Poverty and discrimination are often linked. Discrimination based on ethnicity/race or gender directly influences economic opportunity through a complex set of institutional effects in families, schools, and work settings. At the same time, the poor are routinely targets of discrimination, frequently viewed with contempt for circumstances beyond their personal control. Poverty and racism are important factors in mental health and access to appropriate services, and they are also connected to differential rates of incarceration in U.S. prisons.
The globalization of corporate consumerism and failures of corporate social responsibility pose further challenges in these domains. Greater democratic participation in the economic sphere would lead to investments that meet real human needs first, starting with the poorest of the world's poor, the one billion who live on less that $1 a day.
PsySR’s Poverty and Discrimination Initiative works on projects designed to expose, challenge, and address the destructiveness and injustice of these patterns and relationships. Our projects under development include:
- A database of studies showing links between poverty and socio-emotional well-being.
- A brochure for organizing in low-income communities to address the tendency of people living in poverty to blame themselves for their situation. It will contain suggestions for grassroots responses to address the effects of racism and economic marginalization.
- Advocacy with the American Psychological Association to ensure that the APA makes vigorous efforts to address domestic and international racism and poverty.
- Priority topics concerning poverty and discrimination as they relate to election-year issues and the agenda of the next administration.
For related topics, please refer to PsySR's Inequality and Racial Inequities pages. The Poverty and Discrimination Initiative also administers the annual Anthony J. Marsella Prize for the Psychology of Peace and Social Justice.
Join PsySR's Poverty and Discrimination Initiative Today!
Interested PsySR members are encouraged to join this Initiative. Please contact co-chair Tod Sloan (sloan@lclark.edu) and indicate if you would like to work on any of the above projects or would like to suggest other projects that apply psychology to the crucial problems and effects of US poverty, racism, and other forms of discrimination.
Links and Resources to Learn More and Take Action
PsySR's Poverty and Discrimination Initiative offers a listing of valuable links and resources for people working in this area or wishing to learn more about it. Many of the websites include information on specific opportunities to take action against poverty and discrimination. The list is available HERE, and we welcome recommendations of additions to the list.