Thursday, October 10, 2019
Critical Review of Poor-Bashing: The Politics of Exclusion Essay
Social struggles and cultural crisis have been the subjects of various books over the years. They have resulted into an abundance of works done by social and theoretical experts as well as literary and media practitioners. One society crisis that these writers have discussed is the issue of poverty, the people involved in this situation, and the issue of poor-bashing they are faced with. However, only a few of these sources have really created their work using their own or personal experiences. The perspective coming from people who belong to the poverty block is significantly helpful and useful. This is because their personal experiences and battles ignite the search for truth and manifest the real issue that the poor people are the targets of a well-designed and orderly crusade of discrimination and exploitation. All it needs is a real presentation and argument of the issue for the public to realize that these poor people do not welcome being blamed for a condition that only society dictates.            Included in these first-hand writers is Jean Swanson (2001) who tackled the existing yet unfamiliar issue of poor-bashing in her book entitled â€Å"Poor Bashing: The Politics of Exclusion.†Swanson’s presentation of poverty, particularly poor-bashing, is a well-attested discussion that turned out to be a depiction of the real emotional expressions of the poor people and the author’s own cry from her heart.            The book is a passionate disclosure by anti-poverty activist Swanson of poor-bashing, a condition of the society that continuously fails to claim general information despite its existence and utilization as an anti-poverty tool for the past two decades. A seasoned anti-poverty activist, Swanson employed her personal experiences and various interactions with the rest of the poor people in her country to present the real issues brought about by poor-bashing.            According to Swanson (2001), the term of poor-bashing hides the actual origins of poverty and the pain it inflicts to poor people. It degrades the employed people while taking away the pressure and responsibility from the rich members of the society. The Swanson book critically presents a new approach of writing poverty with the provision of the personal stories, ideas, and analysis of the poor about poverty. The book disputes the position that there is no one to be blamed for the condition of the poor people but themselves. The book serves as an expressive style of poor-bashing which was introduced in our terminology use and traditions. It is also an instrument for academic progress and direction (Swanson, 2001).            The term poor-bashing was defined by Swanson as a condition when poor people are pictured, neglected, accused, sponsored, sympathized, and wrongly blamed for being intoxicated, and contented of having big yet unmanageable families and settling as unemployed individuals depending on the welfare and financial assistance from the government. Aside from the said societal presentations, the poor people are likewise subjected to poor-bashing by the institution. A manifestation of low financial assistance rates for the promotion of social welfare is a type of poor-bashing by the establishment. Swanson added that having or allowing the existence of poverty when the society can possibly do away with it is also another poor-bashing kind.            â€Å"Poor-Bashing: The Politics of Exclusion†critically looked into how low-income people and even those belonging to below poverty line are marginalized and maltreated by the state, media and the corporate world. However, Swanson pulled off some entertainment when she pictured how the term poor-bashing, which was used to represent people who are dependent on financial assistance and benefits, actually better fits to demonstrate the behavior of the sluggish rich members of the society. In presenting the many points of the book, Swanson featured several realistic voices and emotions of the poor, such as those of single mothers, a side that has not been focused on by other works. These single parents are made to experience poor-bashing when they are shown as people struggling to give food, clothes, and shelter to their kids because of an unforgiving and unacceptable financial condition. The structural and personal poor-bashing of single mothers denied them the chance to decide better for themselves and their children, thereby negatively affecting their way of living.            An interview by Swanson with a single mother revealed that the latter did not prefer to be financially dependent and always on the welfare of other people. According to Swanson’s interpretation, the society where the single mother belongs and her partner in particular are the ones that actually put her life and that of her children where it is now. The poor-bashing applied to single mothers is just one of the pieces of evidence of the wide gap between the rich and the poor. Accordingly, in Swanson’s country (Canada) and in most parts of the world, statistics proves that the poor people tend to share only a small percentage of wealth while the rich people enjoy the biggest portion. It is generally perceived that people who have a share as that of the rich are assured of a dependable education and stable job. This is not because poor people are legally restricted to be a part of the majority, but it is because there are laws that are apparently in favor of the rich than the poor. This results in more options and opportunities available for the rich than for the poor.            Swanson’s book unveiled the orientation of poor-bashing in a clean, strong manner. One example is the author’s analysis of how the media, particularly the reporters, function when they cover and tell stories about poverty. Swanson called this as the media â€Å"poornography†where the media utilizes many attacks to get and present poverty stories. In the book, media â€Å"poornography†depicts poor people as sufferers. Swanson said that this is part of the journalistic approach to â€Å"putting a face on the problem.†However, this media portrayal does not change the problem. This is because the said media approach fails to determine the real causes of poverty. Charity, financial aid, and welfare dependency offered to poor people oftentimes do not offer a solution to the poverty problem.            Despite the strengths of the book and that of Swanson’s arguments, they did not allow readers to draw their own conclusions and realize for themselves the main points of the issue of poor-bashing. Instead, the author dwells and banks on rhetorics about the need to solve the problems of classism, racism and sexism. Although these issues are valid, they made the book feel and look out of focus. The non-stop utilization of poor-bashing term or affiliation, apparently to picture evident situations pertaining to the problem, actually created a feeling for the public to be subjected to reader-bashing. This is simply because the book is all but representation of the poverty problem and poor-bashing in particular but without drawing a definite solution on how to address the said condition.             The book which depicts the poor as unworthy, lazy, possibly involved in criminal acts and a threat to stability of the society deviate attention away from the real problem of poverty. This is because it diverts the true reasons of poverty and unemployment into the poor people who are presented as victims of inequality. The book’s individualization of the causes to poverty and unemployment distracts focus on the actual solutions to the problem. These realities include legalities and corporate decisions that are designed to produce and promote the undermining of wages and employment conditions of the poor. The book turns out to be just an endless discussions of who are the poor yet deserving people. This eventually encourage self restriction instead of self-esteem among poor people. Even the book’s presentation of the creation and multiplication of profit and wealth among the undeserving rich is overdue and uncalled for.            In challenging poor-bashing, it should be understood by the poor that they are not to be blame for their conditions. There are factors to be considered such as an apprehension of the economic system that actually cause poverty and how treatment of poverty is supported by the government. One must learn and realize that there is enough profit and wealth to end poverty, for both the rich and the poor to share. People in turn, should benefit from poor-bashing and poverty. Poverty is a condition that entails government policy and the poor people that are subjected to poor-bashing actually benefits because they become cheaper in the labor market. Sometimes, the poor has to challenge bashing created not by poverty but by the condition resulting from the conditions of racism or sexism. The poor just have to dispute the depictions created by the term, myths, media, and the government.            Instead of stating proposals to address poor-bashing, the book should have encouraged the poor people to understand the underlying policies of the government, corporations, and media. These plans of action actually create confusion and exclusion and promote inequality and the feeling of blame. It is essential to unite crusades about poor-bashing with alliance against racism and other negative conditions of the society. It requires a lot of understanding and ultimately the need to build an organization of thoughts and actions. A concrete step is to end the kind of notion and feeling that group people into being poor or those on welfare dependency. This will not justify treating them badly and blaming them for poverty. There should be an end to blaming poverty to the poor or other oppressed people. In this manner, an adaptable and effective policies, laws, and economic system can be worked out that will allow poor people to productively compete against each other. Poverty should have a different and justifiable image. In the end, resolving poor-bashing requires addressing the issues of unequal distribution of wealth and income among all members of the society. With this, putting the blame of poverty on the poor would be stopped. Reference Swnson, J. (2001). Poor-Bashing: The Politics of Exclusion. Toronto: Between the Lines. Â
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