March 20: Poor Life

After reading the two articles, “The Money” by Junot Diaz and “The Logic of Stupid Poor People” by Tressie Cottom, I can agree that they are both talking about the way poor people spend money. They are different by their financial stability, Junot wasn’t as fortunate as Tressie. In “The Money” article, the author main talks about his experience of growing up poor. He did have as much money as he could be cause his grandparents needed the money a little more than they did. His family struggles became even harder when after a trip his house was broken into. Even though it wasn’t long before he “stole” the money back, the family was faced with the potential starvation of the grandparents, maybe even themselves. It wouldn’t make sense to disagree with his life story because it happened and it has the potential on repeating history, I’ve never been in his shoes but being raised in a middle-class family has it similarities.

In “The Logic of Stupid Poor People” article, she didn’t go to into her financial stability but she went into how poor people spend their money, to seem richer then they are. She gives examples of her mother helping others who are less fortunate then they are, and how she dressed different and “talks like white folks”. I agree with her as well because I’ve witnessed this myself. I like how she doesn’t put emphases on stereotypes too much, as they are a part of why poor people aim to show wealth. As a kid, I used to ask my parent why she talked different when during a professional conversation, she never answered but later I noticed that “talking like white folks” as she says in the article, can be the deciding factor of getting what you need or not.