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The Ripple Effects of Taking SNAP Benefits From One Person

Dec 11, 2019
9 min

The Ripple Effects of Taking SNAP Benefits From One Person

A new Trump-administration rule will cut food assistance for nearly 700,000 Americans, also affecting many of their relatives and housemates. Maggie Dickinson| The Atlantic | December 10, 2019 Last week, the Trump administration approved a new rule that is estimated to cut off nearly 700,000 unemployed people from food assistance provided by the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP (formerly known as food stamps). The rule, which makes it harder for states to wa

Our forgotten towns: struggle, resilience, love and respect in ‘back-row America’

Jun 5, 2019
8 min

Our forgotten towns: struggle, resilience, love and respect in ‘back-row America’

In his new book, Chris Arnade lays bare what life is like for America’s marginalized poor – and exposes the broken social systems that have betrayed them By Chris Arnade | The Guardian | June 5, 2019 In the Bronx’s Hunts Point neighborhood, I found myself going to McDonald’s every day – because everyone did. It was an essential part of my new friends’ lives. Without a stable home, they needed clean water, a place to charge a phone, a place to get free wifi. McDonald’s had all

Being Black in America Can Be Hazardous to Your Health

Jul 4, 2018
31 min

Being Black in America Can Be Hazardous to Your Health

In Baltimore and other segregated cities, the life-expectancy gap between African Americans and whites is as much as 20 years. One young woman’s struggle shows why. By Olga Khazan | The Atlantic | July 4, 2018 One morning this past September, Kiarra Boulware boarded the 26 bus to Baltimore’s Bon Secours Hospital, where she would seek help for the most urgent problem in her life: the 200-some excess pounds she carried on her 5-foot-2-inch frame. To Kiarra, the weight sometimes

How The ACORN Scandal Seeded Today’s Nightmare Politics

May 5, 2018
11 min

How The ACORN Scandal Seeded Today’s Nightmare Politics

Breitbart led the charge, but Democrats delivered the killing blow. Has anyone really learned? By Zach Carter and Arthur Delaney | The Huffington Post | May 5, 2018 It did not occur to Bertha Lewis to be afraid. She was watching the final presidential debate of 2008, and John McCain had just said something insane. “We need to know the full extent of Senator Obama’s relationship with ACORN, who is now on the verge of maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter histo

Poverty? Oh, that’s just a ‘state of mind’ for the Trump administration

May 26, 2017
4 min

Poverty? Oh, that’s just a ‘state of mind’ for the Trump administration

Ben Carson’s comments on poverty make sense in the context of Trump’s cruel joke of a budget which punishes low-income people By Jamie Peck | The Guardian | May 26, 2017 There has not been a lot of good news for the American poor lately. The post-recession “recovery” has left them behind, the wealth gap is widening and President Trump wants to cut billions of dollars from the social safety net so he can give tax cuts to rich people and build a wall on the Mexican border. Fort

The Inequality Project: the Guardian’s in-depth look at our unequal world

Apr 25, 2017
3 min

The Inequality Project: the Guardian’s in-depth look at our unequal world

Today the Guardian kicks off a new project investigating inequality of all kinds, all over the world. Here’s how we plan to approach it – and how you can get involved By Mike Herd / The Guardian / Tuesday 25 April 2017 00.58 EDT The Inequality Project is supported by Inequality is all around us – some all-too visible, much of it obscure and insidious. Experts are lining up in ever-greater numbers to warn of its harmful effects – from Professor Stephen Hawking, who wrote in th

PRIDE AND POVERTY IN AMERICA: Outside coastal bubbles, to say ‘America is already great’

Feb 21, 2017
8 min

PRIDE AND POVERTY IN AMERICA: Outside coastal bubbles, to say ‘America is already great’

Beyond the bubbles of the big cities and elite college campuses is an America that values community over careers, and has faced a downward trajectory for decades By Chris Arnade in Youngstown, Ohio / The Guardian / Tuesday, February 21, 2017 Anthony Rice’s house in Youngstown, Ohio is a mile away from a river valley once filled with factories offering jobs. Many of those left in the 1980s, and with them, many residents. His home is one of the few occupied on the street. Empt

In Navajo Nation, a Basketball Elder Earns Respect

Jan 3, 2017
9 min

In Navajo Nation, a Basketball Elder Earns Respect

In a place of poverty, social ills and fractured families, Raul Mendoza, 69, coach of the Chinle, Ariz., Wildcats, is a source of quiet strength for his young players. By MICHAEL POWELL JAN. 1, 2017: The New York Times More than 60 years ago, an American Indian boy climbed a mountain and peered across the Sonoran Desert. He saw the shimmering reflection of the Gulf of California and wondered about the world beyond. Then he returned to picking cotton in the fields of southern

