Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Mokokoma Mokhonoana

Quote by Mokokoma Mokhonoana

Author

Mokokoma Mokhonoana

Browse famous quotes and profile details for Mokokoma Mokhonoana. more

You May Also Like

“When I found your name, in my early adulthood, I don't think I'd ever heard the term "white working class". The experience it describes contains both racial privilege and economic disadvantage, which can exist simultaneously. This was an obvious, apolitical fact for those of us who lived that juxtaposition every day. But it seemed tomake some people uneasy, as though our grievance put us in competition with poor people of other races. Wealthy white people, in particular, seemed to want to distance themselves from our place and our truth. Our struggles forced a question about America that many were not willing to face: If a person could go to work every day and still not be able to pay the bills and the reason wasn't racism, what less articulated problem was afoot?”

AmericaPovertyWorking ClassKansas
Book:Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth
Create image

“Over the last fifty years, poverty has come to be seen not just as an economic failing but also as a moral one, prompting a pervasive suspicion that the poor are secretly living cushy lives on government benefits. A Pew poll found that wealthy Americans mostly agreed that "poor people today have it easy because they can get government benefits without doing anything in return.”

Poverty
Book:Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope
Create image

“Throughout this book, we've tried to argue that America has gone astray by perceiving poverty or drugs simply as a choice or as the consequence of personal irresponsibility. Yet in another sense, poverty is a choice. It is a choice by the country. The United States has chosen policies over the last half century that have resulted in higher levels of homelessness, overdose deaths, crime and inequality--and now it's time to make a difference choice.”

PovertyHomelessDrugs
Book:Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope
Create image