A Framework for Understanding Poverty (9 page)

Even in telling me some of those stories that involve a great deal of humiliation at the hands of hospital or welfare personnel, she usually manages to find something that's funny in the madness of it all and keeps on saying things that make both of us laugh (in describing Mrs. Washington).

- Jonathan Kozol, Amazing Grace

DEBRIEFING THE WALTER CASE STUDY

The Walter case study is an example of many of the issues in generational poverty. The family members all live together. Momma is still the most powerful position and these children are nearly 50. Momma will always make excuses for her children. After all, they are her children. The matriarchal structure and possession of people are there. She decides their guilt and punishment, not some outside authority. She leans on the self-righteous defense of being moral and Christian, but not in the middle-class sense of Christianity. For her it is simply one of unconditional love. Reality is the present-what can be persuaded and convinced in the present. Future ramifications are not considered by anyone. Entertainment is key, whether it is moral or not.

The neighbors' view of the situation gives more insight into the reality of generational poverty. While there is a deep distaste for sexual abuse of children, the story is really to make fun of Walter and his family, as well as spread the news. Humor is used to cast aspersions on the character of Walter and his family. In many of these stories, aspersions would also be cast on the legal system and "rich lawyers." But there is an attitude of fate or fatalism; what are you going to do about it? That's the way it is.

FAMILY PATTERNS IN GENERATIONAL POVERTY

One of the most confusing things about understanding generational poverty is the family patterns. In the middle-class family, even with divorce, lineage is fairly easy to trace because of the legal documents. In generational poverty, on the other hand, many marital arrangements are common-law. Marriage and divorce in a legal court are only important if there is property to distribute or custody of children. When you were never legally married to begin with and you have no property, why pay a lawyer for something you don't have, don't need, and don't have the money to purchase?

In the middle class, family diagrams tend to be drawn as shown at the top of page 55. The notion is that lineage is traceable and that a linear pattern can be found.

In generational poverty, the mother is the center of the organization, and the family radiates from that center. Although it can happen that the mother is uncertain of the biological father, most of the time the father of the child is known. The second diagram on page 55 is based on a real situation. (Names have been changed.)

In this pattern, Jolyn has been legally married three times. Jolyn and Husband #i had no children. Jolyn and Husband #2 had one child, Willy. They divorced. Husband #2 eventually married the woman he lived with for several years, and they had a child together. She also had a son from a previous marriage. Willy has a common-law wife, Shea; Shea and Willy have a daughter. Jolyn and Husband #3 lived together several years before they were married, and they have a son named M.J. When M.J. was 13 he had a child with a 13-year-old girl, but that child lives with the girl's mother. Husband #3 and Jolyn divorced; Jolyn is now living with a woman in a lesbian relationship. Husband #3 is living with a younger woman who is pregnant with his child.

DIAGRAM OF MIDDLE-CLASS FAMILY

DIAGRAM OF FAMILY FROM GENERATIONAL POVERTY

The mother is always at the center, though she may have multiple sexual relationships. Many of her children also will have multiple relationships, which may or may not produce children. The basic pattern is the mother at the heart of things, with nearly everyone having multiple relationships, some legal and some not. Eventually the relationships become intertwined. It wouldn't be out of the question for your sister's third husband to become your brother's ex-wife's live-in boyfriend. Also in this pattern are babies born out of wedlock to children in their early teens; these youngsters are often raised by the grandmother as her own children. For example, the oldest daughter has a child at 14. This infant becomes the youngest child in the existing family. The oldest daughter, who is actually the mother of the child, is referred to as her sister-and the relationship is a sibling one, not a mother-daughter one.

But the mother or maternal grandmother tends to keep her biological children. Because of the violence in poverty, death tends to be a prominent part of the family history. But it is also part of the family present because the deceased plays such a role in the memories of the family. It is important to note when dealing with the family patterns who is alive and who is deadbecause in the discussions they are often still living (unless you, the listener, know differently).

