This book is dedicated to all people who suffer from the injustices of poverty and those who are in the position to solve poverty. This is a story about those who have suffered and continue to suffer the effects of poverty and wonder why and want a better understanding of the issues that sustain poverty and why it exists in the first place. It is a journey through poverty itself by way of the Chicago Housing Projects during the 1960's. There are two reasons why poverty continues in our society today, firstly, and foremost, ...
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This book is dedicated to all people who suffer from the injustices of poverty and those who are in the position to solve poverty. This is a story about those who have suffered and continue to suffer the effects of poverty and wonder why and want a better understanding of the issues that sustain poverty and why it exists in the first place. It is a journey through poverty itself by way of the Chicago Housing Projects during the 1960's. There are two reasons why poverty continues in our society today, firstly, and foremost, self interest by most of society and certainly those who are charged with helping to solve the poverty issue. Secondly, the poor themselves who maintain the injustices that are imposed upon them by programs, such as welfare and others. The rules of these programs themselves create a systemic dependency which does nothing to validate the human being and self-respect. When those who depend on the systemic injustices of welfare and low quality education, they do not get validated; instead, they get labeled. The poor become infected by what these labels say about them and this creates future generations of poverty stricken families. The main systemic problem of poverty is that the poor do not get their self-respect validated by the very rules imposed upon them by the systems that exist to help them. There is no incentive or opportunity for the poor to move away from poverty and beyond the system's dependent structure which, ultimately, exists for its own benefit. The combination of self interest and believe in the system by the poor negates self-worth and self-respect and gives rise to the systemic continuation of poverty itself. Once the poor understands the injustice and the fire that sustains it, they can conquer poverty by way of self-validation and asserting self-respect which will take them outside the boundaries imposed upon them and ultimately into a successful, poverty free way of life. Validation, self-respect, self-worth and forgiveness were beliefs of James Baldwin, the novelist, essayist, and playwright, who had many insights on the topics of systemic racism. Many of James Baldwin's ideas can be applied to the issues of generational poverty. This is a book that is highly intense and personalized. It is a story that illustrates the systemic natures of people, those who are in control and those who are affected by the control. It is also a story of how some people have found their way out of the pathway of systemic poverty and began to lead a successful life once they did. It is a memoir of the past with a great promise of understanding and seeing beyond poverty itself.
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