Tavis Smiley,Cornel West
Record unemployment and rampant corporate avarice, empty houses but homeless families, dwindling opportunities in an increasingly paralyzed nationâ€”these are the realities of 21st-century America, land of the free and home of the new middle class poor. Award-winning broadcaster Tavis Smiley and Dr. Cornel West, one of the nationâ€™s leading democratic intellectuals, co-hosts of Public Radioâ€™s ,Smiley & West, , now take on the â€œPâ€ wordâ€”poverty.,The Rich and the Rest of Us, is the next step in the journey that began with â€œThe Poverty Tour: A Call to Conscience.â€ Smiley and Westâ€™s 18-city bus tour gave voice to the plight of impoverished Americans of all races, colors, and creeds. With 150 million Americans persistently poor or near poor, the highest numbers in over five decades, Smiley and West argue that now is the time to confront the underlying conditions of systemic poverty in America before itâ€™s too late.,By placing the eradication of poverty in the context of the nationâ€™s greatest moments of social transformationâ€” such as the abolition of slavery, womanâ€™s suffrage, and the labor and civil rights movementsâ€”ending poverty is sure to emerge as Americaâ€™s 21st -century civil rights struggle.,As the middle class disappears and the safety net is shredded, Smiley and West, building on the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., ask us to confront our fear and complacency with 12 poverty changing ideas. They challenge us to re-examine our assumptions about poverty in Americaâ€”what it really is and how to eliminate it now.
Nonfiction,Politics,Economics,Sociology,Social Movements,Social Justice,Social Issues,Poverty,Philosophy,Social Science,Cultural,African American,Social Issues
The Rich and the Rest of Us: A Poverty Manifesto