Barbara A. Sasso
The play is set in Chicago the 1950’s, and follows the Younger family as they strive to participate in the American Dream. Walter wants to start a business. His mother, Lena, wants to buy a house in a good neighborhood, and Walter’s sister, Beneatha, is attending medical school. When the play begins, they are a family of five living in a one-bedroom apartment where they share a bathroom in the hallway with other families. We quickly discover that Walter’s wife Ruth is pregnant, and that the family has had a windfall in the form of a 10 thousand dollar life insurance check. Well? What would be the best investment of this money for the family in the 1950’s that would serve to lift them and future generations from poverty? How might they navigate their investments during the pre-Civil Rights era and overcome institutional racism? If we consider the characters in the play, what might the prospects be for medical school for an African American female, or becoming a business-owner for an African American male, or investing in a house, for the patriarch of the family in the mid-1950’s? And, perhaps, are there other measurements of “wealth” that are not based solely on money or the American Dream?
This unit will also help teachers convey to students an economic historical perspective, addressing the following questions: What was the ratio of income and wealth inequality through time? Has America always been “the land of opportunity”? How and why is the 20
th
century an anomaly? How did the ratio of income inequality change over the century, up through the 2010’s? What were some of the political, social, and legal changes that affected this fluctuation? Has poverty, based on race changed through the 20
th
century? What are some of the social causes of entrenched poverty, such as lack of access to wealth and lack of equality in justice, jobs, housing, education and health care? How does poverty damage our society as a whole? Is there a solution? After the passage of the Civil Rights laws in the 1960’s why is poverty among minorities in America still entrenched? And, in the end, what constitutes well-being?
Economic well-being can be measured in different ways: By income, by wealth, by poverty levels. Not one of these measures tells the entire story, however. While there is a huge chasm in income in our country, laws have been passed that paved the way for greater access to prosperity for minorities since the 1950’s. More people have moved out of the dire poverty of the Great Depression, social safety nets are in place, and schools have been forced to open their door to all. Housing, lending, and job discrimination is illegal. While we are far from being a society that is post-racism, there should be more hope than despair, and more determination to strive forward.
On March 14, 2018 my school in New Haven, Connecticut, like many others in America, participated in a walkout to protest continued government inaction to address school shootings and the endemic gun violence that relentlessly plagues urban communities. One student who spoke commented that young people in New Haven know how to dress for funerals more than they know how to dress for job interviews. The communal grief and numbing despair sinks in to all of us. How can we encourage our students to see that their futures might not be as dire as they sometimes seem. Economic facts about what makes someone prosperous might show them another way.
Later that month in the March for Our Lives rally in Washington, D.C., Edna Chavez, a teenage activist from South Los Angeles, reminded the world that her community doesn’t need teachers with guns, it needs paid internships and job opportunities, mentors and restorative justice. Clearly, this dynamic, intelligent, articulate, thoughtful and righteous young Latina leader understands that the struggle for equal access to a safe and prosperous civilization also demands accountable economic justice. She ended her speech with
“la lucha sigue
.”
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In lecture at Yale University in April, 2018, Professor Yair Listokin, spoke eloquently of the great loss of human capital that is created in a society where more than half of its citizens are closed off from achieving their potential. More than income inequality, a chart that illustrated inequality of wealth is staggering: in the United States, those whose income in is the top 1 percent in earnings also possess about 40 percent of the wealth, while those in the bottom 50 percent of earnings possess only about 1 percent.
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These numbers are not broken down by race, although African Americans and Hispanics have poverty rates more than double that of whites.
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And, what happens to the true wealth of our country as we go forward, not in dollars, but in human potential, when creativity that blooms with equal opportunity, is starved?
There are causes our students can be inspired to fight: continued social injustices such as discrimination and lack of opportunity in jobs, education and housing; a lack of access to affordable medical care; unjust incarceration rates, injustices in policing, and the political causes of economic inequality. Can our students grow into leaders who will fight for a chance at the American Dream?
La lucha sigue.
But before the struggle begins, it is important to start with facts, as truth ultimately is always the most powerful weapon.