What's up Okayplayers...I'm new to the boards, so be gentle with me, while I respond.

I definitely think there are some cultural influences that arrive as a result of poverty. Just the other day I watched in almost horror while Maria Shriver interviewed some women in Cali for Dateline, I think. There was this one chick who hadn't worked her entire life, had 5 kids by different fathers, and then, when allowed to be a part of a program that subsidized her moving out of the projects into a nice middle class neighborhood & offered her job training...this 29 year old woman said it was harder to work than we understood (and that's why she turned down job training on 3 occassions). I almost threw the remote at the TV. I was past disgusted. Her acting downright ig'nant on national tv just made my heart hurt. She's an example of how the effects of poverty can influence the culture created by people living in those conditions.

The happy part of the story is that sister finally got herself together, by getting a GED and computer training. So the poverty & culture can be overcome, it just takes an inner resolve and some exposure to a world greater than the one in which people live.

That's my take on it in any case.


"If I don't like it, I don't like it...that don't mean that I'm hatin'!" Common