Ignite: Doing Justice

Through Leadership

Cooper Carriger

Associated Text: Given that we are a Jesuit Institution of higher education, in a leadership class, and focusing on “Leadership in Justice” this week, I thought it was only appropriate to choose an Ignite topic that focuses on the worlds greatest injustice: poverty.

Firs

t th

ings

Firs

t “Multifaceted Phenomenon”“No one single

answer”

Associated Text: Now, before I present to you about this topic, I will say that poverty is a multifaceted phenomenon. There are a variety of individual and social factors that contribute to it. In essence, there is no one single answer to solve this injustice. However, I believe that it’s up to us as leaders to alleviate it’s effects.

What

is P

ove

rty?

 Associated Text: According to the CPI, for a family of 4 to be considered living in poverty they need to collectively earn less that $22,000 a year Most would argue even 22,000 is low-balling it. To put it in perspective, if you work a minimum wage job, 40 hours a week,… you’re still only making a little over $15,000… or about a third of the price of Loyola.

Who d

oes

it

Aff

ect

?

Associated Text: The United States has one of the highest poverty rates of any developed country. About 50 million Americans are in poverty – and of those 50 million, 20 million are in deep poverty. These families make less than 11,000 a year.  Okay so think about that: $11,000 a year. That’s living on less $8 a day—or about the same as a Chipotle burrito.

Associated Text: And of the all the impoverished, about 60% are ethnic minorities. This only further perpetuates the wrong stereotypes.  Even our very own Windy City has a higher poverty rate than New York or LA.

To make matters worse, Chicago also has the highest poverty rate of African Americans than any other major US city.

Theory

#1:

Meri

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ac y

Why Does Poverty Happen?

The first Theory: Poverty as Meritocracy – it is the individual’s personal failure not to deliver him or herself from poverty.Simply – you get rewarded because you work hard, and therefore if you don’t get rewarded, it’s because of you’re not working hard enough. Examples would be: Lack of ambition, dependency on welfare, or the culture of poverty passed down by parents

Any strategy to reduce

intergenerational poverty has to be centered on work, not

welfare--not only because work provides

independence and income but also because

work provides order, structure, dignity, and opportunities for growth in people's

lives.”

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bam

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Theory

#2:

Str

ucu

ral

Vio

lence

Why Does Poverty Happen?This theory says that Poverty is the result of

social and economic structures that favor

one group and create barriers for others.

Basically, There are inequalities in our

country that prevent people from rising out

of poverty.  Examples of this would be: poor public

schools, racism, sexism, or unequal

distribution of wealth.

“Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced,

where ignorance prevails, and where any

one class is made to feel

that society is an organized conspiracy to

oppress, rob and degrade them,

neither persons nor property will be safe.”

Frederi

ck

Dougla

ss

Our

Resp

onsi

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ty

Whatever your may feel about the causes of poverty, I think we can all agree that it affects everyone: whether it be you are a taxpayer or have personally experienced or witnessed the effects of poverty. The injustice of poverty isn’t a poor person thing, a black thing, a girl thing, or an urban thing: poverty is the responsibility of everyone.

Remember earlier when I said that 50 million people live in poverty? That’s only 15% of our population. That means for every person that is in poverty there is almost 6 people who aren’t in poverty. 6 people who collectively

have the resources to help provide someone at least a minimum standard of living.

Here, we can see that most Americans don’t know how unequal the distribution of wealth is. Clearly, there is a large misconception in our society. But, what if every 6 people helped out the impoverished person. Would the

poorest Americans still be marginalized?

“None of us can completely flourish, unless

each of us flourish”

Many of us in this room are in Greek life, or at least have a sibling, or a best friend. You would never let your brother or sister or friend live in poverty, right? So why act differently towards another human being? And according to catholic social thought, we know that “none of us can completely flourish, unless each of us flourish.”

Everyone here is in this room because they either have the resources, intelligence, creativity, athleticism, education, or privilege to be here: you

have some skill-set to offer.  

But, those skills don’t actually mean anything unless you use them for positive social change, unless you’re leaving this world a better place than

when you left it.

At Loyola we often focus on being ”men and women for others.” But, what’s the point of going to this expensive Jesuit University unless you’re going to do so?

We know that one of the key ingredients to personal happiness is described as making a difference in the lives of others: the most fulfilled people are the ones who are the most

selfless.

Now you’re probably all wondering why I would chose this topic for my ignite presentation. I mean, poverty isn’t typically used to fire people up. If

anything, it’s probably something most people would rather not talk about at all.

You see, ignoring something that makes you uncomfortable won’t make it go away, or fix it.

- I’m talking to you about poverty because I choose to realize that there are extreme inequalities in our society. I believe that a big part of being a socially

responsible leader is exposing injustices to others, in hopes that they too might take action.

You can make a difference, you can be one of those 6 people.So, are you going to accept that our society is filled with inequalities? And most importantly, that it is up to us as leaders to resolve these

problems?