Frequently, in the stories that are brought to school officials, the individual will tell the story in the episodic, random manner of the casual-register story structure. Key individuals are usually not referred to during the story because making reference to them isn't part of the story structure. The most important keys to understanding the story are often the omissions. For example, when someone says, "He left," you can pretty much predict who "he" will go stay with when there is trouble. If he is having trouble with his mother, he will go stay with an ex-wife or a girlfriend. If he is having trouble with his current wife, he will go stay with his mother. Women tend to go stay with their sisters and sometimes their mothers. Whether or not a mother or ex-wife is mentioned in the story, if the family is in generational poverty, you can be fairly certain that these are key players. You can also be fairly sure that the males are in and out-sometimes present, sometimes not, but not in any predictable pattern. Furthermore, you can know that as the male temporarily or permanently changes residences, the allegiances will change also.

Additionally within these families there tend to be multiple internal feuds. Allegiances may change overnight; favoritism is a way of life. Who children go to stay with after school, who stays with whom when there is trouble, and who is available to deal with school issues are dependent on the current alliances and relationships at that moment. For example, Ned comes home drunk and beats up his wife, Susan. She calls the police and escapes with the three kids to her mother's house. He goes to his mother's because she arranges to get him out of jail. His mother is not speaking to Susan because she called the cops on him and put him in jail. But Ned's mother usually keeps his kids after school until Susan gets home. Now it is Monday and Susan doesn't have any place to send the kids. So she tells them to go to her mother's house after school, which means they must go on a different bus because she doesn't know if Ned will show up at the house and be waiting for her. On Tuesday the kids again go to Susan's mom's house. But on Wednesday Ned's mom calls Susan and tells her that that no-good Ned got drunk last night and she kicked him out of her house. So now Susan and Ned's mother are good friends, and Ned is on the hot seat. So Ned goes to the apartment of his ex-wife, Jackie, because last week she decided she'd had enough of Jerry, and she was very glad to see Ned ... And so the story continues.

The key roles in these families are fighter/lover, caretaker/rescuer, worker, storyteller, and "keeper of the soul" (i.e., dispenser of penance and forgiveness). The family patterns in generational poverty are different from the middle class. In poverty the roles, the multiple relationships, the nature of the male identity, the ever-changing allegiances, the favoritism, and the matriarchal structure result in a different pattern.

The economic traits which are most characteristic of the culture of poverty include the constant struggle for survival, unemployment and underemployment, low wages, a miscellany of unskilled occupations, child labor, the absence of savings, a chronic shortage of cash, the absence of food reserves in the home, the pattern of frequent buying of small quantities of food many times a day as the need arises, the pawning of personal goods, borrowing from local money lenders at usurious rates of interest, spontaneous informal credit devices (tandas) organized by neighbors, and the use of second-hand clothing and furniture.

- Oscar Lewis, Four Horsemen

HOW THESE CHARACTERISTICS SURFACE WITH ADULTS AND STUDENTS FROM POVERTY

Place a check mark in front of the items that describe students or adults with whom you regularly interact. They ...

Also...

? Men socialize with men and women with women. Men tend to have two social outlets: bars and work. Women with children tend to stay at home and have only other female relatives as friends, unless they work outside the home. Men tend to be loners in any other social setting and avoid those social settings. When a man and a woman are together, it is usually about a private relationship.

? A real man is ruggedly good-looking, is a lover, can physically fight, works hard, takes no crap.

? A real woman takes care of her man by feeding him and downplaying his shortcomings.

NOTE: In generational poverty, the primary role of a real man is to physically work hard, to be a fighter, and to be a lover. In middle class, a real man is a provider. If one follows the implications of a male identity as one who is a fighter and a lover, then one can understand why the male who takes this identity (of fighter and lover as his own) cannot have a stable life. Of the three responses to life-to flee, flow, or fight-he can only fight or flee. So when the stress gets high, he fights, then flees from the law and the people closest to him, leaving his home. Either way he is gone. When the heat dies down, he returns-to an initial welcome, then more fights. The cycle begins again.

HOW THESE CHARACTERISTICS SURFACE AT SCHOOL

Place a check mark in front of the items that describe students with whom you regularly interact. They ...