Giancarlo Caballero
The Struggle of Poverty and Racism
Struggle can be defined as the experience of having bad or dark times, such as being in poverty or a loved one dying. Many individuals rehash that struggle is good. It can be good because sometimes going through struggle and getting out of it can teach you valuable life lessons that could last a life time! Others believe that struggle is gloomy. Much probe has been operated on this topic. This essay will argue that in the face of what some believe, struggle, specifically poverty and racism, is multi-dimensional and has implications that can harm us.
Struggles are multi-dimensional. We notice this in the book, “Breaking Through”. For example, Panchito and his family have the struggle of being undocumented. Due to this, Panchito lives in fear that one day, he will be deported. An example could be the line of text in the book that says, “He lived in constant fear for 10 long years”. A different example was that, Panchito was deported by one that was very close to him (Unknown). Lastly, at the end of the chapter, Panchito and his family are deported and are taken back to Mexico. This shows that struggle can be multi-dimensional in many ways.
Along the lines of struggle being multi-dimensional, we can also frisk its implications. Once again using “Breaking Through” Panchito struggles with poverty. Poverty affects Panchitos health, education, living conditions, and treatment. There are many examples in the book that show the implications of his poverty. One example is how his classmates stereotype him a lot (pg.15). This shows how poverty affects education. Also, Poverty affects health, this is due to Panchitos dad’s back problem which cannot be cured due to not having the money to go to the hospital. This shows how their own poverty affects how they live their life and if they are healthy or not. Living conditions are also affected. Due to poverty, the family lives in a poor small ranch and are forced to work in the fields, (Jimenez pg.8-14), poverty also affects how he is treated (Jimenez pg.13) the doctors treat him like some kind of monster, they also acted disgusted by just seeing him, most likely for being Mexican. This shows how poverty can implicate a lot on someone life!
In addition to “Breaking Through”, the implications of poverty are also found in various internet sources. Poverty affects education and according to ‘The Impact on Educational outcomes for children”, It said, “The incidence, depth, duration, and timing of poverty all influence a child’s educational attainment, long with community, characteristics, and social networks”. The website is trying to explain that Poverty can affect how a child acts in public and how he acts socially, if he is social or not, and how he/she performs in school. In addition, according to, www.dosomething.org it said,” 40 percent of children living in poverty aren’t prepared for primary schooling”. This shows how Poverty can also even affect how the child learns in life and at home. Furthermore, another example is also from,www.dosomething.org. It said,” Children living in poverty have a higher number of absenteeism or leave school all together because they are more likely to have to work or care for family members”. This shows how poverty can affect how children do in school. Lastly, according to www.dosomething.org as well, it said,” Dropout rates of 16-24 old students all came from low income families”. As you can see this is the reason poverty affects education and how it is also found in various sources in the media.
In addition to education, poverty also affects living conditions. This is also shown in many examples in the media. For example, according to “Native American Rights” article, it says,” The housing shortage on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation is so severe that only 16 people living in a 4-bedroom house is considered lucky. Next door, there are 23 people in a 3-bedroom house” (Rapid City Journal, no url mentioned nor author). Implicates on how their own poverty affects how they live overall. Another example can be found in www.clifsnotes.com it said,” Middle and working class Hispanic families have not left their barrios, or urban Spanish speaking neighborhood, in large numbers”. This evidence shows how even if poverty affects their living conditions, they won’t give up on their neighborhood, they will keep on trying. Lastly, also according to “Native American Rights”, it also stated,” Despite the promises, hundreds of people on Pine Ridge Reservation are homeless”. These are examples on how poverty affects, not only education, but also many things such as living conditions.
