Rev. Dr. William Barber - “White Poverty” & Poor People’s Campaign March | The Daily Show

the Boogie is called White Poverty, I'm holding it up, I don't know, you say uh,

white

poverty

, you sir are famous for not being

white

, so why spell white

poverty

right? I actually come from black Caucasians and Tuscaro and I'm descended oh wow so and my

people

were free

people

in Eastern North Carolina there were a lot of those communities and in some ways this book is me so denying any part of my reality would be to deny myself, but this is the problem that concerns me in the way we live. Measuring poverty in this country is not just a lie, but I can say on this

show

that it is a damn lie, sir, you can do more than that if you want, okay, okay, okay, we have a lot more room for that .

I only use the ones that are approved by the Bible, okay, R, that's right, but we say that we use the official measure of poverty which says that poverty, if you earn more than $113,000 a year, you are not

poor

, if you earn more than $133,000 a year, it is not.

poor

thing, you're in the lower middle class when the last time they were well adjusted, it was since the '60s in a way, and what happens with that is that we marginalize poverty and then we racialize it every time we have a brief discussion. about poverty because it rarely makes the news in political arenas, we feature a black woman on welfare that racializes and demeans black people, but then dismisses tens of millions of poor whites.

You're right, there are 66 million 66 million. Of the 135 million poor and low-wage people in this country, 60% of black people are low-level poor, well, that's 26 million, 30% white, but it's 66 million, 40 million more, right , this book says that we must face all of our poor and Recognize that we have something that, uh, Desmond, who is a Princeton author, calls poverty in America, not poverty in America, but the particular kind of poverty in America United that is unnecessary and abolish because it makes no sense in the richest nation in the world that we have. 135 million poor and low-wage people, over 41% of our population and over 50% of our children, and it's unnecessary, so white poverty says we're not playing anymore, let's not look at this through the prism of race, let's look at it. through classes and do you think that division had a purpose?

I think so and to expand the race we have to deal with race in the United States, but what cannot be allowed for someone to do for something so serious where 295,000 people die a year. of poverty and low wages how many 295,000 people a day are dying are dying recent study of what they would consider poverty poverty is the fourth cause of death in the country, more than respiratory diseases Higher than weapons, it even impacts diseases respiratory because if you're low wage and you live in an area where pollution and toxics are probably higher where you live, all those things, so here we have something that is a fourth cause of death of 800 people per day when seven people died from vaping.

It was a congressional hearing, it was at the presidential level, right? Imagine if 800 politicians died a day, oh I've done that, well I can't do that, but my point is everyone would be up and out or 800 middle class people talking. about 100,000 people, that's clearly an epidemic, right? You just talked about crime, it's a crime, it's a form of and when, especially, when it's unnecessary, it doesn't have to be that way and it seems entrenched in many communities. , it is simply a cloud that never lives well. The thing is that John is in all the communities. That's the point we're making in the book, whether it's in Appalachia, where I met women in West Virginia who have to sell tacos on Tuesdays to have a community fund to help women. deal with their monthly problems or if it's in Eastern Kentucky where I met black and white coal miners who saw the mines taken over by multinational companies from the U that take away union rights or if it's in the Delta, it's everywhere parts.

There is not a single county in this country where a person earns 725, that is the federal minimum wage. The federal minimum wage is 7 25, right, it's been that way for 14 years. John hasn't been raised for 14 years when they tried to raise him to even 15 I mean, the fight is everywhere, uh, there's a big fight to try to get him to 15 and it's also going to kill all the jobs, which is a lie. You know, three three three. The Nobel Peace Prize-winning economist said he wouldn't do it. killing jobs is a fact that would put more money into the economy and actually expand jobs but this is what we had um 15 in the union proposed in 2020 eight Democrats and all Republicans opposed 55 million people 55 million people What do 52 million people earn less than a living wage of $15 now here's the thing in 63 the

march

on Washington called for an increase in the minimum wage to $2 whose index with inflation would be greater than 15 today really yes and people forget that the March on Washington 63 was titled for jobs and Justice and Justice wasn't just about black civil rights, it was about fair, broad, inclusive grassroots democracy, and here we are in this reality and people are suffering in Everywhere, there is no county where you can do even a minimum of work. salaried job and before the basic two bedroom apartment and minimum wage waiters and waitresses with minimum wage it's not a county in the country it's not a county in the country you could if you had a minimum wage job there's not a county in this country where you could could afford it better not a federal federal no you couldn't and then these are the Working Poor, right?

I think in the country there is a feeling that it is a mentality of entitlement, so there is a certain law of flow of characters that maintains You, these are people who are working, yes, entitlement is and politicians continue to increase their salaries and giving tax breaks to corporations, but they won't help workers, that's the right, so, and we're talking during co co, they didn't do it. exacerbating poverty put it right and what we did was a study called um, death during Co and we found that whether you were in a poor county in West Virginia or a county in the Delta, poor people were dying at a rate three to five times higher during Co because of their poverty, not because the germ somehow discriminated, but we had access to good health.

Well 350,000 people died during Co so far, according to one study, from lack of medical care and if you don't face this, John that's the point of the book we have to face this we have to look at it we had 15 presidential debates in the last election the 40% of the adult population in poverty 800 people dying a day no debate focused on that we I have not had a general discussion in the office. I think why don't politicians value what is an incredibly large population in many different states, I'm sure, in swing states. So why don't they do it?

