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Is it the Facts or Is it Which Way the Wind is Blowing?
By lindamuralidharan on 2015-06-06 01:04:32
In the light of ongoing disagreements about how people deal with social challenges, poverty and varying forms of racism in
particular, I feel compelled to review an article in a recent issue of The Johns Hopkins Magazine (see Winter 2014, Vol 66
No.4). [caption id="attachment_ 7102" align="aligncenter" width="600"]
oF al Fort McHenry Baltimore
Home of the Star Spangled Banner[/caption] The article itself is a review of research conducted by Hopkins faculty and
collaborators over a 20+ year period. The study followed low, middle and high income people (both white and black) from
first grade through young adulthood to see what, if any, differences there were with respect to family and environmental
factors. They detail their study in a book named The Long Shadow: Disadvantaged Urban Youth, And the Transition to
Adulthood by Karl Alexander and Linda Olson. Doris Entwisle deserves credit for cooperating in the design and
sponsorship of the original research. Coincidentally, this study was conducted in Baltimore, Md., which has been the focus
of much hand wringing and Republican rhetoric with regard to poverty, racism, inadequate housing, and gentrification in the
midst of police brutality, massive peaceful demonstrations, and property damaged by a rioting segment of the black
population. The research project confirms basic tenets and factual observations of mine that go back 40 or more years and
includes not just facts to back up my observations but some new insight born out by intense research. My own opinions
come from 1) personal experience of racism and poverty 2) working with folks in low income family and living
situations...both as a novice community volunteer and as a paid, trained professional 3) paying close attention to the news,
media articles and books written on aspects of the subject and related topics (banking, economics, discriminatory laws, civil
rights advances, psychology, child rearing, the criminal justice system, substance abuse, mental illness, and criminal
thinking). The significant premise that has been shown to be accurate is that the common shibboleth my Republican family
raised me with is false. Their main thesis was: if you work hard you will succeed in America (success being anything from
achieving a professional career to owning a business to having a good steady job in somebody else's business). And the
corollary is that if you are poor it is your fault. You did not try hard enough. The fact of the matter is, if you are born to an
impoverished family...very likely in a neighborhood of similarly struggling families, your chance of social mobility or even
basic economic security are way less than if you are born into a middle or upper income family. As the authors put it,
"Education and hard work lift people in the inner city out of poverty only in exceptional cases. The vast majority born poor
are almost certain to stay that way." (This is not to say that some privileged individuals don't fall victim to substance
addiction, mental illness, or........ laziness...ahem.. and thus find themselves living on the edge or homeless, but these are in
the minority also...despite the horrors of our recent recession.) Some of this can also be summed up by saying that being
underprivileged or disadvantaged..while not an inherited condition...is one that is passed from generation to generation in
our society. Conversely, privilege gets passed on generationally also regardless of individual talents and inclinations. And
we find the process can be described according to several processes at work. Processes that can be discussed separately but
actually are interconnected in reality. For example, many of us know already that Baltimore has been hit especially hard by
the phenomenon affecting so much of America. Large scale closures of factories and loss of well paid jobs for skilled and
semi-skilled blue collar workers. Without the creation of similar replacement jobs. And there certainly is competition for
what opportunities do exist. However, the tradition of past racial discrimination...especially in a lot of the skilled trade
unions....means that white grandfathers and uncles are likely to hook up their white relatives in new generations with jobs
where they work or where their white associates work. It is a question of networking. However, the black youth coming
up..even with a high school diploma and some ambition...don't have access to the opportunities...and employers don't go out
of their way to seek new sources of employees...they are glad to just go ahead and hire the neighbor's cousin. The white
neighbor's cousin. The researchers specifically asked the research subjects that had been followed from childhood to
adulthood how they got their jobs if they had one. The blacks almost always said they got the job on their own. The white
people almost always said they had known somebody who referred them to a job. No doubt there are some bosses who are
prejudiced against black people and prefer not to hire them, but the authors believe most of the racism is structural,
institutional and unintentional. But the end result was that among poor blacks in their twenties and poor whites in their
twenties ("poor" referring to their families of origin), the white individuals tended to have better jobs and to be more likely
to be employed...even though more of the whites had dropped out of high school than had blacks. Whites also used drugs at
a higher rate than did the black subjects of similar age. [caption id="attachment_7104" align="alignleft" width="300"]
Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in nearby D.C.[/caption] There are also
the educational gaps...since it was clear that those in any income group who had a post secondary education did better than
the those who dropped out of high school or were not able to finish significant college level courses. For example, even by
second grade the poor kids were behind academically with relation to the wealthier kids. Soon after that, the specific testing
procedures of the Baltimore public school system led to another conclusion. Poorer kids lost more of their academic year
learning gains over the summer than the wealthier kids did. Clearly this was because the middle class and upper class
families kept the learning going by having more vocabulary rich conversations and by getting the kids one way or another
to museums, historical sites, and summer enrichment programs. Even if well intentioned, even if well informed, poor
parents generally worked too great a number of hours to find time to haul the kids around. And had no discretionary funds
to pay for some that charge fees...again even if they had knowledge of certain programs and some means of transportation
for the kids. [caption id="attachment_7103" align="alignleft" width="600"]
= * Free. Baltimore Museum of
Art[/caption] Clearly when children have their minds intellectually stimulated on a regular basis and hear academically
relevant vocabulary consistently, they will be retaining and even developing new learning concepts. I am writing today with
great concern that even with facts to hand policy makers may not be paying attention or may not be willing to implement the
solutions such conclusions call for. When it comes to summer enrichment, luckily, the stars did partially align and across the
country more municipalities did institute accessible summer enrichment programs for poorer students than had been
available before this study and corroborating research had indicated the summer retention gap. It is nice to see that facts
lead to changed behavior. Some of this may have been for altruistic reasons...[ hope so. On the other hand, I suspect that
with the penalties implied in the No Child Left Behind Act schools wanted to keep more children up to speed to avoid the
penalties. [caption id="attachment_7105" align="alignright" width="300"] P
Family at Baltimore Museum of Art[/caption] A combination of poverty and generationally transmitted educational gaps has
clearly affected outcomes. For the worse, for the poor and for the better for the wealthier. The gap itself can limit how
students are able to access post secondary educationor needed scholarships. And even when schools find some mechanism
for kids to keep up or some kids overcome home handicaps and perform well in school, it is hard for them to manage a
continuing education when they may have new barriers to contend with: costs, need to contribute pay to the family,
transportation challenges, and more. Those individuals, white and black who started out poor but found the way to get a
college education entered into modest middle class comforts...home ownership, food security and the like. Those people,
whether white or black, who had less education stayed behind...although again, fewer of the white males stayed behind
because they did have more access to the few blue collar jobs available. [caption id="attachment_7106" align="aligncenter"
width="300"] ee ai Towson High School in Suburban Baltimore[/caption] The
culture of poverty and family dysfunction is another one of the processes that keeps poverty transmitted across generations..
