Activity 2: “Why are people poor?”
OUTCOMES:
- To understand that poverty is systemically created by global systems of injustice
- To determine that WHY one thinks people are poor is linked to HOW one tries to solve the problem of poverty.
TERMS: Poverty, Impoverishment, Exploitation
ARTIFACTS: none
PROCEDURES:
- Collect two lists: 1. Why people are poor? and 2. What do other people say about why people are poor (what do you overhear people saying about poor people?)?
- Compare lists. What do we see? (List 1 is more systemic, list 2 is more individual/ “blame the victim”).
- This activity may take a lot of coaching from the facilitators. Try to get students to see the difference between words that do two things: 1. Blame the victims and 2. Name systemic injustices.
- We want students to see that how they diagnose the problem of poverty will determine the types of solutions they generate to solve the problem of poverty.
- We want students to begin to transition from thinking about people being “in poverty” (a passive state) to being “impoverished” (the results of intentional acts of exploitation).
- Additional Activity: Take photographs of the different neighborhoods in your city to show the differences in wealth in the community. Ask students to compare and to explain why in the same city there is such disparity.