Poor people need better lobbyists. What is it? What can be done to make a politician listen well. I think what we're saying now is that we just did a study. I asked for it to be done as part of our movement to awaken the sleeping giant and this is what we discovered. All of these figures also tell us that poor and low-wage people now represent 30% of the electorate in the country (30% 30) and more than 40% in states where the margin of victory was less than 3% and in Texas where it is smaller. 5% so what we are saying to poor and low-wage people in every race is time to mobilize your vote.

There isn't a state where the 20% of poor and low-wage voters who didn't vote, 57 million voted, 30 million didn't. in the last election, but if the 20% that did not vote moved, they could change every election and in most states Michigan Wisconsin Pennsylvania Florida it is less than 4% so what we are doing is organizing a mass movement, in fact , June 29 in Washington DC There will be a mass assembly of poor and low-wage workers in March in DC and at the polls saying that poor and low-wage people have to find themselves as white, black, brown, Native Asians and come together to attack what we call five interlocking injustices. systemic racism systemic poverty ecological devastation denial of health care war economy and false modat religious nationalism wow and John, you know, on our agenda we are saying that colombes if you want these votes take them to the highest level high.

President Biden brings a group of religious leaders and low-wage poor people to the White House, do people even listen to them? What has been the response when you approach our political class? Which is the answer? It has been good because they have lied to us so much. At first they said that it is not that big and then we

show

ed that it is actually 1,354 and then they do not expect people to organize. You know, in a democracy you have to involve England in agitation, legislative litigation. and voter participation, so what we're saying to poor and low-wage people is let's use this power correctly and we're going to have this meeting before the conventions, we're going to touch 15 million poor and low-wage voters. low salaries with the data about where people remain in a non-partisan position where they position themselves on the issues and say: let's mobilize and we, because that is the true decisive vote.

Cinda Lake, who is a major poster artist, says the truest, most powerful, biggest swing vote right now is reaching low-wage people and you. You know, John, people often ask me, you and I have talked about this: does our society today require things to be this way? This was the real crux of the matter and what this book says is, well, it's like putting your hand in. An outlet that's plugged in requires you to get an electric shock because you put your finger there, you don't have to, but if You keep doing things the way you do them, you'll get shot, so if you keep paying less. than a living wage, if we continue to deny people health care, if we continue to give the rich and greedy two trillion dollar tax cuts, but not even spend the money to fully fund public education, if we continue to do What we are doing, we are going to continue having the level of poverty that we are having and we do not have to do it, in reality I think that a form of Ence policy is criminal to continue on the path and does not weaken the system as a whole.

You know, you could almost argue that if the system requires a permanently entrenched underclass and becomes ripe for instability and I wonder if there is a way to change the mentality, because the mentality in America is that there is a lot of class, these poor people are many. and they are taking resources away from me I work hard they get the poor to get health care they get food they get what they need I don't understand it is there a way to change the mentality to see things? not as rights but as investments, yes, and perhaps to ensure that workers are not seen as shareholders, that corporations have to see work not as a means to an end, but as shareholders in that, and that can change the dynamics, just one of the first.

Things that we think we need to do and we talk about the Fusion organization is, first of all, we should examine every policy, not by the color of a president's hair or how many porn stars he knocked on or how he looks or what door their path makes the Do they align with the policy you propose? Do they align with the establishment of justice? Do they align with providing the common defense and promoting the general welfare? Do they align with our deeper religious mod Val? Secondly, we must expose the level of death that is happening because of this.

It is not benign, thirdly, we must make sure that people see everything, that this is not a group of people that we have been lied to so much about, this is an anomaly, it is just a small group, we cannot allow This continues to be marginalized and then you have to have a mass organization of poor and low-wage people from all places, every GE Geographic and every race and in doing so we can put poverty and low wages at the center of our political discourse and then yes , we have it, it's not, it's not the United States First it's about making the United States great again, like if you empty a country, how can you expect it to be strong?

Wouldn't that be the absolute highlight of strengthening a country from the bottom up instead of the top down? It would be, but if you have people who are still alive when they first wrote the Constitution and said that even poor white men who didn't have jobs or didn't own land couldn't vote, if you have people with that kind of mentality that this should be an exclusive rather than inclusive democracy, but listen, listen, the numbers tell us that although there are more of us, the thing is that you can't be lazy in a democracy, you have to fight like him.

Heaven, I mean. country that you have, I mean you, you and and what we are trying to show the people, the numbers are there, listen, marginal victory ofWisconsin, 20,000 votes, number of poor, low-wage voters did not vote, over a million did not vote, did not vote. Michigan 10,000 votes the number of votes low wage poor one million Pennsylvania uh 40,000 votes determine the number of the president vote low wage poor did about two million North Carolina right 160,000 over a million so it's not a big increase and the Reason number one, although we did a study called awakening the sleeping giant that poor people with low wages did not vote, no one talks to them, politicians do not go to those communities.

I have gone to communities and people literally cry and say: "

barber

, no one comes back here, and then what?" Tell them we're back here now, but let's mobilize to make sure they're never forgotten, never forgotten again. White Poverty available now. Reverend Barber will lead the Poor People's March on Washington on June 29.