Tagging Cobb back, I see a line that reminds me of an interview I did of my mother back when I was in undergrad. It’s a standard black cliche where I come from: “We didn’t realize how poor we were.” We didn’t feel poor, we didn’t act poor, although we probably should have after a manner of thinking. Only difference is, when my mom was talkin about it, she was talkin about how literally poor they were - they didn’t even have indoor plumbing at that time. What I’m thinkin about, or wondering really, is how much of an impact the consciousness of poverty has, versus poverty itself.
Back when I first started blogging, I was always quick to point out the difference between what we call poverty in America and absolute poverty. It’s kinda like looking at 0 on the centigrade scale and 0 on the Kelvin scale. What we call “poverty” is really just “brokeness,” in an absolute sense. American poverty is the inability to have the niceties we expect and are accustomed to having as Americans. For instance, I usedta have a friend back in the day that always said that if he ever got elected to some political position, he’d try to make it so nobody on welfare could have cable. Even back 15 years ago, cable television had ceased to be viewed as a luxury. I mean, given that I live a 99% tv-free lifestyle (okay, 97.67%. I do watch sports.) cable is still a luxury for me, but most people can’t even imagine watching TV without cable. If I watched all the time, I’d probably be the same.
All that’s just to say that for some people, the expectation is to have cable, so the lack of cable would indicate some level of poverty. It’s really not, but some folks might think so. Which kinda gets at the heart of my question. What is it that poor-but-don’t-know-it people do that ain’t-poor-but-think-so people don’t do? Working off my favorite model, I think this question is small enough to yield some workable results. What I don’t have is a complete answer. What I think, though, is that ignorance of poverty lends itself well to a sense of agency. I think the sense of lack can be quite debilitating. For some folks, it can be a motivating factor, but I think that there are many more who see it as a reason NOT to do a thing. I know that I thought we were poor for most of high school, so I almost never invited people from school to the crib. Then I saw some of their houses and realized that we weren’t as bad off as I thought. My guess, though, is that it can be a lot more significant than that.
In the Bible it says, “As a man thinks, so is he.” I think that definitely applies here.
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