Not only living conditions, but also treatment is affected by poverty. This is also shown in various examples from the media. An example is from,” en.wikipedia.org”, on the website it said,” Unemployment rates for African Americans are typically double those of Caucasian Americans”. This implicates on how African American people are less likely to get a job because of racism. Furthermore, a different example is also from,” en.wikipedia.org”. It said,” African American men working full time earn 72 percent of the average earnings of comparable Caucasian men”. This shows how people are racist most times and discriminate other people and treat them differently. Lastly, an example is also from,” www.CommonDreams.org”. It said,” In at least 30 state legislatures across America, predominately wealthy politicians are quite impressed with themselves for considering bills that would limit the meager amount of state help given to needy families struggling to make ends meet.” This example shows how wealthy people can take advantage on how they treat poorer families. These examples can help us understand how wealthy people can sometimes treat people struggling with poverty in different ways.
Finally, the one thing that poverty also affects is health. This is shown in an example from,www.Healthypovertyaction.org. It says,” Infectious and neglected tropical diseases kill and weaken millions of the poorest most vulnerable families every day”. This same website also stated this,” The causes of poor health on millions globally are rooted in political, social, and economic injustices.” Lastly, the last example is from,www.childreninpoverty.org, it says,” Many infants born into poverty have a low birth weight, which is associated with many preventable mental and physical disabilities. These are all examples on the implications of poverty affecting different things worldwide!
In conclusion, this essay has shown how struggle is multi-dimensional and has implications that can harm us. Some may argue that poverty is good for you. It can be good due to the wisdom you gain by passing through struggle. This may be true but I believe struggle is bad because of its effects on Poverty, Living conditions, Health, and lastly Treatment.
Poverty and struggle could have immense effects on the U.S., this is due to many things. For example, too many Families in poverty could really affect the population in the U.S. and people will most likely, start dying from hunger. Also, most people would be desperate to take any jobs, so there will most likely be no jobs left for the poor. The U.S. could also be affected from the crowd control. For example, they could take them to prison for no reason! These are only a sum of the negative effects of Poverty on the U.S.
Poverty is not the only struggle that has negative implications; racism is just as damaging. According to, www.Dictionary.com racism is defined as,” A belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human races determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one’s own race is superior and has the right to rule others”. In other words, racism is when a different race discriminates other races, due to them thinking their own race is superior.
Racism is also found in “Breaking Through”. An example is how Panchito is discriminated by his friend Peggy and her family. This is shown when Panchito enters her home they ask Panchito if he is Spanish, smiling. However but the moment he says he is Mexican. The parents decide to tell Peggy to stay away from Panchito for being Mexican. Another example is also found. When Roberto gets a girlfriend (Jimenez, Broken Heart), the girlfriend also invites him to her house. The parents ask him where the name Jimenez came from, the moment he says he’s Mexican, the parents start to glare at him, and also ignore him for the rest of the day. The next day, the girlfriend tells Roberto that her parents told her to stay away from him, but she won’t. So they keep dating, but after a while, she can’t take it anymore and she breaks up with him and starts seeing someone else. These examples are just scratching the surface, there are many more examples, but they are too many to even be mentioned!
The movie, 42, about the Jackie Robinson story, shows examples of racism and its implications. An example could be how when Jackie got accepted into the baseball team, he had to take a flight to New Jersey. However, the receptionist lady, for being racist, gave away Jackie and his wife’s tickets to someone else. She did this because she saw Jackie’s wife go into the “whites” bathroom and she got “offended”. Another example can be how when Jackie plays Baseball, instead of the pitcher yelling, “Hey Batter Batter Batter!” he yells, “Hey Nigger Nigger Nigger!” Usually, in Baseball, the phrase hey batter is used to either distract the batter or to make him concentrate, however, the man was being racist and saying nigger instead of batter in a way to offend Jackie. These are examples that show how “42” has racism and how It shows its implications.
