Locked in the Poorhouse: Cities, Race, and Poverty in the United States

Rating:
Summary: Thoughtful reading for students of Urban Studies
Review: Locked In The Poorhouse: Cities, Race, And Poverty In The United States is an impressive and scholarly collection of writings and essays examining American cultural and economic conditions which have given rise to incidents of urban social unrest in the past. The contributors include Fred R. Harris (The Kerner Report Thirty Years Later); Greg J. Duncan and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn (Urban Poverty, Welfare Reform, and Child Development); Gary Sandefur, Molly Martin, and Thomas Wells (Poverty as a Public Health Issue: Since the Kerner Report of 1968); William Julius Wilson, James M. Quane, and Bruce H. Rankin (The New Urban Poverty: Consequences of the Economic and Social Decline of Inner-City Neighborhoods); Paul A. Jargowsky (Urban Poverty, Race, and the Inner City: The Bitter Fruit of Thirty Years of Neglect); Elliott Currie (Race, Violence, and Justice since Kerner); William L. Taylor (Racism and the Poor: Integration and Affirmative Action as Mobility Strategies); and Lynn A. Curtis (Policy for the New Millennium). Locked In The Poorhouse is very highly recommended and thoughtful reading for students of Urban Studies, Black Studies, and the study of American race relations as impacted by the 1968 Kerner Commission report.

Rating:
Summary: separation or imagination
Review: This book was informative and helped to gain a better understanding of how things were thirty years ago and why the Kerner Commission was needed. The commission was seeing a separation of the United States into a black society and a white society. As these two societies were becoming unequal, the commission was hoping to fix the separation and bring together the United States as one.
The author feels as though the level and the separation amongst black and white Americans is worse today than when the Kerner Commission was convened. This book gives several statistics showing the fact that poverty in the U.S. is worse than in many other developed countries. However, the author appears to focus mostly on the separation of the two societies and the fact that the U. S. is not taking responsibility for the African Americans and Hispanics in poverty. The book covers how the author feels the U. S. should act in this situation, and the things that could be done in order to improve this poverty stricken area. There seems to be no mention of actions the people in the areas could take in order to help themselves out, which is an area that needs to be addressed. The book places the blame on the rest of society, when in fact the people living in poverty also need to take steps in order to ensure their security will improve in the future.
The author uses many statistics in order to get this point across, when in actuality, the statistics get so in depth, they just become confusing and therefore are almost meaningless. The book would be much more effective if stories were given, maybe some true life accounts. These stories would help to eliminate the second problem with the book, the extreme bias. The author appeared to be completely biased to the people in these poverty areas and toward African Americans. In one part of the book, the author designated himself to be the example of black children in poor schools; this bias causes a dramatic tone and could cause readers to tune out the message that is given.
Credit is due to the items dealing with schools and the improvements that need to be made. The areas describing smaller classrooms, and stressing the importance of the class work are things that need to be done in order to improve schools, as well as the economy as a whole. The highlight of this portion is the idea that parents need to take a more active part in their children's learning. This is a great idea and one that should be taken up again.