ABSTRACT
Humiliation. Perhaps more than any other single word, this captures the current state of health in poor communities across America. This suggests that the conditions of discrimination and oppression, despite massive political rhetoric to the contrary, have neither diminished nor disappeared. We welcome the media-celebrated ex-TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) mother getting a Harvard PhD, but her counterparts are few and far between. For most innercity areas, as well as lower-income rural areas and suburbs, such stories seem a cruel joke. Somehow, apparently, with the proper attitude and hard work, anyone can make it big in America. This attitude is an important part of the reason that community-based efforts to support the health of children and families so often fall short of their goals. The minimal resources made available reflect this myth of hard work and positive attitude being all it takes for families to move out of poverty and racial segregation. Thus, by this backward reasoning, the person who cannot “make it” is only suffering the humiliation that she or he deserves.
