Discrimination Affects Poverty in the Black Community

Malana Crofoot

Unit 3 Project

HN200: Social Problems

Kaplan University

11/08/2011

DISCRIMINATION DIRECTLY AFFECTS POVERTY IN THE BLACK COMMUNITY

Discrimination has existed for centuries. People have always found another group that they see as different from themselves, label them as less than them, and oppression begins. It is a sad but true fact. More often than not, the oppressed group falls into poverty. For this topic, I decided to discuss the plight of black people in America because I am one. My grandparents and parents told me their horror stories of the past and I feel, although it is said in pretense to save face, all black people are not allowed the same opportunities as others. A healthy percentage of them live in poverty and the problem of discrimination put them there.

Blacks are in a social group called a minority group. It is defined in our reading as, “A group, whose members share distinct physical and cultural characteristics, are denied access to power and resources available to other groups and are accorded fewer rights, privileges, and opportunities.” (Sullivan, 2010) Based on this definition, we can see how blacks in America fall right into this group. According to the National Poverty Center 27.4% of blacks live in poverty. (Percentage rates for single parent black women are even higher.) (NPC, 2010)

After over 4 million blacks endured, severe abuse, rapes, separation from loved ones, murder among other things during slavery. Then we then had to fight for civil rights. This was supposed to be a nation of civilized people, yet they treated others that were different with a brutal hatred. (We fought to be treated civil by a so-called civilized nation, irony) We had to fight segregation which is defined by the Encarta World English Dictionary as “enforced separation of groups. Practice of keeping ethnic, racial, religious, or gender groups, separate, especially by enforcing the use of separate schools, transportation, housing and...