The Black Informant | African American Commentary, News and Community Building

well i cant say im surprised at the figures, but in reading the title of this post alone i had already formed my answer…

i dont think that it is fair to say that a person who hasnt experienced poverty cant advocate for those who do. i do think that not knowing what it is like can hinder your effectiveness to a certain extent. there might be a certain passion or urgency that is lost if you dont fully understand the gravity of the issue and know firsthand the effects that it can have.

alternatively, its not feasible to expect all activists to have a firsthand knowledge of everything they advocate, sometimes an empathetic heart/spirit can make you an effective advocate.

what does strike me as interesting is that, as you stated, some in the blackosphere have made the plight of the poor Blacks the sum of the Black American experience. i would then ask, what of the deeper issues that cause this poverty…the social, psychological, systemic issues that have contributed towards this poverty. better yet…the hard thing about being a black blogger who writes on poverty issues, is that in writing a blog about it, and getting a dialogue going, you are to a certain extent excluding those who you seek to help. clearly i think if you are to help ANY group, and you cant identify with them, you have to be in contact with them to find out whats really good – keep your ear to the streets, so that you know what the people are after.

yes i do think we can hold politicians up to the task, because the reason why they are in office in the first place is to represent the people. the problem with that has now become the fact that we are a less engaged and less informed citizenship here in the US and have allowed politicians to run amuck without holding them accountable in a fair and just manor. everything is so skewed and biased these days that some of us expect a politician to be corrupt as if the two are synonymous – though these days it is proving more and more to be the case. yet what we ought to do is to have those who are more informed, inform those who arent (however that might be) and get together and take a greater stake in this country.

lastly…and my apologies for all this writing, lol..Katrina was a beacon call for all Black folks to unite…and bemoan how this country does nothing for us. it was a reminder that here in the US black = expendable. and for a moment we were all united in the horror and the hurt, but i think like all things that are sensational, eventually the sensation dies down and leaves those who are dealing with the issues in real life without an ear to listen or a voice with which to speak. the blackosphere, great as it is for the sharing of information and ideas…i dont think a blog can move people to act on a large enough scale to get some real changes going. i dont think that we should stop writing and sharing ideas, but i think that for me – looking at how the blackosphere seems to operate…its like an issue will pop up and for a second it will be a hot topic (the Jena 6 for example), but outside of the blackosphere it will remain dormant and most folks wont even know about whats going on, or better yet wont feel compelled enough to act.

Bless

Your question is a difficult one, but I will do my best with it. I was a senior in college when Katrina destroyed New Orleans. I left the Sunday before the storm and returned to New Orleans the following January. First hand, New Orleans is a completely different place. Disillusioned, I think, is a good way to describe the people in the city. It was a very hard time to be happy, trying to finish college seeing boats in the streets, homes destroyed, x’s on doors numbering the dead, not to mention all the missing people. Even the small things made life hard. For instance, I spent my first day back unpacking and checking my room and my friends rooms for mold, at around 5pm we got hungry and had to drive to Metaire (suburbs) to get something to eat. As we drove down the road we started to see the lights go out at the fast food restaurants. It was no time to be choosy. We pulled into a KFC and the door was locked. It was not even 6 o’clock. The manager came to the door and we explained our situation and she let us in, but let us know that they were closing because they were almost out of food. (KFC almost out of food). We were the last to get food, but we were lucky to get some chicken and mashed potatoes (the only side item they had left). I knew that this was the biggest problem in N.O. but it just let me know that things are very different. I lived on Xavier’s campus until I graduated in April and went back to Atlanta (my hometown)

I share that story to say this. I lived one part of Katrina, not all. I have my story that is much brighter than other’s. I did not lose everthing like many others I know, but Katrina effected my life forever, as I believe it has effected people that had know connection to the region prior to Katrina. Frankly, I wonder about anyone who was not moved by Katrina and her devastation. So I was happy that black people rally around katrina victims including those who voice their opinions on the internet. I do, however, wish we could unify more and make some progress, less talk and more action. I think blogging is important and dialogue is beneficial, but I would encourage those on the internet, including myself, to take action.

The same can be said about proverty. I do not consider myself rich or poor (I don’t have a computer in my home now, but have access). But I know what it’s like to struggle. My mom made less than 30,000 For me it comes in waves. I’ve been without a house/apartment, but I’ve never been homeless, thanks to a tight-knit family. I’m going on another tangent so I’ll get to my point. Those that have never been poor can effectively speak on the subject, when they are genuine. Still, there is a difference between sympathy and empathy. Those people can never fully understand poverty, just as white abolitionish could never understand being black, and I can never understand losing everything in Katrina. But if we don’t say anything then who will? In this case something is better than nothing. Some politicians have felt it necessary to experience poverty. I think it is the major of Newark who lives in a project building w/o hot water. My only question with that is why doesn’t he get some hot water in there? Complicated I know.

