bleh
Sometimes I wonder why I am still working this job. I am torn between idealistic visions of making an impact and the harsh reality of doing what I do. I have learned even more how much you can't help people if they are not motivated from within and am tired of expending so much energy on things that do not happen.
For example, the workshops that help people develop their "soft" skills in the workplace. People do not take advantage of the opportunity that is right in front of them. It's like a barrier between us. It's that mentality of the working poor vs. the mentality of the middle-class person who wants to help them get out of poverty. How do you change an adult's mindset to so-called "middle class" values?
I had dinner with Joan the other night and she asked me, Why do you care so much about other people, when they don't even care about you? i.e. the two girls that I was "helping". Joan is not a cold-hearted person; I admire and look up to her so I pay attention when she asks me these things.
In the end we are alone and have our own journey to take and our own decisions to make. It is a sad fact. You can have all this government money and resources but if people are not motivated to use them, then why do it? I am learning in my Workforce Development Professional certification that something like 60% of people on welfare who get a job through programs such as those through Social Services, lost that job.
It's "un-P.C." to say these things, that people don't want to work, and that people would rather call themselves a victim than try to empower themselves...and then they have low self-esteem, coupled with everything else that goes on, and it's just extremely difficult to try to change this about them when they are adults. Class differences, alive and well in America.
I just remember being with Kelvin and trying to help him and I wonder if I did anything at all to make an impact on his life. Some people would say dating his is way of making up for some kind of guilt of being middle-class and light-skinned? i.e. slummin' This is a VERY cynical assesement of the relationship, but I do wonder, What is my motivation in "helping people"? I don't think that was my motivation at all, I think I am motivated in helping people, because I used to be depressed, and I don't want people to be depressed. Because I know what it feels like, and it can only be worse than what I went through for others in a worse situation.
Kelvin was a classic example of someone who would not be empowered, of someone who was scared of responsibility. I am so ashamed of calling him out on his "ghetto mentality" because he has had a rough life. But on the other hand, I feel like he needed to understand that he did have the power to change. This is not necesarily class-based. There are middle class and upper class people who dont know this either, and I am not saying that I am perfect in this issue because I am not. It's a human issue made more complex becasue of class.
Is that patronizing? Because I feel like many so called liberals are patronizing when they deal with touchy race-class-poverty issues. I am not going to do what many liberals do, and apologize for the life he had, and here's your check to assuage your unhappiness and lack of self-esteem. I feel like learning what used to be called in the 50s "middle class" values is the answer: personal responsibility, strong character, disipline, delayed gratification, etc. Many people will say that is is a "conservative" idea, but it really isn't about labels. Being a strong person is being a strong person. What I am saying is, You don't have to be middle class to have strong values, or to have a good life, but it helps. It's tried and true, but it is hard to be a good person especially if you have a bad environment around you. How much is from environment, how much is from your own free will?
Let us center in on housing projects. I remember reading about a Richmond City councilman saying that when socialism takes over, underground capitalism is inevitable. i.e. Russia, but also right here in Richmond, New York, any city.
When the government pays your rent, the underground capitalism of drugs takes over. And it is true? Housing projects and drugs go hand in hand it seems. But this is an interesting idea.
Let us imagine What would happen if welfare did not exist? You see photos of Harlem in the 1930s and 1940s: sharp-looking, black middle class men and women. Bronx in the early days of the twentieth century: wasn't that middle class or working class Irish? Now its all poor Latinos. Harlem in the 1960s and 1970s: crack, crime, housing projects. Who came up with housing projects anyway? What a horrible idea. With the middle class leaving the cities for the suburbs (tax incentives) you have the poorest of the poor in one place. Segregation that is voluntary or not? How much of these bad conditions are made worse by public policy that has no foresight?
All the people who "made it" and were sucessful and middle class gone, and no role models. How did that all happen? Interstate 95 cut through a middle class black neighborhood in Richmond - Jackson Ward - and now that area is not the best area?
Did you ever notice, that interstates are always near bad neighborhoods? Is that something that happens when an interstate is built...I think so. And it happened in New York, too. Pelham Parkway.
Race, place, and the law! There are many socioeconomic strata in one area. And it's invisiable largely to the people who aren't living there. Why?
