Negative Effects of Poverty on Indians

In the modern day world, many cultures have blended together forming new religions and different habits. This has created many different types of people, and new ways to represent themselves as humans. Generation after generation, people have treated each other in a disrespectful manner, which has created issues that have impacted society. These problems have affected the lives of many people, and has changed their role overall in their community.

As stated in the Constitution, every human should be treated the same way, with the same exact respect as any other individual in the United States. Any prejudice actions against a specific race by any person should result in going to prison or death. Back in the 1930s, Adolf Hitler showed hostility towards a specific group of people, and he was punished by other countries for it. Today, he is known as somebody who tried to eliminate a specific group of people that did not warrant bad conduct toward at all. In the novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie and modern sources, the authors explore the negative effects of poverty on Indians. To begin, modern sources say that studies show Indians have higher poverty rates than non-Hispanic whites.

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Indians struggle with being able to afford normal necessities, and this means they are unable to fund luxuries that every person wants and deserves. Every child wants to have something entertaining in their life, whether it is a vacation or a pet. However, poverty prevents children from reaching this goal of happiness. Poverty also makes children feel as if they are trapped in an unhappy place because there is no sense of comfort for them. In the novel, Alexie writes, “But we reservation Indians don’t get to realize our dreams.

We don’t get those chances. Or choices. We’re just poor. That’s all we are” (Alexie 11). This demonstrates that Junior cannot do anything with his life because of the poverty surrounding his reservation.

Junior is unable to have choices in his life, and he feels as if his destination is already determined for him. This is proved in an article that also believes that American Indians are facing awful times of poverty, where they cannot afford anything. As stated in the article “Demographic Factors Associated with Poverty among American Indians and Alaska Natives”, “While some commentators that U.S society has now entered a new “post-racial” era, the continuation of high level of poverty among American Indians… suggest little historical change from traditional historical patterns for at least this racial group” (Huyser et al. 120).

This quote from the article means that American Indians are continuing to face extreme measures of poverty in all areas. Also, that this pattern of poverty has not changed for a very long period of time. The tough time for American Indians has been happening, and nobody is there to prevent the poverty from continuing. Ultimately, Indians are trapped in a repetitive cycle, in which they cannot escape impoverishment. Robin Leichenko believes that consistent poverty is a frequent problem in tribal lands. American Indians are forced to live in bad areas, due to how poor they are.

Living in these places can prevent them from receiving a substantial income. Without money from a good job, Indians must live a different lifestyle than some people in America. This lifestyle is not exactly what everybody wants, and living in these areas are not giving them many alternatives. The article “Does Place Still Matter? Accounting for Income Variation Across American Indian Tribal Areas” states, “In the United States, persistent rural poverty is especially evident in areas containing American Indian tribal lands” (Leichenko et al. 365). This shows that areas in the United States with poverty are usually home to Indians.

American Indians continuously are shown to be living in unproductive areas. They do not enjoy not being able to live in acceptable conditions. In fact, living in awful conditions make them very unhappy, and it makes them feel useless. Income is much lower in the areas of these homes, which is stunting the economic development of the Native American race. This point is proved in the novel, when Junior thinks about his future: “I wish I were magical, but I am really just a poor-a** reservation kid living with his poor a** family on the poor a** Spokane Indian Reservation” (Alexie 41).

This proves that Junior understands that Indians are poor and always will be. He realizes that everything he does is pointless because of how Indians are shut out from the world. He also feels bad for himself because he actually tries to do well in his school, unlike everybody else. Junior believes that he deserves to be mistreated by the world because it is a bad thing to be Indian. Overall, he becomes hopeless in this situation because of the race he is.

Articles have confidence in the fact that bullying relates distinctly to ethnicity.Bullying can also present itself to Indians because of the way that they look. In the book, Junior is constantly teased because of how different he looks, compared to everybody else. Although, the way he looks is not something that he can control about himself. This thought alone discourages him greatly, and it makes Junior not want to go to school anymore.

The bullying affects him so much that he hates himself for standing out from the other people in the school. Junior is shown to be bullied when he reminds himself that everybody calls him mean names: “Everybody on the rez calls me a retard about twice a day. They call me retard when they are pantsing me or stuffing my head in the toilet or just smacking me upside the head” (Alexie 39). This proves that Junior is violated by other people in his school because he looks different. Bullying a serious matter that happens frequently, yet nobody bothers to stop the bullies because they agree that he is strange. This is explained in the source “Demographic Differences in the Prevalence, Co-Occurrence, and Correlates of Adolescent Bullying at School”, it states, “Some research has suggested that the bullying-ethnicity may be more dependent upon specific racial dynamics” (Carlyle et al.

624). This quote shows that racial dynamics affect people that are not white. The study also found that victimization of a person by a bully increases with age, but peaks after a certain age. This means that younger children are targeted, and that they are forced to deal with the violence. Bullying is clearly based off of racial factors, and is affected through how people display themselves to the public eye. The terrorization of people that do not deserve it can result in high levels of depression or other sicknesses.

The novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian and modern day sources, explore the negative effects of poverty on Indians. People all over the world today are abused physically, verbally, and mentally because of things they cannot control. Cyber bullying is also a recent way people are bullied over the internet. Racial issues, preconception against religions, and harmful actions towards the disabled are the most common themes about problems in the world today. These problems have caused the downfall of the United States and its economy has had setbacks over the years.

It has affected the economy of the United States because people’s relationships are damaged from finding faults about each other. This means that people are less likely to trade with each other or interact with business purposes. This has caused us to trade and buy less objects, from other countries specifically. People in the United States are losing jobs constantly, which is also affecting the economy in a negative regard. Debt with other countries will make sure that the economy will never be fixed. In general, everybody has different personalities and different nationalities, but that does not make them bad business partners for the United States.

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