Racism hasn’t only happened to Jackie, but it has also been experienced by my brother Jack. People are usually racist against him for having dark skin and for being Mexican. One example is how one time, he and I walked to 7-Eleven. I had my 3DS in my pocket and he had his phone in his pocket. When we finished getting what we wanted, we went to pay. The lady saw my DS bulging out of my pocket but she didn’t know it was a 3ds and she also saw my brother’s phone bulging out but didn’t know it was a phone. Instead of asking both of us what it was, she only asked my brother. This shows how she was racist against my brother for having dark skin and being Mexican, instead of me for having white skin. Something similar happened in Halloween how he had a giant bag filled with candy and a man asked him how he got the bag, my brother responded by saying he got them by trick-or-treating, the man didn’t believe him and just started overreacting and getting really mad, I also had a giant bag but he didn’t ask me anything at all. This shows how he was being racist against my brother for having dark skin instead of me. Not only is Jackie affected by racism but so many people can be affected by just saying one thing.
Throughout this essay, I have argued on how struggle, specifically poverty and racism, can harm you. Regardless of that, Kelly McGonagall on TED Talk, talks about how she believes stress can help you and that it is your friend. She shares that stress, regardless of what kind, creates hormones that can actually give you more energy, can also make you live longer than usual, and can also increase your heart rate. In my opinion, I strongly disagree with Kelly. First of all, stress can still harm you even if believing that it is good, this is because stress, specifically racism and poverty, can really affect how you think and feel about your life and your world, making you, most likely, fall unto depression. Second, stress can still affect how you behave overall, making you negative and less social, also making you feel lonely and depressed, which can harm you. Lastly, the stress of being in poverty can really affect how much you work and how much less you actually can rest during your day, making you negative, grumpy, and lastly depressed. Overall, these are my arguments that can prove that stress can be harmful to you.
As you can see, these are the reasons that the struggle of poverty and racism has harmful implications that can highly injure us. The baseball star, Jackie Robinson, was highly affected by just being called one word, “Nigger”. We can also see that a now successful Mexican man had the struggle of having to work at the age of 15 to support his family in poverty while being discriminated. Also how many people around the world are being affected by racism and poverty, yet nobody does anything about it. Now I want to ask you something, can YOU and everybody else change all of these horrible things happening on our own world and lives? I challenge you to change all of this, to turn the tables around and to stop racism and poverty once and for all!
The Struggle of Poverty and Racism
Struggle can be defined as the experience of having bad or dark times, such as being in poverty or a loved one dying. Many individuals rehash that struggle is good. It can be good because sometimes going through struggle and getting out of it can teach you valuable life lessons that could last a life time! Others believe that struggle is gloomy. Much probe has been operated on this topic. This essay will argue that in the face of what some believe, struggle, specifically poverty and racism, is multi-dimensional and has implications that can harm us.
Struggles are multi-dimensional. We notice this in the book, “Breaking Through”. For example, Panchito and his family have the struggle of being undocumented. Due to this, Panchito lives in fear that one day, he will be deported. An example could be the line of text in the book that says, “He lived in constant fear for 10 long years”. A different example was that, Panchito was deported by one that was very close to him (Unknown). Lastly, at the end of the chapter, Panchito and his family are deported and are taken back to Mexico. This shows that struggle can be multi-dimensional in many ways.
Along the lines of struggle being multi-dimensional, we can also frisk its implications. Once again using “Breaking Through” Panchito struggles with poverty. Poverty affects Panchitos health, education, living conditions, and treatment. There are many examples in the book that show the implications of his poverty. One example is how his classmates stereotype him a lot (pg.15). This shows how poverty affects education. Also, Poverty affects health, this is due to Panchitos dad’s back problem which cannot be cured due to not having the money to go to the hospital. This shows how their own poverty affects how they live their life and if they are healthy or not. Living conditions are also affected. Due to poverty, the family lives in a poor small ranch and are forced to work in the fields, (Jimenez pg.8-14), poverty also affects how he is treated (Jimenez pg.13) the doctors treat him like some kind of monster, they also acted disgusted by just seeing him, most likely for being Mexican. This shows how poverty can implicate a lot on someone life!
