Poor-bashing hurts the poor. Poor-bashing is when people who are poor are humiliated, stereotyped, shunned, despised, pitied, patronized, ignored and blamed. Poor-bashing is when people who are poor are falsely accused of being lazy, drunk, stupid, uneducated, having large families, and not looking for work. Poor-bashing is directed at individual poor people, and at groups of people on welfare and (un)employment insurance. It encourages people to think in stereotypes and to discriminate against people who are poor. It blames individuals for being poor. This shifts the public's focus on to individual poor people instead of governments and corporations.
Lately, there seems to be a campaign of sorts being waged against the poor. Some media stereotype and discriminate against the poor, for example by giving the definite impression that all people on welfare are fraud artists and that there is massive fraud in the welfare system.
Poor-bashing assumptions are behind somegovernment policies and laws that are proposed, supposedly to benefit low income people. For example, people on welfare are often falsely stereotyped as being lazy and untrained. The government policy that responds to this assumption is workfare, forcing people to work or train for their welfare. Poor-bashing assumptions provide a rationale for keeping welfare rates very low, usually at 25% to 70% of the poverty line, even though people may need more money to meet their basic needs.
You may have attitudes that stereotype and discriminate against poor people and not be aware of it. If you find yourself generalizing about people who are poor, think about what you've just said or thought. Could it be poor-bashing? Try this test: substitute a woman or person of colour for the poor person in your thought. Would your thought be sexist or racist? If so, it is probably poor bashing.
Does your group unconsciously exclude low-income people from participating? Lots of groups do. Excluding poor people from your group keeps their voices silent. Here`s what you can do to include them:
Government policies like workfare assume that people on welfare have to be forced to work. This is a poor-bashing assumption. Other policies assume that lots of jobs are available for people on welfare to take. This is not true. It is a poor-bashing assumption because people on welfare and UI are then blamed when they don`t have jobs.
Make a personal commitment to challenge poor-bashing wherever you hear it. If it is a politician or someone in the media, speak to them or write a letter. Get unions, churches, and groups that you belong to to do the same.
NAPO has two of these posters. You can use the one you like best or make your own. Take them to social service offices, legal aid offices, schools, libraries, politician's offices and media newsrooms.
End Legislated Poverty, a BC anti-poverty coalition, and Saskatchewan anti-poverty activists have gotten politicians to sign a pledge not to poor-bash. You can get a copy from NAPO, or make your own pledge. Then see what happens when you ask a politician to sign.
The Winnipeg-based Action on Poverty group has developed a Macaroni Award which they present to poor-bashers for public display of mean spirited poor-bashing. Call them at (204) 942-6829 for a copy.
A media watch committee can challenge media who poor-bash with letters to the editor, meetings with editorial boards, and other actions if necessary. End Legislated Poverty in BC has a media talk back kit that can help you with this. Call them at 604-879-1209.
Anti-poverty groups recently won a fight to get "source of income" as a prohibited grounds for discrimination in accommodation in Alberta. Landlords won`t be able to refuse to rent to people because they are on welfare. You could also lobby to get "source of income" put in hate sections of provincial human rights laws. This would make it illegal to discriminate against people because they were on welfare or UI.
If you have some ideas on how to challenge poor-bashing, Link directly to NAPO and share them with us.
Copyright © 1997 The National Anti-Poverty Organization (NAPO)