This document discusses the racialization of poverty in the United States. It argues that poverty must be understood as an outcome of structural racial inequities, rather than solely as an individual issue. Racialized policies have created a correlation between race and poverty by denying marginalized groups access to opportunities and wealth. The document advocates reframing poverty discourse to acknowledge its systemic causes and emphasize how poverty isolation harms entire communities. It calls for policies addressing both immediate needs and multigenerational poverty through a lens of shared opportunity.

1. The Racialization of Poverty
john a. powell
Director, Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity
Williams Chair in Civil Rights & Civil Liberties, Moritz College of
Law
American Humane and Annie E. Casey Foundation/
Casey Family Services Differential Response Pre-
conference Institute: Poverty Summit
Pittsburgh, PA
November 11, 2009

2. Today‟s conversation
 The intersection of race, poverty, and place
 Intergenerational poverty
 Policy implications
2

3. 3 Interrelated Sites of Racial Justice
Explicit
Implicit
Structures
&
Policies
3

4. A Broader Understanding of Poverty
 Thinking about poverty in such a robust way means that
we must look at the sociopolitical, institutional, and
Visualizing Systems Theory that produce
spatial systems and structures
impoverished outcomes. Thinking:
The Newtonian Perspective: Systems
A D
A B C D E
C
Social phenomena may be B
understood by breaking down
the sum of the constituent parts. E
Causation is reciprocal, mutual,
and cumulative.
 Poverty must also be understood as reflecting structural
26
disinvestment and marginalization on a global and a local
scale.
4

5. Multiple Dimensions of Poverty
 We must look at multiple indicators
 There‟s a difference between:
 Childhood poverty --- adult poverty
 Being poor and uneducated --- being poor and
educated
 Different racial groups face unique constraints.
 We must also consider the time dimension
 Are poverty programs aimed at short-term poverty?
 Can they address multigenerational poverty?
5

6. Framing Poverty
 Poverty is a symptom of a broader disease -- the structural
arrangements that deny access to opportunity, wealth and
power for marginalized groups, while limiting opportunity for
the non-poor as well.
 We must frame poverty as an outcome of a structural
deficiency.
 It must be emphasized that this systemic denial to the levers
and pathways of opportunity is highly racialized.
 Racialized structures and policies have created the
correlation of race and poverty.
6

7. Poverty and Race in the U.S.
 Poverty and race – 2006
 White (non-Hispanic): 17.9 million in poverty, 9.3% poverty rate
 Black: 9.0 million in poverty, 25.3% poverty rate
 Asian: 1.4 million in poverty, 10.7% poverty rate
 Latino (all Latinos): 9.3 million in poverty, 21.5% poverty rate
7

8. Poverty is Spatialized & Racialized
Historically marginalized people of color and the very poor
have been spatially isolated from
economic, political, educational and technological power via:
 Reservations  Jim Crow
 Appalachian mountains  Ghettos
 Barrios  Culture of Incarceration
8

9. Neighborhood Effects
 Are we accounting for neighborhood effects, or simply
looking at individual poverty?
 Neighborhood effects are real.
 Location matters when creating affordable housing
 The subprime crisis had varying impacts by community
 Our response should be targeted accordingly
9

10. Neighborhoods of Concentrated
Poverty
Nearly 1 out of 10 Blacks lived in a concentrated poverty
neighborhood in 1999, compared to 1 out of 100 Whites. 10

11. Childhood Poverty
Living in “concentrated disadvantage” reduces student IQ
by 4 points, roughly the equivalent to missing one year of
school
(Sampson 2007)
1
1

12. Race & Residence
 Using data from 1980 census: “Racial differences in
poverty and family disruption are so strong that the
„worst‟ urban contexts in which whites reside are
considerably better than the average context of black
communities.”
 In the 171 largest cities in the U.S. in 1980, there was
not even one city where whites live in ecological
equality to blacks in terms of poverty rates or rates of
single-parent households.
Sampson, Robert J. and William Julius Wilson. 1995. Toward a Theory of Race, Crime, and Urban Inequality.12
In Crime and Inequality, edited by John Hagan and Ruth Peterson. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

13. Residential Segregation & Disparities
 A study of the effects of segregation on young African
American adults found that the elimination of segregation
would erase black-white differences in
 Earnings
 High School Graduation Rate
 Unemployment
and reduce racial differences in single motherhood by
two-thirds.
13
Cutler, Glaeser & Vigdor, 1997; Williams presentation “Racism & Health: Understanding Multiple Pathways.”

