
Wasthe slormessof Washington'srescueeffortsalsoa racialthing? In 2oo4, Bushmovedhugeresourcesinto Florida immediatelyfollowing
hurricanesthere.No one was stranded.The salientdifferencewas not racebut politics.Thosehurricanescamejust beforean election.
Obama,the only African-Americanin the U.S.Senate,says"the ineptitudewas colorblind."But he arguesthat while-contrary to rapper Kanye
West'sattackon Bush-there was no "activemalice,"the federalresponseto Katrina represented"a continuationof passiveindifference"on the
part of the government.It reflectedan unthinkingassumptionthat every,{merican"hasthe capacityto load up their family in an SUV,fill it up
n'ith groo worth of gasoline,stick somebottlednater in the trunk and usea credit card to checkinto a hotel on safeground."\Arhenthey did
focuson racein the aftermath,many Louisiananslet their fearstake over.Linesat gun storesin BatonRouge,[a., snakedout the door. Obama
stopsshort of callingthis a sign of racism.For some,he says,it's a productof "soberconcern"after the violencein the cit5.';for others,it's closer
to "racialstereotyping."
Harvard'sloury arguedin a zooz book, "TheAnatom,vof RacialInequality,"that it's this stereotlpingand "racialstigma,"more than orert
racism,that helpshold blacksin por,'erty.l,oury explainsa destructivecycleof "self-reinforcingstereotlpes"at schooland work. A white
employer,for instance,may make a judgmentbasedon prior experiencethat the youngblack men he hires arelikely to be absentor late for
figure that they'rebeingdisrespectedfor no good
work. So he supervisesthem more closely.Resentingthe scrutiny,the African-Americans
reason,so they might as well act out, n'hichin turn reinforcestheir boss'sstereotlpe.Everybodygoesawayangry.
Suchproblemsare often lessaboutracethan class,rn'hichhasbecomea hugefactor u'ithin the black community,too. It's hard for studious
youngAfrican-Americans
to bravethe tauntsthat they're"actingwhite."The only answerto that is a redoubledeffort within the black
and a commitmentby r.r'hiteinstitutionsto useaffirmativeactionnot just for middle-class
communityto respectacademicachie."'ement
minoritiesbut for the poor it was originallydesignedto help.
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lie somebig political choices.Until Katrina
to sal'eNewOrleansand easepoverby=
Beyondthe thousandsof individual effortsnecessary
perrnanent
was
repeal
ofthe
estatetax, which appliesto far lessthan r
priority
r'r'hen
reconvened
for
GOP
Congress
the
intervened,the top
percentof taxpa)'ers.(IRSfiguresshowthat only 1,607wealthypeoplein louisiana, Alabamaand Mississippielen pay the tax, out of more than
4 million taxpayers-onetwenty-fifth of r percent.)Repealwould costthe gor€rnment$z+ billion a year.Meanwhile,HouseGOPleadersare set
to slashfood stampsby billions in order to protectsubsidiesto nealthy farmers.But Katrina could changethe climate.The aftermathwas not a
goodomenfor the GroverNorquistsof the r,lorld,rvholvant to slashtaxesmore and shrink governmentto the sizewhereit can be "strangledin
the bathtub."
What kind of presidentdoesGeorgeW. Bushwant to be? He can limit his legacyto lraq, the war on terror and tax cuts for the rich-or, if he
seizesthe moment,he could undertakea midcoursecorrectionthat might materiallychangethe livesof millions. Katrina givesBushan onlyopportunity,if he wantsit.
Nixon-could-go-to-China
MargaretSchuber,who eracuatedto Atlanta,was a middle-schoolprincipalin JeffersonParishbeforeretiring recently."I havelived in the city
If you believein the ideaof community,then we all bear
all my life and I didn't realizetherervereso many peoplesufferingsocioeconomically.
responsibility."Schuberis concernedthat so many energeticyoungpeoplearen't planningto return. She'sgoingbackto volunteerin the
schools."We all needto do n'hat \^recan to turn things around,"shesays.
Americawasbuilt and savedby the MargaretSchubersof the world. Non'we needthem again,not just in the midst of an emergencybut for the
hard w'orkof redemption.
With JosephContreras and SarahChildressin New Orleans,JessicaSiluer-Greenbergand Anne Undertaoodin New York and Pat Wingert in
Washington
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