Seeds of discontent; Episode 3 of 26

This is the third in a series of programs and titled The seeds of discontent. Here to present the program is hard for Smith Jr. supervisor of the screening at intake unit maintained by the Michigan Department of Social Services delinquency rehabilitation programs. Mr. Smith thank you welcome again to seeds of discontent. Tonight we begin the first of two programs dealing with a large subculture of poverty. It is essential that this large area of human problems be brought into focus. If the vicious and dehumanizing forces of despair and hopelessness are to be eradicated. According to recent statistics there are between 25 to 20 million people in this country who are living at or below a basic level of subsistence in years past this country has looked at the poor as being evil persons who were by some act of God punished for their sins and immorality and other times our country has looked at the poor as lazy persons who

simply did not want to work. We have finally come to the realisation slowly and by no means with a great degree of consensus that the problems of the poor are problems which must be looked at in terms that go beyond the moralistic analysis of an individual. Let's take a hypothetical example. It is one thing when out of a city's population of 3 million we have a few hundred unemployed and poor. We might then look more at the personal habits of those few hundred individuals. However it is quite another story when out of that population of 3 million 300000 are unemployed and poor. We then must look around at society's basic systems for meeting basic human needs. Basic human needs that must be met. If individuals are to grow and help themselves. Our focus tonight will be on how basic needs of poor people are being met. We asked them to tell us about their experiences

in the basics of shelter food medicine and recreation and money for clothing. Our interviews were conducted with residents of the central area of Detroit. Before presenting their voices and concerns I'd like you to listen to an artist who reflects their plight. All city this particular. Residential area. They call it Black Bottom. In Cleveland they call it Euclid Avenue. If you want to. Call it Harlem. They called it but a milk bottle. But then you come out where. In San Francisco they called it the Fillmore district. In

Afghanistan used to call it what. They. Have speak about this place because. Everyone has some sense. I'll speak about this place because you see. In the wintertime when it's very very cold and a good coal in Chicago than anywhere else on earth. Because. When it's around and above zero and it's about 12 inches of snow outside and the hawk. Picking up the Almighty hawk. When he blows on a string around 35 40 miles and I was just like a giant razor blade blowing down the street. And all the cold in the world. When you live in a place like alley or den. Where everybody had a key to the

whole dog. It wasn't flat but then they cut it up and kitchenette apartments. And you have a hard job get in there for you because I want to bed at night so you can get in your room. I speak about this as I said before because I know. Cause. Do. You. Own.

Gold. Originally Tobacco Road was mainly a pleasurable to the south. But in the last 50 years Tobacco Road came north with the millions of people searching for a better life. Listen to the residents in these areas of Detroit as they tell you about the basic necessity of housing. What kind of problems have you faced in this community in terms of housing. Do you have any difficulty with the landlord keeping the property here. Yeah we have a whole lot of proud lot of problems about that you can look at just your building here see that we have a lot of problems here about even this you know

here in the crowd because you know that you keep it up and keep it up and stuff because you don't want to spend the money going on online and in fact they figure that here again I'm not running out of places to follow you got full of mice you got a carrot in my ass and by you know we have set up here called it how nice of one town. Run all around the dog on TV around on the cabin we both read. Why have shops. Well we moved out from up down while we moved out mapped out all our food from the righteous and the big rocks and so on to the rash they came and. We got a beer with my baby. I left room with a fire on this ship or a ship we got out on one side and set them with one for placed directly on a beer in a little while to bait and I think she

was to pay for and and the rat was setting up an beer with my baby and I'm scared of rats. Well like a primer to our agent she lived to try what kind of review you found most difficult for you and your family housing housing. Tell me a little bit more about first of all when you rent a place late especially she wanted to be the way she would like it. Nice floors nice We'll news and nice warm throws plays a big part in the house. But everything has to move in now. Nowadays the floors look like a barn floor the walls look like a bomb wall but I'll take a thousand pairs on there and charge you the world all along. We cleared miss name to name must read God is to have to Chandy a pair of shoes to wear. The rent must be paid for which we know there but at the

idea of this Alamein paying our money as long as I'm paying for something. When I'm paying all my men for something I want the same kind of service he will when I give him my money you can bet I was ever he wants with it when I move in his house I can do nothing with because it cost too much to fix it. What about Rick Perry. My lord if you make him repay your. Basic life. No they do not like to cooperate with a woman. You can ask him for one thing and he's trying your sad and say another. He'll give you a promise he won't do it and I feel like that's right because when I move in their place and when i promise of being a surgeon my rant I look for the service to be done as promised. If I wanted my without payment if i asked me to fix my flaws and someone is broken and if they are well there's rain in my kitchen as he has now

managed leaking from the bathroom down my face both my landlord as to what was wrong with it. So I told him as would you want your wife's house to be with you wanted to believe you know you also think you and your wife see it and you tell her I would never know that I'm a woman like she. I want something decent and if I am going to pay you rent you with roughly how much would you say your prayers for me are me myself I think. Consider a little mom to her include you know we know you too well how much we just laid there. For my call because you know how many children