14. Comparing Poor Whites & Poor Non-
whites
 In 1960, African-American families in poverty were 3.8 times
more likely to be concentrated in high-poverty
neighborhoods than poor whites.
 In 2000, they were 7.3 times more likely.
 3 of 4 persons living in concentrated poverty are Black or
Latino -- even though more whites are poor.
 Whites only make 30% of people living in high poverty
neighborhoods, although they represent 55% of the total
population living in poverty
Fact Sheet from the Opportunity Agenda, Housing Neighborhoods and Opportunity. 14
http://www.opportunityagenda.org/site/c.mwL5KkN0LvH/b.1433711/k.B7BA/Housing_Fact_Sheet.htm

15. School Poverty and Race
Ethnic and Racial Composition of Fifth-Grade Elementary
Schools by School Poverty Status
Data: ECLS-K Class of 1988 (N=9,796). Data are weighted to yield 15
Rumberger, Russell W. 2007. “Parsing the data population estimates.
on student achievement in high-poverty schools” North Carolina

16. Time in Poverty
 Two-thirds of white families in poverty are poor for only
three year or less (intermittently), and only 2 % are
impoverished for more than 10 years.
 17% of the impoverished Black population are poor for
ten or more years.
16

17. Poverty, Race, and Recession
 According to EPI President Lawrence Mishel: Even
using conservative forecasts for future job loss, the
poverty rate for children could increase from an already
high 18% -- where it stood in 2007 -- to more than 27%
by next year.
 Poverty among African American children, currently at a
staggering 34.5%, could reach 50% before the
employment picture starts to turn around.
17

18. Intergenerational Poverty & Wealth
 Poverty is more than lack of income;
it‟s also lack of wealth.
 Challenges to wealth accumulation for
non-whites include:
 Redlining / lending discrimination /
predatory lending
 Job discrimination / wage disparities
 Unfulfilled promise of “40 acres and
a mule”
18 www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=r
ace_wealth_and_intergenerational_po
verty

19. Expanding our Understanding of
Poverty
 Poverty can also be measured by
the capability to live the life one
can value and contribute to
society
 Poverty is the deprivation of
basic capabilities, including
health and education
 People in poverty cannot fully
exercise their freedoms
 Amartya Sen, Development as
Freedom (1999) 19

20. Understanding Our Linked Fates
 Racialized structures and policies have created the
correlation of race and poverty. People assume that only
people of color are harmed.
 In reality, these effects are far reaching and impact
everyone – we share a linked fate
20

21. Adjusting the Poverty Lens
 Re-define, re-think, and re-frame
 Re-define: from an “income-to-needs” ratio to “Human
Development Index”
 Re-think: unconscious vs. conscious racism
 Our emotional responses to poverty determine our
willingness to help
 Re-frame: from a “welfare and charity” approach to an
“opportunity for all” approach
21

22. Plan for Action - To Alleviate Poverty
 Move discourse away from individualistic framing
 Highlight poverty‟s structural causes
 Frame poverty as the result of a structural deficiency
 Focus on our shared connections:
 Poverty and marginalization do not just harm the poor
 Opportunity isolation harms the entire community
 Emphasize the need for strategies that expand access to
opportunities
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23. Other Solutions / Ideas
 Seek solutions that
are both targeted and
universal
 Analyze the role of
segregation and
space
 Opportunity
mapping
23

24. Rethinking Structural Arrangements
 Bringing people into structures that
formerly excluded them may not be
enough
 Message is: individual is not properly
“negotiating” the ladder when the
ladder is too narrow or long …and
we‟re climbing alone
 Insensitive, perhaps hostile structural
arrangements
 Make structures work for
marginalized populations, thus
changing their relationship to
wealth and power
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25. For more information: www.KirwanInstitute.org
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26. Appendix
Infant mortality by race
Implicit bias – passing the ball video
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27. Infant Mortality by Mother’s Education
College educated Black women have higher infant mortality rates
than Whites who did not graduate from high school.
20
NH White Black Hispanic API AmI/AN
18
16 17.3
14 14.8
Infant Mortality
12 12.7 12.3
11.4
10
9.9
8
7.9
6 6.5
6 5.7 5.9 5.5
5.1 5.4 5.1 5.7
4 4.4 4
4.2
2
0
<12 12 13-15 16+
27
Years of Education

28. Awareness Test
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrqrkihlw-s
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