Thanks for the site. I just found it today. You are living up to the name

If the blackgosphere breakdown is like the over all break down, and that break down is accurate, I don’t see why not, especially since other surveys state that members of the Black middle class “give back” to family members. As such, “they” still have contact.

I know I do.

Here is another thought on this matter–

I think that it is fair to say that much of the Black blogosphere has been somewhat negative towards mega churches and crooked preachers yet a good percentage of our demographic are their biggest supporters. You would not know that reading most Black blogs. ‘Class’ may play a role in this, but then again it may be something else.

I think that it is fair to say that much of the Black blogosphere has been somewhat negative towards mega churches and crooked preachers yet a good percentage of our demographic are their biggest supporters. You would not know that reading most Black blogs. ‘Class’ may play a role in this, but then again it may be something else.

I think something else.

No you do not have to expirence poverty to articulate the issues relating to it. And I have to disagree that poverty is anywhere near the sum total of Black Blogs. It’s under talked about in my view. If Black bloggers where so concerned about poverty John Edwards would have gotten a lot more support in the Black Blogosphere. And by support I don’t mean he would have necessarily been picked as the candidate of choice over Obama; but he would have at least been way more in the conversation.

Now I understand that I’m commenting to this months after the fact and you may not even see it; but anyway I’m in that second highest household income bracket now; but I have been poor. So where one is now doesn’t tell the story of where one has been.

I have to reject this notion that you intimate that on the whole that Black folks who are well off don’t “associate with the poor”. While I think the poverty issue isn’t paramount to middle class Black America, and there are certainly some who make it a point not to be involved with the poor; so many of us are related to poor folks, go to church in poor neighborhoods; have longtime friends that haven’t made it yet, ect; that it’s hardly reality just to assume that because a Black person is not poor that they don’t associate with the poor.

This may be much more true for whites, but being that so many of us are only one or two generations from having been poor; and one or two paychecks away from being their again, it’s not so much the case.

I guess what I’m saying is that you assume a little too much absolutism; but there is some smoke to your fire.

And I have to disagree that poverty is anywhere near the sum total of Black Blogs.

Actually, what I said was the following:

“…many of us have made the plight of the Black poor the sum-all of the Black American experience,

I guess what I’m saying is that you assume a little too much absolutism; but there is some smoke to your fire.

Next time, take more time reading the post instead of jumping to conclusions. Just this one time, let me re-post everything I said in this post for you. Notice that most of it were QUESTIONS. I intentionally did not draw any conclusions with this post.

I raise this question only because since many of us have made the plight of the Black poor the sum-all of the Black American experience, just how many of us who write day in/day out basis to our own blogs about issues such as poverty actually know what it is like to live in that situation? Was the Katrina experience nothing more than a flash in the pan solidarity movement by Black folks online who would normally not associate with this segment of our society? Does one have to have experienced poverty in order to articulate the issue? And if so, why do we expect our politicians to have such experience?

Next sentence…

Very hard questions indeed.

I could add some commentary to this, but I think I much rather wait to see what kind of comments this post yields before adding my two cents. I may even create a whole separate post altogether depending on how the rest of my goes.

Read, my brutha, READ!

First of all politician are elected to represent. If they haven’t experience poverty first hand or researched impoverishment or looked and smelled the pain of the dispair they cannot totally represent. Politicans who favor war tortune have no relationship to the brutality of slavery. Those who have benefited from others peoples stolen pension funds have little guilt toward the small time investor who lost everything. The unequal tax regulation leaves the poor unaccounted for while the wealthy declare building affordable housing in their community dimishes their property value or lowers their community. They don’t understand the benefits of giving back. They are so far removed they don’t link help with helplessness. The experience of poverty is regulated through unjust laws. Politicians protect the enterprise. Rich executives are a collage of Goliaths running an all-point wrecking machine over government and business and complain about janitor’s wages and farm workers meager profits and hospital workers who care for their parents. Poverty supports the welfare assistance enterprise.

Just as you have to be in it to win it, you cannot adequately address poverty if you sit in high places. Politians are obligated to represent taxpayers who are one paycheck away from being poor.