“In the treatment of poverty nationally, one fact stands out: there are twice as many white poor as Negro poor in the United States. Therefore I will not dwell on the experiences of poverty that derive from racial discrimination, but will discuss the poverty that affects white and Negro alike.” StatesFactsWhitePoorUnitedPovertyUnited StatesDiscriminationTreatmentStanding OutRacial Discrimination Author:Martin Luther
“I assume the president's going to say he got bad intelligence... I think that wherever you see poverty, whether it's in the white rural community or the black urban community, you see that the resources have been sucked up into the war and tax cuts for the rich.” ThinkingHas BeensWarAmericaBlackPresidentCommunityWhitePovertyRichCuttingTaxesResourcesAssumingUrbanTax CutsRural Communities Author:Charles Rangel
“The unemployed, poverty-stricken white man must be made to realize that he is in the very same boat with the Negro. Together, they could exert massive pressure on the government to get jobs for all. Together, they could form a grand alliance. Together, they could merge all people for the good of all.” PeopleMenMadeGovernmentTogetherJobsFormRealizingWhitePovertyPressureBoatMassiveWhite ManAlliancesUnemployed Author:Martin Luther King, Jr.
“You mix the affluence of the white and the poverty of the black and you do not get a civilized society. Integration on an equal level is one thing. Mixing on an unequal level is another.” BlackWhiteLevelsPovertyOne ThingEqualRacismEqualityCivilizedIntegrationMixingAffluenceCivilized Society Author:Marya Mannes
“In a process that had begun in the 1980s and suddenly accelerated in the early 2000s ... [t]he peaks of great wealth grew higher, rising up beyond the clouds, while the valleys of poverty sank lower into perpetual shadow. The once broad plateau of the middle class eroded away into a narrow ledge, with the white-knuckled occupants holding on for dear life.” ProcessWealthWhiteClassPovertyMiddleGrewHigherShadowDearCloudsRisingMiddle ClassBroadsValleysPerpetualHolding OnRising UpLedgesDear Life Book:Going to Extremes: Notes from a Divided Nation Source: Going to Extremes: Notes from a Divided Nation
“the wealthy white western minority of the world could not hope to prosper if most of the rest of mankind were foundering in hopeless poverty. Islands of plenty in a vast ocean of misery never have been a good recipe for commercial success.” IfsWorldHas BeensWhitePoorPovertyRichMankindOceanMiseryWesternPlentyIslandsMinoritiesHopelessWealthyRecipesRich And PoorVast Ocean Author:Barbara Ward, Baroness Jackson of Lodsworth
“The white poor also suffer deprivation and the humiliation of poverty if not of color. They are chained by the weight of discrimination though its badge of degradation does not mark them. It corrupts their lives, frustrates their opportunities and withers their education. In one sense it is more evil for them because it has confused so many by prejudice that they have supported their own oppressors.” IfsDoeSufferingEvilOpportunityWhitePoorPovertyColorWeightPrejudiceMarkDiscriminationConfusedHumiliationDegradationOppressorsDeprivationBadgesChained Author:Martin Luther King, Jr.
“There's an awful lot of white British kids who have never really gone hungry, always had a roof to live under but at the same time are desperately unhappy. It's not total poverty, just a poverty of ideas.” IdeasKidsWhitePovertyGoneBritishHungryUnhappyAwfulRoof Author:Richey Edwards
“Economic justice is not just something blacks are crying out for; whites are desperate for it, too. But in the public imagination, the face of poverty is black. In all actuality, the face of poverty is white.” FacesBlackImaginationJusticeWhitePovertyEconomicCryDesperateActualityEconomic Justice Author:Darryl Pinckney
“I grew up in a mobile home, but it wasn't like white trash - it was a beautiful mobile home park, I had a loving mother, there were kids everywhere, there was a playground in the center, I just grew up in poverty.” HomeKidsBeautifulMotherWhitePovertyGrewGrew UpParksTrashMobilePlaygroundsWhite TrashLoving Mother Author:Taryn Manning
“It's just cheaper to be White in America than it is to be Black, because of educational advances, because of the police incidents, because of the poverty we grow up in as African-Americans. So, it's just cheaper in this country if you're born a Caucasian than being born a Black person.” IfsPersonsCountryAmericaGrowsBlackBornWhitePovertyGrowing UpPoliceEducationalAfrican AmericanIncidentsCheaperBlack PersonCaucasian Author:Warren Ballentine
“I actually believe that some residue of discrimination would lessen, because it's my view that there is a certain percentage of the white population that stereotypes and makes assumptions about African Americans because they don't inject the history of slavery and Jim Crow into current incarceration rates, or crime rates, or poverty rates, or what have you.” BelieveCertainWhiteViewsPovertyCrimeSlaveryRatePopulationCurrentsDiscriminationAfrican AmericanAssumptionStereotypePercentagesCrowIncarcerationJim CrowCrime Rates Author:Barack Obama
“It is important to remember when reading Adam Smith or even when just thinking about Smith that the era that he lived in, we're not talking about poverty in a day when it meant not enough bedrooms for the kids, an old car, a black and white television. We're talking about a whole world where poverty meant not enough to eat.” ThinkingWorldImportantEnoughWholeKidsRememberReadingBlackWhiteTalkingPovertyCarTelevisionWhole WorldErasAdamBlack And WhiteBedroomRemember WhenNot TalkingOld Car Author:P. J. O'Rourke
“We would never throw up our hands and say to those white boys - well, too bad, if you had just stayed away from marijuana or not dealt dope to your friends when you were 18 you wouldn't be serving a life sentence in prison right now. You wouldn't be locked out of jobs, unable to even get work at McDonalds. No, instead we'd say, "What's wrong with us as a nation that we would condemn so many of our young men to a life of poverty, exclusion, and scorn simply because they made a few mistakes in their youth?".” IfsMenWellsMadeHandsJobsYoungNationsWhiteMistakeBoysPovertyYouthRight NowPrisonSentencesYoung ManServingMarijuanaLockedScornDopeExclusionMcdonalds Author:Michelle Alexander
“Martin Luther King was bumped off unjustly, Adam Clayton Powell was bumped off unjustly, they took my title unjustly, they killed Megers Ever unjustly, all the integrators who love white folks, was unjustly kicked out of Washington, they've been deprived of education and poverty throughout the country.” CountryWhitePovertyKingsFolksTitlesAdamDeprivedLuther Author:Muhammad Ali