Pre Assessment

Gloria Ho

Professor Breech

English 120 L13

31 August 2014

Diana George “Changing the Face of Poverty” Pre Assessment

Poverty has been a persisting issue throughout the globe and with the help of nonprofits and other organizations the situation has caught the attention of the public. In America, extreme forms of poverty that occur globally are spread throughout the media in order to urge citizens to help become a part of the solution. In the article “Changing the Face of Poverty: Nonprofits and the Problem of Representation” the author, Diana George, conveys how poverty in America is ineffectively and inaccurately projected towards the public. She illuminates various forms of poverty in America, establishing that not only those who are homeless or in horrible living conditions, are considered poor and in need of help. Through personal observation George explains that while nonprofit organizations such as Habitat for Humanity have created an image for the public to what poverty looks like, it works against their objective. Overall, George argues and proves that poverty is an issue that can only be improved by addressing individual situations.   

Throughout the article George portrays the necessity of treating cases of poverty respectively. She argues that due to how poverty is represented in public media; people and families who are in “dirt and rags and helplessness” (543), the poverty commonly seen in America; people receiving state aid but don’t have jobs or young homeless people who are capable of making their own money, are viewed as undeserving of help when compared to what “true” poverty looks like such as those in Third World countries. Although many of such extreme forms of poverty that nonprofit organizations send out to the public are present in America and is a method that successfully attracts the masses, it does not encourage them to help those who are struggling financially in their own neighborhood, community or even country. Ultimately, George suggests that such organizations should bring to light the more common and less represented forms of poverty that “can be dealt with by volunteers on an individual basis” (550). In order to successfully convince the masses to join the fight against poverty is to alter the public’s perspective on the poor and focus on the common and individual faces of poverty in America.

Overall, I agree with George’s argument that poverty is currently misinterpreted in America. As I too viewed poverty in stereotypical way, I have come to realize that it is rather unjust to compare one form of poverty to another. Though it is incredibly easy to do so due to public media, as stated in the article, we are told again and again that poverty is a “worldwide problem” (545) and because it a worldwide problem we compare the poverty we see in America (or particularly in New York for me) with the extent of poverty in other countries. By doing this it makes the situation of poverty in America seem “not as bad” and thus creating the mindset of “they don’t need or deserve help”. However, such mindset it wrong. While poverty commonly seen in America consists of situations such as one mentioned in the article, where unemployed young men and women who are physically and mentally able to make a living are receiving aid from the government and spend money on material goods they cannot afford (548), it is still a form of poverty and is deserving of help. In conclusion, while media has created a misrepresentation of poverty the first step to change is to develop a new meaning and understanding of many forms of poverty in America