Two of my favorite authors are James Baldwin and Richard Wright. I grew up reading their enlightening books. These literary trailblazers wrote about living black in America. They were both world renowned authors who wrote about the plight of black Americans. They disagreed on some issues but both wrote about memorable and liberating moments in their lives and history.
Poverty and disadvantage goes hand in hand. Discriminatory actions caused many black people to distrust some white people and law enforcement officers. Many black people lived in a constant state of fear. This fear led to stress and unhealthy behaviors. Systemic and Individual Racism leads to poverty, poverty leads to crime and crime leads to violence. Racism and discrimination affects every aspect of one’s life.
According to studies done by Pew Research Center, people of color consistently voice greater concern about the magnitude of problems in their community. Poverty, crime, racism, jobs, access to good doctors and hospitals, and access to high-speed internet are some of the major problems. There is a racial divide when it comes to housing, quality of public schools, access to grocery stores and transportation.
My niece and I posted previous blogs about disparities in healthcare and socio determinants of health. People of color may be affected disproportionately by inadequate education, inadequate healthcare, and an unjust criminal justice system. Poor individual choices also lead to poverty, crime and violence. Many times, people may not realize why they make poor choices and impulsive decisions. They may feel trapped in a bubble of despair.
There is correlation between poverty and crime. Poor neighborhoods are more likely to be affected by crime. Research studies support that children and adolescents exposed to violence are at risk for long term behavioral and mental health problems. These are important public health issues. People can be exposed to violence in various ways. They may be direct or indirect victims. Repeated exposure may be linked to an increase in negative health outcomes. During my high school years, I lived in a crowded public housing project and was exposed to crime on an almost daily basis. I became hypervigilant and found myself looking for potential dangers or threats. I knew this was not the way I wanted to live my life. While living in poverty, I made a plan to get out of poverty and remain out of poverty.
Effects of poverty can lead to higher levels of stress, anxiety and mental illness. A person’s psychological and physical development can be impacted. It can also lead to a higher level of chronic and complex medical conditions. Many poor people saw their lives immobilized while seeing others reach the American dream. Their dignity and rights were destroyed. They were trapped in a racist history which they didn’t understand. Others were also trapped because of a limited education. Because they didn’t understand the cycle of poverty, they didn’t know the way out. My pathway out of poverty started with education. I learned to live in poverty but didn’t let poverty live in me.
When my family and I moved from a rural area to an urban area, I witnessed a different type of poverty. People living in poverty are in survival mode. They are trying to make it safely through the day. Multiple families and unrelated people were living in small spaces. People tried to escape the harsh realities of life through alcohol and other drug abuse. This often led to crimes, convictions and incarcerations. As a result, many people became ineligible for public assistance, driver’s license, and meaningful employment. Not much has changed since I lived in poverty. Many people feel hopeless, depressed and are in pain because of unjust treatments and either speak about it, internalized it, or act it out. Terror may develop out of devastation. Many poor black people learned to endure oppression or use it against each other. Others learned how to develop their own exit strategies from poverty.
Many black males lost their lives or freedom over false allegations of sexual assault. When any crime occurred, poor black people, especially males, were high on the suspect list. Many were arrested and served time for crimes they did not commit. When I was growing up, my parents taught my three brothers how to respond to the police or other law enforcement officers when stopped. My sister and I were taught how to respond to avoid sexual assaults.
As a teenager, I read one of my father’s books, Native Son by Richard Wright. His book explained the racial divide in America by social conditions imposed on black people by some white people. As an adult, I read the book again in an effort to understand the actions of the main character, Bigger Thomas. Wright wrote “Black people are the necessary product of the society that formed them and told them since birth exactly who they were supposed to be.” The main character was conscious of a system of racial oppression that leaves him no opportunity to exist but through crimes. In a world attracted to wealth, crime is a reaction to the environment. The author wrote that Bigger drank alcohol to forget his hard life. His life of crime was the only thing he owned. Wright wrote “Everyone has a hunger for life that must be fulfilled.” Unfortunately, sometimes this hunger involves a life of crime. Sadly, in Bigger’s case, crime was the most meaningful thing that ever happened to him.
Like Bigger, some people are influenced by criminal behavior. They may be broken and feel hopeless. When people are desperate, sometimes crime is the only way to escape. It serves as a temporary need to relieve pain and feel alive. It usually occurs when all other opportunities are denied or cut off. People may resort to victimizing each other simply due to close proximity.
Segregation was developed as a means of putting social, political and economic distance between the races. Poor people are considered to be in a powerless position. In the book, Black Boy, by Richard Wright the author wrote, “Pre-individualist behavior is forced on one group of people by another. The result is that people in the oppressed group becomes invisible and faceless. The humiliated, disrupted lives of black people did not end with the emancipation. Black people were not welcome in white society and were forced to live in poverty. Black’s value as people was determined by whites.” Black Americans fought and died fighting for our country but we still do not fully experience the freedoms as white people. There is more work to do so everyone can be treated with the same dignity and respect.
James Baldwin was born and raised in Harlem and struggled against alienation and hatred in his native land. As a young man, he received a literary fellowship, left the streets of Harlem and lived in France. In his book, Notes Of A Native Son, he wrote “Society produces its own criminals. To many people, crime is their only career.” His writings show the nations struggle for justice and equality.
He wrote about being in a Swiss village and called a derogatory name by the Swiss children. He wrote, “In the beginning I was far too shocked to have any real reaction. I reacted by trying to be pleasant because it was part of black people’s education that he must make people “like” him. History is a nightmare from which no one can awaken. People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them.”
He wrote, “ I find myself among a people whose culture controls me, created me, cost me more in anguish and rage than they will ever know, yet who do not even know of my existence.” He wrote about the rage that black men felt because of the realization of power by white men. He wrote, “The white man prefers to keep the black man at a certain human remove because it is easier for him thus to preserve his simplicity and avoid being called to account for crimes committed by his forefathers or his neighbors.”
He compared his experience in the Swiss village to the word hurled by the children there to the word hurled by Americans. He reasoned the experience was different. He was a stranger in the village and the children’s expression was that of wonder. He was not a stranger in America and the same expression produced war in his soul. He wrote, “American white men still nourish the illusion that there is some means of recovering the European innocence, of returning to a state in which black men do not exist. The world is white no longer, and it will never be white again.”
Sadly, there had not been much change in our native land. The interracial and socioeconomic drama that takes place on American soil must cease. The social conditions that create the perceived need for crime must be addressed. This is addressed by equal and meaningful opportunities in the form of laws, housing, and well -paying jobs. Poor people and other marginalized groups are denied involvement in economics, political and social activities but this must change. We are not invisible and faceless. We all have power to affect change and prevail over poverty.
References
Baldwin, James. October 1955. Notes of A Native Son. New York, New York. Bantam Books.
Pew Research Center. Website. Accessed July 7, 2020.
Wright, Richard. 1945. Black Boy. Harper & Brothers.
Wright, Richard. March 1, 1940. Native Son. Harper & Brothers.