Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Foreword
- Introduction
- PART I The Inconvenient Truth: Poverty is Real
- PART II Turning the screw on poor people: shame, stigma and cementing of a toxic poverty narrative
- PART III Flipping the Script: Challenging the Narrative war on the Poor
- Notes
- Selected Further Reading
- Index
7 - Feeling it: the Truth About Living in Poverty
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 March 2021
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Foreword
- Introduction
- PART I The Inconvenient Truth: Poverty is Real
- PART II Turning the screw on poor people: shame, stigma and cementing of a toxic poverty narrative
- PART III Flipping the Script: Challenging the Narrative war on the Poor
- Notes
- Selected Further Reading
- Index
Summary
“Poverty consists in feeling poor.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson“There is a general ignorance about the lives led by poor Americans, an ignorance, whether real or feigned, that shapes public discourse about poverty and welfare, and policy itself.”
Stephen Pimpare, A People's History of Poverty in America, p 5Telling it like it is: the people on the poverty Frontline
When I first began to speak to people for Project Twist-It, a central part of what drove me was to gather and provide a place for the voices and insights of people with lived experience of poverty. What could they tell me about the reality of life when it is defined by financial insecurity? What would they tell all of us if they had a platform to talk about poverty? What would they say about the imbalance and inequality within our societies that kept people poor? How would they challenge the toxic poverty narrative? It turns out – they had a hell of a lot to say.
One of the first people to become involved with the project was the young documentary-maker Billie J.D. Porter, who grew up in poverty in London. Billie, an outspoken critic of the way poorer people are depicted and treated, wrote a blog for the website.
These are some of Billie's thoughts and observations:
There's such an overwhelming sense of guilt and shame when it comes to financial struggle. I was conflicted about how open to be in this post, because part of me almost feels disloyal by speaking about the difficulties my parents have faced over the years. It's not nice to think about the period not long ago when my father was begging on the street, or that my mum has to do a part-time cleaning job while having a lung disease and nearing retirement age. My decision to be private about this stuff, even to some of my close friends, has been nothing to do with vanity or pride, but more how twisted the public perception is of people who find themselves in similar, or worse, positions to those my parents have been in.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Shame GameOverturning the Toxic Poverty Narrative, pp. 197 - 220Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2020