{"id":9749,"date":"2015-01-02T09:00:20","date_gmt":"2015-01-02T14:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=9749"},"modified":"2015-03-16T16:08:57","modified_gmt":"2015-03-16T21:08:57","slug":"poverty-self-denial-and-new-nikes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2015\/01\/02\/poverty-self-denial-and-new-nikes\/","title":{"rendered":"Why You Should Shut Up When Poor People Buy New Nikes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Flashback Friday.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>When it comes to\u00a0forming an opinion on poverty, some Americans just can&#8217;t seem to understand why poor people can&#8217;t just stop being poor. One of the things that gets\u00a0harped on is the\u00a0idea\u00a0that poor people spend money on frivolous things; somehow some people\u00a0believe that, if the poor just gave up\u00a0their cell phone and Nikes, they would pop up into the middle class.<\/p>\n<p>What these people don&#8217;t\u00a0realize is the extent to which being poor is living a life of self-denial.\u00a0 To be poor is to be forced to deny oneself constantly. The poor must deny themselves\u00a0most trappings of:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>an adult life (their\u00a0own apartment, framed pictures on the walls, matching dishes);<\/li>\n<li>a comfortable life (a newish mattress, a comfy couch, good shoes that aren&#8217;t worn out);<\/li>\n<li>a convenient life (your own car, eating out);<\/li>\n<li>a self-directed life (a job you care for, leisure time, hobbies, money for babysitters);<\/li>\n<li>a life full of small pleasures (lattes, dessert, fresh cut flowers, hot baths, wine);<\/li>\n<li>a healthy life (fresh fruits and vegetables, health care, time for exercise);<\/li>\n<li>and so, so many more things that don&#8217;t fit into those categories\u00a0(technological gadgets, organic food, travel, expensive clothes and accessories).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>They have to actively deny themselves these things every day. And, since most poor people remain poor their whole lives, they must be prepared to deny themselves (and members of their families) these things, perhaps, for the rest of their lives.<\/p>\n<p>So when someone sees\u00a0someone (they think is) poor walking down the street with a brand new pair of Nikes, perhaps what they are seeing is someone who decided (whether out of a moment of weakness or not) to NOT deny themselves <em>at least one thing<\/em>; perhaps they are seeing someone who is trying to hold on to some feeling of normalcy; perhaps what they are seeing is a perfectly normal person who just wants what they want <em>for once<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>I was thinking about this today when I saw a postcard at <a href=\"http:\/\/postsecret.blogspot.com\/2009\/06\/sunday-secrets_14.html\" target=\"_blank\">Post Secret<\/a> (which, to be fair, may or may not have been submitted by someone who struggles financially).\u00a0 The postcard, featuring a PowerBall receipt, reads &#8220;It&#8217;s the only time I feel hopeful&#8221;:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-9751\" title=\"picture12\" src=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2009\/06\/picture12.png\" alt=\"picture12\" width=\"505\" height=\"388\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2009\/06\/picture12.png 505w, https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2009\/06\/picture12-300x230.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 505px) 100vw, 505px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>For many poor people, hope and the absence of fear and worry are also luxuries they live without.<\/p>\n<p><em>Originally posted in 2009.<\/em><\/p>\n<span class=\"ft_signature\"><em><a href=\"http:\/\/lisa-wade.com\/\">Lisa Wade, PhD<\/a> is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/American-Hookup-New-Culture-Campus\/dp\/039328509X?ie=UTF8&amp;*Version*=1&amp;*entries*=0\">American Hookup<\/a><em>, a book about college sexual culture; a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Gender-Interactions-Institutions-Lisa-Wade\/dp\/0393931072?ie=UTF8&amp;*Version*=1&amp;*entries*=0\">textbook about gender<\/a>; and a forthcoming introductory text: <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/lisa-wade.com\/intro\/\">Terrible Magnificent Sociology<\/a><em>.\u00a0You can follow her on <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/lisawade\">Twitter<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/lisawadephd\/\">Instagram<\/a>.<\/em><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Flashback Friday. When it comes to\u00a0forming an opinion on poverty, some Americans just can&#8217;t seem to understand why poor people can&#8217;t just stop being poor. One of the things that gets\u00a0harped on is the\u00a0idea\u00a0that poor people spend money on frivolous things; somehow some people\u00a0believe that, if the poor just gave up\u00a0their cell phone and Nikes, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":65632,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[29,23642,229,329,283,693],"class_list":["post-9749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-class","tag-class-prejudicediscrimination","tag-consumption","tag-emotion","tag-prejudicediscrimination","tag-public-opinion"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2015\/01\/3.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9749"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9749\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65327,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9749\/revisions\/65327"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}