In addition to “Breaking Through”, the implications of poverty are also found in various internet sources. Poverty affects education and according to ‘The Impact on Educational outcomes for children”, It said, “The incidence, depth, duration, and timing of poverty all influence a child’s educational attainment, long with community, characteristics, and social networks”. The website is trying to explain that Poverty can affect how a child acts in public and how he acts socially, if he is social or not, and how he/she performs in school. In addition, according to, www.dosomething.org it said,” 40 percent of children living in poverty aren’t prepared for primary schooling”. This shows how Poverty can also even affect how the child learns in life and at home. Furthermore, another example is also from,www.dosomething.org. It said,” Children living in poverty have a higher number of absenteeism or leave school all together because they are more likely to have to work or care for family members”. This shows how poverty can affect how children do in school. Lastly, according to www.dosomething.org as well, it said,” Dropout rates of 16-24 old students all came from low income families”. As you can see this is the reason poverty affects education and how it is also found in various sources in the media.
In addition to education, poverty also affects living conditions. This is also shown in many examples in the media. For example, according to “Native American Rights” article, it says,” The housing shortage on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation is so severe that only 16 people living in a 4-bedroom house is considered lucky. Next door, there are 23 people in a 3-bedroom house” (Rapid City Journal, no url mentioned nor author). Implicates on how their own poverty affects how they live overall. Another example can be found in www.clifsnotes.com it said,” Middle and working class Hispanic families have not left their barrios, or urban Spanish speaking neighborhood, in large numbers”. This evidence shows how even if poverty affects their living conditions, they won’t give up on their neighborhood, they will keep on trying. Lastly, also according to “Native American Rights”, it also stated,” Despite the promises, hundreds of people on Pine Ridge Reservation are homeless”. These are examples on how poverty affects, not only education, but also many things such as living conditions.
Not only living conditions, but also treatment is affected by poverty. This is also shown in various examples from the media. An example is from,” en.wikipedia.org”, on the website it said,” Unemployment rates for African Americans are typically double those of Caucasian Americans”. This implicates on how African American people are less likely to get a job because of racism. Furthermore, a different example is also from,” en.wikipedia.org”. It said,” African American men working full time earn 72 percent of the average earnings of comparable Caucasian men”. This shows how people are racist most times and discriminate other people and treat them differently. Lastly, an example is also from,” www.CommonDreams.org”. It said,” In at least 30 state legislatures across America, predominately wealthy politicians are quite impressed with themselves for considering bills that would limit the meager amount of state help given to needy families struggling to make ends meet.” This example shows how wealthy people can take advantage on how they treat poorer families. These examples can help us understand how wealthy people can sometimes treat people struggling with poverty in different ways.
Finally, the one thing that poverty also affects is health. This is shown in an example from,www.Healthypovertyaction.org. It says,” Infectious and neglected tropical diseases kill and weaken millions of the poorest most vulnerable families every day”. This same website also stated this,” The causes of poor health on millions globally are rooted in political, social, and economic injustices.” Lastly, the last example is from,www.childreninpoverty.org, it says,” Many infants born into poverty have a low birth weight, which is associated with many preventable mental and physical disabilities. These are all examples on the implications of poverty affecting different things worldwide!
In conclusion, this essay has shown how struggle is multi-dimensional and has implications that can harm us. Some may argue that poverty is good for you. It can be good due to the wisdom you gain by passing through struggle. This may be true but I believe struggle is bad because of its effects on Poverty, Living conditions, Health, and lastly Treatment.
Poverty and struggle could have immense effects on the U.S., this is due to many things. For example, too many Families in poverty could really affect the population in the U.S. and people will most likely, start dying from hunger. Also, most people would be desperate to take any jobs, so there will most likely be no jobs left for the poor. The U.S. could also be affected from the crowd control. For example, they could take them to prison for no reason! These are only a sum of the negative effects of Poverty on the U.S.
Poverty is not the only struggle that has negative implications; racism is just as damaging. According to, www.Dictionary.com racism is defined as,” A belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human races determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one’s own race is superior and has the right to rule others”. In other words, racism is when a different race discriminates other races, due to them thinking their own race is superior.
