White Poverty: How Exposing Myths About Race and Class Can Reconstruct American Democracy [Paperback]

Reverend Barber is one of the foremost leaders in our country working to take on poverty and economic injustice. He knows that we can bring about great change by building a multi-racial, multi-generational coalition of working-class people. Building a mass movement of ordinary people is how we end todays unprecedented levels of greed and economic inequality. A clarion call for Americans of every race and background to unite for a Third Reconstruction focused on tackling the interlocking problems that have denied us an economy that works for all.... One of the most damnable features of our common life is the way we talk about poverty as if its an anomaly and not a feature of our economic system, writes [Reverend William J.] Barber II, founding director of the Center for Public Theology and Public Policy at Yale Divinity School. That feature shifts wealth from the already have-nots to the already haves, but with divisive subterfuge: White Americans are thought to be working-class and Blacks poor. The definition of poverty must be extended, notes the author, to incorporate anybody who cannot afford to pay rent and their other expenses, which would result in a number far larger than is now counted by official reports& [ Brimming with insight and prophetic fire, this book is essential reading for policymakers, moral leaders, and everyday folk concerned about our nation. Our low unemployment rate is nothing to boast about if incomes cant sustain life. We call Black people on the edge poor and white people with the same too-low incomes working class. Together, they are nearly half of America. . . . Reverend Dr. William J. Barber IIs inspired book shows that abandoning stereotypes can mobilize a biracial and multiethnic force for economic reform that is within reach. As a prophet of social justice and change, Reverend Dr. William J. Barber II upholds the movement of interracial moral fusion as the only way to pull America back from the complete economic and mol#