Why the Poor Stay Poor

In the book, “Why the Poor Stays Poor,” the first black president takes the oath of office in a colorful ceremony. The ceremony illuminated the reality of the situation of the black ghettos that were grappling with the isolation and insolvency. Barrack Obama’s victory suggests that the problems, which have hit America – poverty, despondency, violence, racism - will be less severe during his regime. Conservatives believe that racism in itself is not a problem, but the root causes of racism are lack of ethics, violence, and an insidious culture of instant fulfillment. On the other side, the liberals tend to believe that blacks undergo different forms of racism. These forms include the concealed racism, insensible racism, institutional racism, and environmental racism. According to liberals, the problem lies in both blacks and the white since no one is willing to hear the other. The liberals also point that the black are fond of blaming the white for the problems they are facing (Henslin 233).

William Julius, who is the Harvard sociologist in his book, ‘More Than Just Race,’ reviews his research on urban sociology of his peers, which says that, the black are poor because of impediments associated to institutions and systems within the society. He also points that retrogressive cultures are also the source of the problems the blacks are undergoing. The impediments associated with structures within the society include the bequest of racism and economic crisis, which has fallen on the blacks. The racial discrimination witnessed in America was encouraged by the previous governments. These governments used laws to separate the blacks and whites. Later, in order to drive the blacks away from their neighborhoods, the whites used private agreement and violent pressure. The most astonishing revelation in the racism era is that the Federal government played a key role in implementation structure, which perpetuated racism, in the private sectors and within the government structures. In the 1960s, the federal government responsible for housing participated in housing redlining and refused to provide mortgages in inner-city circle houses, which encouraged the private lenders to join the government (Henslin 234).

The blacks further confronted with the problems related to economic and demographic transformations. Because of the built highways and cheap real estates, the middle class population moved from the inner city and left to the spacious and cheap suburbs. The blacks lost their jobs as the companies replaced the well-paid American workers with the programmed machines and cheap labor from overseas. The new economy yielded two kinds of job specification: the well –paying jobs for the class intelligentsia such as doctors, lawyers, and bankers and the low-paying jobs for those with low-skills and knowledge, which comprises of telemarketing and janitorial services. Wilson in his book, “The Declining Significance of Race,” points out that the success of the civil right groups further compounded the problems of the underprivileged. After the federal government banned the discrimination on housing, some of the blacks left the inner city and moved to places, which they could, access better schools, pay less tax, and areas which experience low crime rates. This left economically challenged and the socially isolated in the ghettos (Henslin 234).

Wilson believes that the problems are not responsible for the issues they are undergoing, but point out that there is a need to come up sound policies, which will provide solutions to eliminate poverty. He further observes that the legacy of racial discrimination and changes in the economy will matter most than the much criticized ghetto culture. He believes that there should be legal actions by the courts so as to address the issue of racial discrimination among the black population.

PART 2: Review of Commencement Speech by Steve Jobs.

In the speech, ‘You’ve got to find what you love,’ Steve Jobs commences by telling his family life and academic background. He says that her mother who was a college graduate decided to put him to adoption. He says that the family, which was to adopt him, changed their stand and said that they needed a girl and not a boy. After his biological mother came to know his mother and father had no much education, they refused to sign the adoption letters. It was later signed after his parents agreed that Steve would go to college. When he was 17 years old, Steve joined a college equivalent to Stanford and which was expensive. He found that the savings from his parents were spent on paying his college education, and decided that college education had no value since her parents were spending all they had saved their entire life in his education, which made him, drop out of college. He says that he had a hard time in college as he had no place to sleep. In addition, getting food was a problem and he had to travel for long distances in search of food. After dropping out, Steve decided to join Reed College where he could take calligraphy classes. He learnt the details of how to produce art through calligraphy. At first, Steve never saw the real application of calligraphy art, but 10 years later, when he was designing the computer topography, he found the application of what he had learnt in calligraphy class.

Steve second story is about love and death. He says he was lucky to have known what he loved earlier in life. At the age of 20 years, Job and his friend, Woz, started a company by the name Apple. The company was growing well, and he was fired later after 10 years and he never surrendered, but started another company known as the NeXT and another known as Pixar. It is in Pixar where he made a woman who later becomes his wife by the name Laurene, and he says that they have an incredible family. In a twist of events, Apple bought NeXT and Job returned to Apple Company. Job believes that firing him from the Apple Company was necessary for his future success as he later succeeds. He points out that when people start loving what they like to do, and then they succeed in life.

In his speech, Steve gives the third story about death. He says that thinking about death has helped him to achieve significant things in life. He says that some time back his doctor diagnosed him and found he had cancer in his pancreas. The doctor then told him that the cancer was incurable, and the only thing he could to do was to wait for his death. He later decided to undergo surgery to remove the tumors and after the surgery things worked for him. Steve believes that the ultimate thing to success in life is to have the courage to follow ones heart, and the instinct also, he says that the rest are secondary to success in life. In his conclusion, Steve provides an illustration of the bible of his generation in the publication known as ‘The Whole Earth Catalog.’ He concludes his speech from the part of the publication, “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.”