Anyway, Here I am philosophizing about my line of work, instead of doing work. lol. Someone comment.
For example, the workshops that help people develop their "soft" skills in the workplace. People do not take advantage of the opportunity that is right in front of them. It's like a barrier between us. It's that mentality of the working poor vs. the mentality of the middle-class person who wants to help them get out of poverty. How do you change an adult's mindset to so-called "middle class" values?
I had dinner with Joan the other night and she asked me, Why do you care so much about other people, when they don't even care about you? i.e. the two girls that I was "helping". Joan is not a cold-hearted person; I admire and look up to her so I pay attention when she asks me these things.
In the end we are alone and have our own journey to take and our own decisions to make. It is a sad fact. You can have all this government money and resources but if people are not motivated to use them, then why do it? I am learning in my Workforce Development Professional certification that something like 60% of people on welfare who get a job through programs such as those through Social Services, lost that job.
It's "un-P.C." to say these things, that people don't want to work, and that people would rather call themselves a victim than try to empower themselves...and then they have low self-esteem, coupled with everything else that goes on, and it's just extremely difficult to try to change this about them when they are adults. Class differences, alive and well in America.
I just remember being with Kelvin and trying to help him and I wonder if I did anything at all to make an impact on his life. Some people would say dating his is way of making up for some kind of guilt of being middle-class and light-skinned? i.e. slummin' This is a VERY cynical assesement of the relationship, but I do wonder, What is my motivation in "helping people"? I don't think that was my motivation at all, I think I am motivated in helping people, because I used to be depressed, and I don't want people to be depressed. Because I know what it feels like, and it can only be worse than what I went through for others in a worse situation.
Kelvin was a classic example of someone who would not be empowered, of someone who was scared of responsibility. I am so ashamed of calling him out on his "ghetto mentality" because he has had a rough life. But on the other hand, I feel like he needed to understand that he did have the power to change. This is not necesarily class-based. There are middle class and upper class people who dont know this either, and I am not saying that I am perfect in this issue because I am not. It's a human issue made more complex becasue of class.
Is that patronizing? Because I feel like many so called liberals are patronizing when they deal with touchy race-class-poverty issues. I am not going to do what many liberals do, and apologize for the life he had, and here's your check to assuage your unhappiness and lack of self-esteem. I feel like learning what used to be called in the 50s "middle class" values is the answer: personal responsibility, strong character, disipline, delayed gratification, etc. Many people will say that is is a "conservative" idea, but it really isn't about labels. Being a strong person is being a strong person. What I am saying is, You don't have to be middle class to have strong values, or to have a good life, but it helps. It's tried and true, but it is hard to be a good person especially if you have a bad environment around you. How much is from environment, how much is from your own free will?
Let us center in on housing projects. I remember reading about a Richmond City councilman saying that when socialism takes over, underground capitalism is inevitable. i.e. Russia, but also right here in Richmond, New York, any city.
When the government pays your rent, the underground capitalism of drugs takes over. And it is true? Housing projects and drugs go hand in hand it seems. But this is an interesting idea.
Let us imagine What would happen if welfare did not exist? You see photos of Harlem in the 1930s and 1940s: sharp-looking, black middle class men and women. Bronx in the early days of the twentieth century: wasn't that middle class or working class Irish? Now its all poor Latinos. Harlem in the 1960s and 1970s: crack, crime, housing projects. Who came up with housing projects anyway? What a horrible idea. With the middle class leaving the cities for the suburbs (tax incentives) you have the poorest of the poor in one place. Segregation that is voluntary or not? How much of these bad conditions are made worse by public policy that has no foresight?
All the people who "made it" and were sucessful and middle class gone, and no role models. How did that all happen? Interstate 95 cut through a middle class black neighborhood in Richmond - Jackson Ward - and now that area is not the best area?
Did you ever notice, that interstates are always near bad neighborhoods? Is that something that happens when an interstate is built...I think so. And it happened in New York, too. Pelham Parkway.
Race, place, and the law! There are many socioeconomic strata in one area. And it's invisiable largely to the people who aren't living there. Why?
Anyway, Here I am philosophizing about my line of work, instead of doing work. lol. Someone comment.