Perceptions on the Culture of Deprived Minorities

                In William Julius Wilson’s The Truly Disadvantaged, different perspectives are formed around those of less fortunate or less affluent lives than the cushy, comfortable, and capable lives of the middle and upper class. One of the constant ideas is that people living in these conditions are in such a position due to their own personal shortcomings or decisions in life, however in many of these cases, that couldn’t be further from the truth and these perceptions cycle around to impact younger generations of the future. Some initial issues faced by the disadvantaged that oftentimes have perceptions formed of them are those of family structure and joblessness, and the youth certainly don’t have it easy in these respects.

                When considering family structure, one key examination is who is heading the household. In many of the more disadvantaged communities of the cities, it is found to be all the more prevalent that women take on these leadership roles. Amongst young teens within the cities, pregnancies are an ever-present issue, especially in the minority populations, and unfortunately, blame and judgment are pointed at the young women involved. However, the majority of the times, these pregnancies are unwanted, either accidental, or otherwise, and they can all be pointed at the parameters of the disadvantage (the structure), not the disadvantaged themselves. In an accidental pregnancy, this could be the case due to poor education and in turn, kids never learning how to protect them through contraception. The mother in most cases, and based on reasons to be discussed, will opt to raise the child on her own, leaving the family in already-dwindling hopes for an advantaged life.

                In joblessness, one of the greatest populations affected, just like in family structure, is the young minority. In the black, or otherwise minority, male communities, people may view joblessness as a sign of laziness. However, many manufacturing jobs in cities that were once the life blood of young black urbanites are now no longer there for them to seek work within. Alternative means need to be found, but those are not always the most attractive opportunities and do more harm for this disadvantaged population than good, as well as for young generations to come.

                I found these two larger populations, the female heading a household and the jobless young man, as being two parts of a spiral that continuously spins deeper and deeper into disadvantage. These two populations feed into a mutual difficulty in thriving, not based on what they are personally capable of or choosing to do by personal choice or culture, but based on the social structures that keep them disadvantaged. One of the major reasons that young women claimed to not get married is due to the lack of work held by the man with whom they had a child. They found the men who were jobless, along with not having the means to support a child, also possessed a higher potential for incarceration statistically, which are all things that would certainly not help in the raising of a child. Concurrently young black males without jobs have had less generous amounts of employment opportunity. For this reason, people turn to other innovative means in order to make money, and with high joblessness, some of those money making opportunities are not so legitimate, which could land them in jail, with absolutely no hope for making money to support mother and baby.

                With this split between a mother who feels it is necessary to raise her child on her own as well as the father’s inability to support the family because of low job opportunities and other circumstances that may come sequentially to that, it leaves children to be raised by other assistive means like government programs geared towards helping the disadvantaged gain the bare necessities. However, many of these programs over time have altered their practices due to being taken advantage of. Through this, many of very deserving families lost the opportunity to these basics. Regulations were put in place to limit the duration of welfare assistance, increase restrictions on who could use it or why, and increased incentives based on one’s education or degree of childcare, however people who need assistance cannot do much to improve their situations within these fields and are hindered greatly by these parameters. All the while, the use of these assistance programs has given fuel to those with negative perceptions of the disadvantaged, saying that they use those programs out of laziness or incompetence. Although these programs are meant to combat poverty, they are not pulling people out of poverty financially and they are shaping the way that people view the impoverished, which all equals to the disadvantaged staying disadvantaged.