Classism and racism toward low-income families-Discourse analysis write-up

This video was taken in New Orleans during or before an LSU athletic event. The men shown in this video don't seem to be people who have ever had to live pay check to pay check, day by day. They even say so themselves that they are well off and living a good life in a suburban neighborhood. So it makes me wonder how they can spell out the lives of poverty stricken residents when they've never had to live a day in their shoes. I was surprised after I watched this video. I thought, do people really think like that? I believe the creator of this video was striving to prove a point. She wanted to give a sense of what people are saying about New Orleans no longer offering affordable housing for low-income families. The person creating the video said she has lived and worked among the low-income families these men are insulting so, she understands what they are going through and is seeking to
understand what the rest of the community thinks about this issue. This video opens an interesting side of the low-income family conversation that I have been researching lately.

It’s important to consider the time and place this video was taken however; I don't believe these factors remove its credibility. These men said racist things while they were probably a little drunk but I can't say that what they said doesn't hold some truth to how they really feel. It’s easy to say, and I know many of us find ourselves doing this more than once, that because people like this are in a faraway place like New Orleans what they say shouldn’t matter to us here. I don’t think that because this video was taken in a place nowhere near Boise that it doesn’t give some insight
into how other Americans feel, even those closer to home. This is another area I’d like to focus on in my research because that same attitude of “I can’t see it, I’m not living it so it doesn’t affect me” is an issue when it come to dealing with a community problem such as poverty. That’s what poverty is, it’s
a community wide problem that affects communities across the United States. Eventually, if not already, it will become a nationwide problem. So I plan to give reasons for caring. Although, I will say that I think people should care because….well they just should. It’s the right thing to do. I realize though that for men such as the ones shown in this video, I will have to give more evidence of how
poverty in another community may eventually come around and affect them in the long run and they wouldn’t want that now would they?

These men weren’t looking to be politically correct. What they gave was the raw and vulgar viewpoints of a racist and classist person. This may be very helpful in my research since a lot
of my information is found in articles of experts and government run websites which usually contain some form of bias but is kept hidden between the lines. There are other factors of bias to consider in this video but I trust most of them only give more reason to believe that what these men said is really and honestly how they feel. I don’t think that because it was taken in another community far from this one that it can be completely discounted as evidence for the conversation concerning the lives of low-income families.

 SneakinSal. (Jan 9, 2008). Low-Class Southern Suburban Bigotry~ Warning Racist Content. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hVvMfgvocE. (Mar 5. 2011).