Racism is also found in “Breaking Through”. An example is how Panchito is discriminated by his friend Peggy and her family. This is shown when Panchito enters her home they ask Panchito if he is Spanish, smiling. However but the moment he says he is Mexican. The parents decide to tell Peggy to stay away from Panchito for being Mexican. Another example is also found. When Roberto gets a girlfriend (Jimenez, Broken Heart), the girlfriend also invites him to her house. The parents ask him where the name Jimenez came from, the moment he says he’s Mexican, the parents start to glare at him, and also ignore him for the rest of the day. The next day, the girlfriend tells Roberto that her parents told her to stay away from him, but she won’t. So they keep dating, but after a while, she can’t take it anymore and she breaks up with him and starts seeing someone else. These examples are just scratching the surface, there are many more examples, but they are too many to even be mentioned!
The movie, 42, about the Jackie Robinson story, shows examples of racism and its implications. An example could be how when Jackie got accepted into the baseball team, he had to take a flight to New Jersey. However, the receptionist lady, for being racist, gave away Jackie and his wife’s tickets to someone else. She did this because she saw Jackie’s wife go into the “whites” bathroom and she got “offended”. Another example can be how when Jackie plays Baseball, instead of the pitcher yelling, “Hey Batter Batter Batter!” he yells, “Hey Nigger Nigger Nigger!” Usually, in Baseball, the phrase hey batter is used to either distract the batter or to make him concentrate, however, the man was being racist and saying nigger instead of batter in a way to offend Jackie. These are examples that show how “42” has racism and how It shows its implications.
Racism hasn’t only happened to Jackie, but it has also been experienced by my brother Jack. People are usually racist against him for having dark skin and for being Mexican. One example is how one time, he and I walked to 7-Eleven. I had my 3DS in my pocket and he had his phone in his pocket. When we finished getting what we wanted, we went to pay. The lady saw my DS bulging out of my pocket but she didn’t know it was a 3ds and she also saw my brother’s phone bulging out but didn’t know it was a phone. Instead of asking both of us what it was, she only asked my brother. This shows how she was racist against my brother for having dark skin and being Mexican, instead of me for having white skin. Something similar happened in Halloween how he had a giant bag filled with candy and a man asked him how he got the bag, my brother responded by saying he got them by trick-or-treating, the man didn’t believe him and just started overreacting and getting really mad, I also had a giant bag but he didn’t ask me anything at all. This shows how he was being racist against my brother for having dark skin instead of me. Not only is Jackie affected by racism but so many people can be affected by just saying one thing.
Throughout this essay, I have argued on how struggle, specifically poverty and racism, can harm you. Regardless of that, Kelly McGonagall on TED Talk, talks about how she believes stress can help you and that it is your friend. She shares that stress, regardless of what kind, creates hormones that can actually give you more energy, can also make you live longer than usual, and can also increase your heart rate. In my opinion, I strongly disagree with Kelly. First of all, stress can still harm you even if believing that it is good, this is because stress, specifically racism and poverty, can really affect how you think and feel about your life and your world, making you, most likely, fall unto depression. Second, stress can still affect how you behave overall, making you negative and less social, also making you feel lonely and depressed, which can harm you. Lastly, the stress of being in poverty can really affect how much you work and how much less you actually can rest during your day, making you negative, grumpy, and lastly depressed. Overall, these are my arguments that can prove that stress can be harmful to you.
As you can see, these are the reasons that the struggle of poverty and racism has harmful implications that can highly injure us. The baseball star, Jackie Robinson, was highly affected by just being called one word, “Nigger”. We can also see that a now successful Mexican man had the struggle of having to work at the age of 15 to support his family in poverty while being discriminated. Also how many people around the world are being affected by racism and poverty, yet nobody does anything about it. Now I want to ask you something, can YOU and everybody else change all of these horrible things happening on our own world and lives? I challenge you to change all of this, to turn the tables around and to stop racism and poverty once and for all!