Culture of Poverty

The culture of poverty is a social theory that describes the poverty as a cycle. Supported by Oscar Lewis, it emphasizes the idea that poverty tends to spread to the next generation. However, it mainly focuses on the black underclass and why they remain poor. According to Oscar Lewis, this is because of their value system, which he believes is unique from everyone else. He came to this conclusion when examining the ambition and character of those who grow up in poverty. Their mindsets and behaviors are what prevent the next generation, and the generation after the next from evading the underclass. This is why young black boys from poor home who are blessed with talents, either in sport or academic, sometimes make wrong decisions that cause them to remain in the underclass.

You all should know Devone Bess, founder of Bessfriend and Dolphin’s wide receiver. Growing up he can be associated with living a life of an underclass because he had an absentee dad and was raised by a single mother and an uncle who was a drug dealer. He worked really hard to remove himself from his situation. He won a football scholarship to Oregon State. However, he lost that scholarship after he was sentenced to 21 months in prison for possessing stolen good, which by the way, a friend had put in his car. Though Devone had a value system (ambitious and a good character), those that surrounded him did not and this almost hinder him from socially mobilizing from his social class.