total. For. ATC. Very very much. This was supposed to be peers that really more and more people came in. Because I know somehow just somehow 15 16 people got a five room place but some point fifteen people in 1 1 1 apartment right over there 15 in each one and got let one juror and she stand

three other grown people to stand in the same house but shake up a fag. You indicated you moved six times or so in the last seven years. There are about five that five times and each time were you able to stay in the same school. You know me every time I heard from all the kids in there you've taken yet still every place we hold so far and the run even to the land Lauzon thing they don't want us to move but they now know it's not the place but I help the change a mile school every time I am a little tired the tankard kids school I was are your kids your brothers and well you know what they are like you they no matter that one they don't like is it's kind of height is kind of high you know kids have to grow up with other kids and like to help me and is this not me annoying

someone. Might I have a year and then you have to know the same amount of people another half year. I mean the kids. In other words kids have to learn how people are they can't find out if they are not round people if they got to be around different people each ten. Well why even try. They have to have people in it to keep moving back and forth but with the different kids and not even given a chance to notice kids like in schools and teachers and so forth. They need this. They really do they need this is more or less like getting talking like me and you talking you have to know each other and this is the way they can live a life you know even with different interests. The problem of housing then for many means constantly being uprooted crowded uncomfortable and angry angry because one feels misuse because one

perceives the real threats to their own welfare as well as the welfare of their children. Let's move on to another basic item food whether you are sane or center you have to eat. You have no choice. One cannot go about helping himself or anyone else without a stable diet. Listen to the problems of the poor in terms of getting food. We have heard that there. I have to count the small neighborhood grocery people and their bank more money they say. The hard part is to say yes that's been going on for years. You couldn't know for I couldn't afford to buy larger closer than a little girl shoes around here just about are lacking for to get is some bring it or something like that if

I run out but I've found that I come out much cheaper at the supermarkets always because the price is almost double what they are in the supermarket. Knows which it is because they're not able to buy large scale like the supermarkets and they have to charge more money I don't know they're within the law within their right the world will make them charge so much more than the supermarket that could be it maybe it may be very costly. You're more because they can't borrow money and some of Mexico really are to to to overcharge and work for gratis. That's America's story. Even China are going to kill you for coming cooks for me. It's all for the cookies for making these having their prices in the summertime monium have a place.

Where as. You pay. Twenty one. Point. Nineteen or twenty one cent can cos. It's asked and it's not. Really And if you don't want to be taken if you don't want. To really pay through the nose for things you have to leave your own community they go to go buy someplace you do yes you do and there is air transportation is that it takes to close just to do this deal and come cheap either here or there to the taste. Just like I was an alcoholic. They were still bought a packet of about Alison tabs on the third trip suffer that fate when it went to some sense but up our charges ate it ate the sunset and you'll go somewhere doesn't give a whole lot cheaper. So if you know if you really need something and you don't want to get taken you have to go are you really. That's right.

How most neighbors most of your neighbors go out of no place you have to go on shout during ways and sometimes you have to go up to take it but they charge you for it to say your stuff and how much would you say they charge for milk and bread. Basic things like New York. I'm watching over them and I don't know but I generally most things are far more expensive than the milk and milk is hard not to buy or I have to get. That's right and that's about all. It's about 15 day heat and high grass.

Yeah and you pay my house and bacon rinds you just the same place sought for. I think 30 30 30 pounds. Oh yeah six announce us about this place and then no no I'll break for bacon. Just plain salt pork. All your basic foods you know aside let's just go back now we look at housing now you're eating your basic foods are even higher. That's true of. The systems then for supplying food to the poor tends to produce humiliation. Although the interview dealt mainly with small neighborhood grocers because of the usual transportation problems of the poor. Recent reports seem to indicate that they have to pay more at supermarkets within their neighborhoods as well. So the poor

pay more and yet they have less to pay with. Let's take a look at another basic item of clothing. Writers from the time of Shakespeare have emphasized the importance of clothing in terms that go beyond mere body warmth. The cloak and dress has significant psychological value when times are hard. It may mean the difference between feeling like someone are just an object. Who is the butt of some foul joke. Listen to their experiences in acquiring clothing. You have problem with keeping clothing for your kids. That's a problem. Yes to two grown boys. I have a problem. People close for them and I mean cause they they tear up quite a few. If you were up close and want to wear the best two to school

which I mean I don't plan much. I would too. But still I mean. When you're not able to bad bad bad these days up close every month I mean we have no you know our place to turn to. But maybe the Volunteers of America which is every now and then I think they have a clothing drive last year. How much would you estimate 65 $75 a month for housing. Based on what I can understand now you have 10 children. How much of your budget does it leave you. The spin on how those things are not looks because stem and when that but then you have to pay the live in. Yeah. Well it is really not like it is not like you said I don't care I'll end up in vogue.

