From the many readings we have done there has been one line from Seeing and Making Culture: Representing The Poor, that has stayed with me. The author talks about his experience growing up in large family who struggled often with financial hardship and says that he believed there was “no connection between poverty and personal integrity”. Many people are lead to believe that because someone is poor they are most likely to steal or commit crimes alike. I’m not sure what aspect of being poor causes others to believe that those living in poverty do not have morals or values.

A few semesters ago, I took a criminal justice class and when the professor asked what leads someone to commit a crime most students, myself included, thought that it came from a moment of desperation. Someone who is going to steal or sell drugs must be doing it because they need extra money, don’t have money, or are trying to provide for their family who doesn’t have much. Among those assumptions comes the idea that criminals are lazy and most often people of color. As a Latina woman, my opinion is that Americans commit crimes just as much as people of color, we just don’t hear about it as often.

That phrase along with assumptions and prejudiced attitudes makes me wonder if that’s why so many people are racist against African Americans specifically. In most examples from tv shows and movies when there is a crime investigation it’s always a black man who lives in a rundown neighborhood and shows signs of poverty that becomes a suspect. But I’d have to argue and say that as someone who grew up with teenaged parents who struggled often, I was raised to always be truthful and determined to succeed the honest way. My parents drilled into my young mind that I had to get an education and work a decent job in the meantime to come out on top. “You have your entire life to work, focus on school right now” were my mother’s words when I became desperate for money and contemplated the idea of quitting school to work full time. There is no correlation between poverty and moral values. Your values are what keep you above water when financial hardship resurfaces.