MATT RAINWATERS
THE FORGOTTEN
AMERICANS
advocates for the rural poor say
the pace of change has been glacial. They also say that persistent, multi-generational poverty
continues to plague millions of
people living in rural areas, particularly blacks, Hispanics and
Native Americans who languish in
small towns and isolated outposts
where dollars are scarce, development is difficult and discrimination is historically rampant.
In a nation where a breathtaking
46 million people are now living
below the poverty line; where the
gap between rich and poor is wider than ever; and where upward
economic mobility is increasingly
rare, these destitute, rural, largely
HUFFINGTON
10.21.12
minority communities represent
the poorest of America’s poor—the
very bottom of an economic ladder
that fewer and fewer have the
capacity to climb.
Viewed against the nation’s
larger urban and suburban populations, their numbers are small.
Only about 51 million Americans—
less than 20 percent of the population—are considered nominally
rural anymore, and minorities
make up a fraction of that: about
10 million, all told. But their share
of the poverty burden is, by any
calculus, wildly disproportionate,
making them emblematic of some
of the country’s more unsettling
and persistent truths.
Several anti-poverty advocates
summed up the situation in a
word: “embarrassing.”
An entire
household is
powered by
a single 20
amp circuit—
the minimum
required of a
garage and
half of what
is necessary
for a modern
kitchen.