The Takeaway with Melissa Harris-Perry
WNYC New York Public Radio
July 1, 2022
“We live in the United States, the richest country in the history of the world. And we have 140 million people who are poor or one health care crisis, one job loss, one storm, one tornado away from economic ruin.” – Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, Co-Chair of the Poor People’s Campaign
Even before the excruciating weight of the COVID-19 pandemic, poverty rates rose for the first time in five years. In 2020, there were 3.3 million more people living in poverty than in 2019. Poverty rates rose among white and Hispanic Americans, and for the 1 in 5 Black Americans already living in poverty, there wasn’t much room for the rate to go up. All were poorer in 2020 than the year before.
A package of pandemic-era policies stemmed rising poverty in 2021; however, many of those temporary measures have expired as consumer prices continue to rise, leaving many American families and workers economically vulnerable. According to the Center on Poverty and Social Policy at Columbia University, the monthly child poverty rate increased from 12.1 percent in December 2021 to 17 percent in January 2022, the highest it’s been since the end of 2020. Black and Latinx children experienced the largest increases in poverty rates.
This 4.9 percent increase accounts for the nearly 3.7 million more children living in poverty after the Child Tax Credit ended. The monthly Child Tax Credit payments “buffered family finances amidst the continuing pandemic, increased families’ abilities to meet their basic needs, reduced child poverty and food insufficiency, and had no discernable negative effects on parental employment.”
“I think one of the core themes of my work–across multiple sectors and fields–has been a focus on poverty. And the fact that poverty is not an ordained or natural system or condition, but a system of policy choices,” says Dorian Warren, co-host of our Deep Dives, co-president of Community Change, and co-chair of the Economic Security Project.
The experience of poverty is even more widespread than the official definition tells us. Yet, the perception of poverty remains contentious for many Americans. Research shows that Americans overwhelmingly identify themselves as ‘middle-class,’ even when they’re not. Groups like Confronting Poverty have developed tools like the poverty risk calculator to help people better understand economic hardship and risk. Awareness is just one facet of the ongoing fight against poverty. The anti-poverty and low wage workers movement is leading “a national call for moral revival.”
On June 18, 2022 the Poor People’s Campaign led a mass demonstration in Washington, D.C. Thousands of people from all over the country attended. Ahead of the march, we spoke with the Poor People’s Campaign co-chairs Bishop William Barber and Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, Director of Kairos Center for Religions, Rights and Social Justice at Union Theological Seminary. Dorian was there as well, both as an organizer and observer, covering the march for The Takeaway. In this Deep Dive, Dorian joins The Takeaway in critical conversation around today’s anti-poverty and labor movement and the voices defining what economic, racial, and social justice can and should look like.