Compassionless Conservatives

Sep 22, 2013
3 min

Compassionless Conservatives

Joe Peyronnin, Hofstra Journalism Professor Posted: 09/20/2013 9:19 am The Republican Party is vigorously pursing reductions in the federal budget that will severely impact those who most need help. What is worse, many in the party are willing to shut the government down and disrupt the global economy in order to make their point. Republicans in the House of Representatives, led by Speaker John Boehner, have scheduled a vote Friday on legislation to fund the government throug

The Federal Government Didn’t Lose the War on Poverty — It Retreated

Aug 26, 2013
3 min

The Federal Government Didn’t Lose the War on Poverty — It Retreated

Anthony W. Orlando: Lecturer in the College of Business and Economics at California State University, Los Angeles – Posted: 08/25/2013 6:26 pm In 1904, half the population of New York City lived below the poverty line. Half. Can you imagine? The poor were so numerous that they nearly outnumbered everyone else. Today, less than 20 percent of New Yorkers live in poverty. That’s still a serious problem, but it’s a far cry from 50 percent. Clearly, we did something right. But in

Invisible Children

Aug 11, 2013
3 min

Invisible Children

Marian Wright Edelman: President, Children’s Defense Fund Posted: 08/09/2013 2:31 pm “I would say that, well, obviously my high school didn’t prepare me for college.” –Darryl Briggs, youth leader and college student The third of five boys born in the Bronx to a single mother who dropped out of high school, Darryl Briggs was starting out with at least two strikes against him. Growing up poor, Black, and bright in the Bronx without guidance, by the time he got to high school he

Power Is in Your Person

Oct 6, 2012
4 min

Power Is in Your Person

Marian Wright Edelman – President, Children’s Defense Fund Posted: 10/05/2012 4:43 pm You know, when we started the farm workers movement, I remember going to many conferences, and people [kept asking] how do we do this… We had to convince people that they have power. Of course, when you say to a farm worker who doesn’t speak the English language, doesn’t have formal education, doesn’t have any assets, doesn’t have any money, that he or she has power, they say, ‘What kind of

Having Our Say

Sep 9, 2012
3 min

Having Our Say

Tavis Smiley – PBS talk show host, PRI radio host Posted: 09/07/2012 8:58 am Now that the conventions are over, time to prepare for the presidential debates. The candidates have homework to do, but so do we. There are roughly 300 million American citizens. Each one with an equal right to be heard. But four Americans have been given special status. Jim Lehrer, Bob Schieffer, Candy Crowley and Martha Raddatz: the four journalists selected by the Commission on Presidential Debat

Redefining Freedom in America

Sep 6, 2012
3 min

Redefining Freedom in America

Tavis Smiley: PBS talk show host, PRI radio host – Posted: 09/05/2012 12:00 am There’s been a lot of talk about “freedom” lately. There always is when Republicans gather. “Everything in America is free, but us.” Cute. “Our rights come from God, not from government.” Not so much. Republican guests on both my public television and public radio shows, including former presidential aspirants Newt Gingrich and Mike Huckabee, have suggested to me that the latter is the line that Ro

How We Cured “The Culture of Poverty,” Not Poverty Itself

Mar 15, 2012
5 min

How We Cured “The Culture of Poverty,” Not Poverty Itself

Barbara Ehrenreich – New York Times bestselling author Posted: 03/15/2012 9:44 am – Cross-posted with TomDispatch.com It’s been exactly 50 years since Americans, or at least the non-poor among them, “discovered” poverty, thanks to Michael Harrington’s engaging book The Other America. If this discovery now seems a little overstated, like Columbus’s “discovery” of America, it was because the poor, according to Harrington, were so “hidden” and “invisible” that it took a crusadin

Pursuing Justice for Children and the Poor Now

Mar 3, 2012
4 min

Pursuing Justice for Children and the Poor Now

Marian Wright Edelman: President, Children’s Defense Fund – Posted: 03/ 2/2012 4:44 pm I begin each year with a women’s spiritual retreat at CDF-Haley Farm’s leadership development center in prayer, silence, and song seeking God’s guidance for the year ahead. Our very thoughtful retreat leader, Shannon Daley-Harris, never fails to inspire and challenge us with her Bible study and stories — and this year was no exception. She reminded us of God’s non-negotiable demand through

Inequality, Poverty, and Why We’re Definitely Not Broke

Mar 2, 2012
2 min

Inequality, Poverty, and Why We’re Definitely Not Broke

I participated in a debate Thursday morning on the role of government in poverty reduction. A couple of “curious” points came up from the conservative side which I keep hearing lately and which make little sense to me. First, on inequality, Michael Tanner from the Cato Institute couldn’t understand why I kept going on about inequality. It doesn’t have anything to do with poverty (Scott Winship of the Brookings Institution made a similar argument in a Senate hearing a few week