The Subculture of Poverty - Research Paper Example

One can accept any one of these positions or even a combination of the two (interactionist approach) in order to understand poverty. Though scholars have a common tendency to take either of these sides, in this essay, the position taken is one that follows the interactionist approach in order to leave behind the reductionism of leftist and rightist theories. To put the blame on the class division alone is like saying that an individual can make no difference in the society. Similarly if a position that the poor are to blame for their poverty is taken, it will be like forgetting the role of the social structures in creating and sustaining poverty.

This is why it s true that “the structure of society creates a culture of poverty among the poor, which perpetuates the structure of society” and this in turn again reinforces the culture of poverty and so on (Blacksacademy, 1). It will be based on the understanding that the structure of society is the root cause and the conditioning of the poor (by the culture created by that structure), the sustaining factor that this essay would look into the subculture of poverty. Also, this essay will prove that the negative attributes commonly associated with the members of the subculture of poverty are based on assumptions rather than facts.

One visible sign of poverty is the presence of inexpensive accessories like cloth on the body of a person. In extreme cases, poverty can be visible on the body of the person as an impoverished state in the health. But the subculture of poverty is marked with more complex and subtle features. For example, it can be associated with “families …characterized by high divorce rates, with mothers and children abandoned” (Blacksacademy, 2). Poverty also represents the existence of people, devoid of sufficient food, material facilitates, community life, participation in the political processes of the country, and access to the privileges available to the ‘not poor’ individual.

Apart from these physical manifestations, the most important social aspect of poverty is that it evolves itself into a culture of sort. Poverty is found to attain a historical dimension as well as a social pathology. Along with that, it has become somewhat hereditary, a family heritage. For example, in the popular poor man-rich girl stories in the movies, or in the rags to riches tales that have been written, the common theme is the same rightist view which proposes that it is the will of the individual that determines his/her economic status.

But the culture of poverty exhibits a totally different scene. Once poor, always poor and that too, generations poor, could be the statement that could be closer to reality. In such a scenario, there has been a tendency to define a poor man/woman based on the so-called attributes associated with the subculture of poverty. Almost all the discussions on the subculture of poverty have thus been highly individualistic. The purpose of almost all these discussions has been to prove that the subculture of poverty is an inferior culture.

This can be seen in the common theoretical positions narrated in the following paragraphs. The website, law.jrank.org has stated that poverty is supposed to be a breeding ground of fatalistic views- “