Emerging Intersections: Race, Class, and Gender in Theory, Policy, and Practice

3: The Intersection of Poverty Discourses: Race, Class, Culture, and Gender

50 /////////////~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath present a timely window on the contradictory inner dynamics of race, class, gender, and poverty in America. The exposure of extreme poverty, closely associated with an urban Black underclass , stranded by natural disaster and political neglect, was both a reminder of the existence of deprivation that the public is reluctant to acknowledge and a reinforcement of popular prejudices and stereotypes about poverty that the same public is all too ready to espouse. In the United States, poverty is commonly given a Black and disreputable face and then alternately ignored and demonized, part of a legacy of institutionalized racism that obscures the complexity of its demographics, causes, and consequences. Media coverage of the disaster followed a familiar script: surprise and discovery, followed by efforts to classify victims and victimizers, deserving and undeserving, laced with a little sympathy for the former and moral outrage at the latter. Regardless of whether Katrina actually generates new concern, policy, or programs for the poor or just represents one of the periodic rediscoveries of poverty, the portrayal of its ravages graphically reinforces popular views of who is poor and why that underlies much of public opinion and policy. Yet the reality of poverty is much more complex. Across the country, although African Americans are overrepresented among the poor, they are not the majority or the only high visibility group among the poor. Whites make up the majority of all persons below the poverty line, and depending on location, pockets of White, Black, Latino, Asian, or Native American poverty dominate local landscapes. Yet poverty remains firmly entrenched as a Black and White issue, both literally and metaphorically. In this chapter, we examine one group—poor White Appalachian women—as an entry point into deconstructing discourses of poverty and welfare policy in the United States, looking at the 3 The Intersection of Poverty Discourses Race, Class, Culture, and Gender DEBRA HENDERSON AND ANN TICKAMYER THE INTERSECTION OF POVERTY DISCOURSES 51 intersections of race, class, gender, space, and culture. The purpose is twofold: to expand understanding of the multiplicities of poverty identities, locations, and control mechanisms; and to show how the existence of this complexity nevertheless reinforces the welfare racism that underlies poverty discourse. We use an intersectional framework built on feminist and critical race perspectives to accomplish these tasks. Overview Poverty discourse, both academic and popular, highlights race and implies “Blackness” as the primary racial identity when examining welfare policy. This body of research rarely considers identities that are attributed to other racial, ethnic, or cultural groups. In her early work on Black feminism, Collins () argues that the stereotypical representation of the “welfare mother” is an ideological image used to control Black women. Similarly the stereotypical perception of the “hillbilly” and “White trash” creates an image in rural Appalachian communities that serves to control and exploit poor, White women receiving public assistance. While welfare racism clearly exists in racially heterogeneous communities, in rural Appalachia where the population is primarily White, other sources of disadvantage and difference exist. By examining the intersections of culture, class, and gender along with race, we argue that poor Appalachian women experience a form of “welfare culturalism” that has similarities to the welfare racism experienced by poor Black women. In addition, we argue that not only do the negative stereotypes fostered in Appalachia serve to control poor rural White women, but they sustain a broader system of welfare racism that impacts poor minority women. In the rest of this chapter we deconstruct the discourses on poverty and welfare provision in conjunction with an intersectional framework to demonstrate the ways that class, race, space, and culture intersect with gender to create the politics of current welfare policy. We begin by examining beliefs about poverty and welfare and how these engage different social locations and identities. We then turn to a critical view of intersectionality theories to determine whether and to what extent they privilege some social locations over others and how this is relevant for analyzing poverty politics. This analysis is informed by our research on the impacts of welfare reform on poor individuals, families, and communities in rural Appalachia (Tickamyer , et al., ; Tickamyer, et al., ; Henderson, et al., ). Based on the juxtaposition of the experiences of poor women across race, place, and culture, we end by evaluating the implications for poverty discourse and welfare policy. Poverty and Welfare Discourse In the United States the official poverty...