{"id":6197,"date":"2018-03-06T19:29:35","date_gmt":"2018-03-07T00:29:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/?p=6197"},"modified":"2018-03-07T09:14:44","modified_gmt":"2018-03-07T14:14:44","slug":"why-do-we-have-such-disdain-for-poor-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2018\/03\/why-do-we-have-such-disdain-for-poor-people.html","title":{"rendered":"Why Do We Have Such a Disdain For Poor People?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>One of the last campaigns that Martin Luther King worked on was the Poor People\u2019s Campaign. In announcing the campaign<\/a>, King said that his SCLC would lead \u201cwaves of the nation\u2019s poor and disinherited to Washington, D. C., next spring to demand redress of their grievances by theUnited States government and to secure at least jobs or income for all.\u201d Further, he said:<\/p>\n

We will go there, we will demand to be heard, and we will stay until America responds. If this means forcible repression of our movement, we will confront it, for we have done this before. If this means scorn or ridicule, we embrace it, for that is what America\u2019s poor now receive. If it means jail, we accept it willingly, for the millions of poor already are imprisoned by exploitation and discrimination. But we hope, with growing confidence, that our campaign in Washington will receive at first a sympathetic understanding across our nation, followed by dramatic expansion of nonviolent demonstrations in Washington and simultaneous protests elsewhere. In short, we will be petitioning our government for specific reforms, and we intend to build militant nonviolent actions until that government moves against poverty.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

However, of course, he would never get a chance to lead that campaign because, on\u00a0April 4, 1968, an assassin\u00a0shot and killed him outside of his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee.<\/p>\n

As I, like many Americans, commemorate and reflect on the 50th year of his death, I think about the Poor People\u2019s Campaign. I also think of how hard it is to tackle poverty in America. I mean,\u00a0when we talk about helping people out of poverty or even addressing poverty, there is such a backlash. I wonder, why when its time to cut budgets, we always go after the poor people?<\/p>\n

So I took to Facebook to ask the question, \u201cWhy do we have such a disdain for poor people?\u201d Here are some of the answers.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n