These are the four articles I will be using for my source-based essay on poverty.

1. Kurtzleben, Danielle. “Seeking Suburban Votes, Trump To Repeal Rule Combating Racial Bias In Housing.” NPR, NPR, 21 July 2020, www.npr.org/2020/07/21/893471887/seeking-suburban-votes-trump-targets-rule-to-combat-racial-bias-in-housing. 

• This article is highlighting the tweet Donald Trump made regarding the AFFH Housing regulation of which was implemented by the Obama Biden administration to combat discrimination in federally assisted jurisdictions. In simple terms, it forced those areas receiving federal housing funds to assess the amount of discrimination they have and work on a plan to diminish it. This is an important piece of legislation as it forced those receiving money from the United States government to really look at their own practices and the practices that were instigated in shaping communities since segregation, hence it banned them from looking away and pretending this wasn’t an issue. Trump is praising the rescinding of this legislation because his base is mostly white and this type of legislation would make it likely to put affordable housing in the suburbs where his base tends to reside. In other words he wants to keep the suburbs white and not have affordable housing there. 

1. Sherwin, Wilson. “Turning Shame to Blame: Advancing the fortunes of the poor starts with a change in perspective.” The Progressive, vol. 84, no. 2, Apr.-May 2020, p. 24. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, https://link-gale-com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/apps/doc/A622649623/OVIC?u=cuny_ccny&sid=OVIC&xid=97c197ff. Accessed 18 Sept. 2020.

• This magazine article is trying to convey the point that throughout history those in poverty, if the poverty becomes widespread enough, will develop a collectivist spirit and take matters into their own hands. The author portrays this with a wonderful organization called the poor people’s campaign which was formed in 2018. The poor people’s campaign has ideas focused on an annual UBI (akin to the platform democratic Andrew Yang ran on, though he wanted a monthly UBI), systematic racism, our war economy, and ecological devastation. The authors point in referencing this organization is to reinforce the idea that those suffering will eventually get pissed off enough to take action.

1. Smialek, Jeanna, et al. “U.S. Poverty Hit a Record Low Before the Pandemic Recession.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 15 Sept. 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/09/15/business/economy/poverty-record-low-prior-to-pandemic.html.

• This NY Times news piece sheds light on the many factors or interweaving webs that poverty is tangled in. It sheds light onto the recent impact of coronavirus and how low poverty was before its impact due to our labor heavy economy. But the news piece also makes a great point that even though income was rising and poverty was the lowest it has been it is besides the point if people are only a couple missed paychecks away from entering poverty as the impacts of the coronavirus have clearly shown. It goes on to talk about how healthcare plays a role in poverty and the widening gap between the rich and the poor. 

1. Finch WH and Hernández Finch ME (2020) Poverty and Covid-19: Rates of Incidence and Deaths in the United States During the First 10 Weeks of the Pandemic. Front. Sociol. 5:47. doi: 10.3389/fsoc.2020.00047

• This scientific study attempted to analyze the first 10 weeks of the coronavirus and its relation to poverty. It found out that more poor countries initially had a higher death rate and infection rate but that over time more wealthy countries overtook them. It has pointed to the lack of testing that usually means a great amount of lost lives in a COVID infected country. This is why it points to America’s large amount of deaths due to its incredibly mixed response. This is because in countries that focused on contact tracing and surveillance (South Korea, Singapore) inherited a very low rate of the virus but since this was not implementable in America (Americans don’t like being tracked) we focused on masks and lock downs to slow the virus. The researchers made a clear point that the effect of this method may not be clearly known for a long time but its initial results don’t look promising. 

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