You get this I got no gay kids any clothes with school other than beer ads and so forth. I mean if you call it anything you got away with something like. I mean you know you every week. So far we've taken a look at the basics of shelter food and clothing. If the human organism is to survive grow and develop it must be involved in certain types of movements and actions conducive to physical maturation and development. A baby who is handle has a better chance of survival than one who is left in a crib day after day. The same is true of actions and movements which are organized into some purposeful behavior as opposed to actions and movements which are expressed in random fashion. Recreation then becomes a basic item. Here are some thoughts regarding recreation programs in poor neighborhoods.

They got one of the corporation placed up on the school grounds. I found the day they can play up that too but no his not supervised a kid just going out and it's a couple of slangs in that and ass off on a sliding board they don't get out now because system got coal and there's an old slangs up that all it's as a wide open field at a net and and now. And most of the time you see you see 10 12 boards up on the top of the already rolled up down Holborn freights running around and trying to break in that toy shop. And do an ad out trying to break in somebody laughed at Leisure World I don't talk to that man house. They're trying to get in and have double the hours and we said now on the porch and they call up on top of that dial shock factor and jumper without cause on top of that mad house here to try to get into his house in this house where you know my neighbor next door. Here they break out the people's cobwebs.

They shot man our shot everyone I'm out will be gone. Look at that place all now I'm broke all in places and at such places I don't and I doubt factor at all what I'm given while I'm out with what DG have begun the police don't try to collect the B.B. guns and thanks and I hear they shot that one and they're not there. Big Brother dishing up the land I want but I'm back. And you look in that picture and ran around the neighborhood they are loose and they look like they got nobody there to take care of them they got non-chess thousand old guy not an hair pot and don't want to go to school hey if I'm skipping school right around your garden around unable to work. And they get out here at night and you can go up without I'm down and out. When an Iranian and they got dice games wanted that card game one done with none but I'll group up 10

and 12 and 13 year old boys and the girls they out there acting like they're they're 90 years old and they ain't but about 10 or 12 years older probably think Teenie I guess they end up in the streets all times of night. Why don't the police and the people that got these kids just doing this will quell what may come come in the house you know 10 12 1 o'clock on a Friday night you can't sleep. They're walking up and down the street. Carson can hide and who can and I don't know I have seen a group of them get out after they have a piece of person assume that they're like I that do not buy to call the police firemen are just a group problem there is no nobody here really trying to work with the kids that has not been in this neighborhood the way when they used to sign up sign are the conduit for sound. Our. Political plane will be up running up on the play the only son in a drowning in the troop and I

bet you saw some 800 kids running around you and this you know here we have no places to play I mean we have no recreational area. As I could say clothes to. Be had and our should I say. In front of me there is a field which everything is thrown into that I feel that could be big and. And and a recreational area for those children may get out of bed. Right now it's just simply a dumping ground. That's it. It seems like that. This then is the reality of being poor. By and large current supply systems tend to be supportive of the conditions of poverty. The poor start with less to spend and end up paying more proportionally than citizens and upper

income brackets for the same basics that every citizen must have. If he has to have a fighting chance at helping himself to acquire a better life. Aside from the question of paying more with less to spend is a factor of the quality of the neat items made available to him. This leads to feelings of humiliation and resentment. And need areas such as recreation. There is the cold hard fact of a nonexistent or grossly low supply which leads to random drifting expressions of behavior no matter what accounting techniques one used the poor face overwhelming odds in their struggles to better themselves. These unmet needs in basic survival areas lead to medical health and social problems which if not corrected leads to demoralizing forces complications and frustrations in areas of social endevour such as school or work or school and work are supposed to be ways out. However the poor come to both with two

strikes against them because of unmet needs and basic areas of human growth and development. The odds are against their succeeding. And so the legacy is passed on to another generation. With each generation the despair and anger mounts until one day crime and nihilistic rebellion burst forth and become a horrible reality of the urban terrain. Tonight you have heard some of the ways in which our supply systems react to the basic needs of the poor. The voices that you've heard were those of the negro poor are living in an urban ghetto at best we have giving you the flavor. The more generalized aspects of the problem. Next week we will continue our examination of the subculture of poverty. We will look at the vital areas of medical care and the chronically unemployed. We will expand our scope and look at other ethnic groups especially displaced Southern whites who are among the 28 million poor people in this country

today. One final comment and reflection on the subculture of poverty. But I feel like we all are human and we all want to have something nice decent for what we do have seemingly do have right and I have my pride they can just wish. That I will one day that my children would have the pride that I have but be more successful with it and I have been. You have just heard Hartford Smith junior assistant professor in the School of Social Work Wayne State University. Seeds of discontent is produced by David Lewis and engineered by Dave Piers this is Wayne State University Radio. This program was distributed by the national educational radio network.