One of the top five social issues within the United States is poverty. Amongst the races that are within these circumstances, the African American community has suffered tremendously. Due to the inequalities and blatant discrimination that they are forced to endure, it’s truly been a struggle to break out of the cycle of constant unfortunate events. African Americans are two times more likely to fall into poverty than any other race including Caucasian and Asian Americans. In 2017, the overall poverty rate came to 12.3% of the entire population resulting in about 39.7 million people within the United States. Of those people, over 9 million were African American. Over time, this number has decreased but we must still shed light on the millions that continue to suffer.
Over 55 years after the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, we are still faced with some of the same challenges from back then. Of the ten demands given to Congress during this time, four of them were aimed at helping African Americans improve their financial situations and close the economical gap between them and Caucasian Americans. I chose this social issue because it’s important to me to try to help my community. Growing up in a single parent household wasn’t always the smoothest ride and often, we struggled to make ends meet. A lot of my childhood friends from the community that I grew up in suffered from the same issues. We all lived in a predominately African American community in East New York. Watching so many different people with one thing in common suffer has motivated me to try to spread information and share resources within my community.
Black Poverty Today is a non-profit campaign aimed at closing the poverty gap for African Americans by providing financial literacy trainings, creating free food banks in low-income neighborhoods, and initiating investment opportunities to help build sustainable wealth within this community.
WEBSITE: https://jordaysiarmani.wixsite.com/blackpoverty
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/BlackPoverty
INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/blackpoverty_
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/blackpoverty
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