Some aspects of lower working class and poor people's culture is actually positive in providing coping skills for that life
style. However, just like abused kids have coping skills that work to minimize the effects of the abuse in childhood but
which are counter-productive to a healthy adult life style, the culture of poverty holds people back. Adequate for survival
but not adequate for social mobility. For one thing, early pregnancies make it much harder to finish sufficient schooling and
stress people out at a young age when they try to work and care for the child and have a life. Some of the young people...as
young as 14...having babies are okay with that because it gives their emotionally and physically impoverished lives some
meaning and somebody to love them unconditionally. However, other studies have shown that the stress on teen couples
often means the fathers give up fulfilling a couple life style (formal or informal marriage) and sometimes it is the women
themselves who push them away. For whatever reason a solid basis for an ongoing relationship was not established before
the child threw them together in the illusion of a family and the realities of poverty and life in the poor neighborhood push
them apart. [caption idattachment — Thos" align="
Wn el
ied ; 4 WW ’
} . j : High School in middle class
neighborhood[/caption] While it isn't stated in the article, I am suggesting that after generations of poverty and lack of role
models, and often a feeling of hopelessness, the young parents have not internalized the idea of delayed gratification in
order to gain some future benefit such as college, job promotions and the like. In middle class and upper class families,
even kids of divorce often have stable role models around. Sometimes it is a very stable mom. Sometimes grandparents,
uncles, [caption id="attachment_7107" align="alignright" width="300"] De
facto nearly all black High School in the nearly all black low income Western District: Frederick Douglass High
School[/caption] cousins, neighbors..any or all of whom may be engaged in interesting work, are willing to take the kids to
live with them for certain periods of time, find time on weekends and in the evenings to include the kids on outings, and
coach local sports teams that the kids may join. And often both parents are still engaged with the kids even if not living with
each other. The following is a link describing food bank activities when the recent unrest in Baltimore increased food
insecurity in certain poor neighborhoods such as West Baltimore. _https://www.mdfoodbank.org/.../blog/orioles-bring-
magic-off-.../ In poorer families, you may not be surprised to learn that kids had to grow up with everything from seeing a
brother commit suicide by hanging to constant gunfire to a parent too strung out on substances to pay attention to any of
their needs on any kind of a consistent basis. Few can overcome these traumas when they are compounded by lack of funds,
lack of other role models, nobody to hold conversations with them that are both age appropriate and inspirational and so
forth. And, of course, many poor families do not provide daily structure for the kids such as regular meal times, insistence
on being ready to attend school daily and on time, regular medical or dental check ups and the like. Some parents clearly
try...and too many are burdened by their own history of poor role models and poor skills. Some of the presented
details....some of the specifics... found enlightening...for example undereducated black and white females work largely in
entry level jobs and earn about the same pay. However, the white females had available to them a decent selection of white
males who did have better paying jobs. Marrying these fellows and having a two income family boosted the white women
into middle class status leaving the poor, single moms to raise kids on what amounts to the minimum wage in many
instances. Among the poor black males...especially the ones from the poorest of the elementary schools that were
studied....a high percentage ended up in jail. And some ended up dead. No real surprises here except that actual
documentation of why it is so much easier for young willing and competent white males with limited education to get jobs
than for young willing and competent black males to acquire the same or similar jobs even where there is no conscious
discrimination against Afro Americans. How do we translate all this into policy? How do we get so many Americans and
the politicians who pander to them to stop blaming the victim? How do we get more programs that interrupt these
generational cycles that have nothing to do with genes or the color of the person's skin but rather to do with everything that
happens to and around any given child? Although one can always be creative, we already have many model programs to
choose from across the country. The problem is they are too few and too far between. Right now a summer jobs program
could be funded Federally across the country for teens. We could do some more research to see how best to reach the rural
poor. We can fund a national infrastructure program to provide adult jobs all across the country. We can keep replicating
some of the school programs that are successfully meeting the needs of many kids and increasing graduation rates. And we
can make sure that every one who wants to go on to college can within at least three years of high school graduation....free
tuition? free child care? subsidized transportation? more training programs relevant to new fields and types of high tech
employment? We may not be able to reach a very large number of parents with innovative intervention programs...but we
could change the lives of the little kids and the big kids so they do not pass the dysfunction on anymore.
