Rethinking Poverty: The True Power and Innovative Wisdom of Marginalized Communities

Selected 100 classic TED talks, lasting 8-15 minutes, covering innovation, growth, and future trends. Provides MP3 streaming, downloads, and English transcripts to help you improve listening and speaking skills. Ignite your learning passion with the power of ideas! Here is the content of this issue’s 【TED】100 classic speech listening and speaking material collection. Persisting in accumulation will bring your English closer to real life!

For the last 50 years, many smart, well-resourced people, some of you may doubt, have been trying to figure out how to reduce poverty in the United States. People have created and invested millions of dollars into nonprofit organizations aimed at helping those who are poor. They've established think tanks to study issues like education, job creation, and asset building, and then advocated policies to support our most marginalized communities. They have written books, columns, and given passionate speeches criticizing the systemic issues that leave more people entrenched at the bottom of the income scale. And that effort has helped, but it is not enough. Our poverty rates haven't changed significantly in the last 50 years since the war on poverty was launched. I'm here to tell you that we have overlooked the most powerful and practical resource.

Here it is. People who are poor, up in the left-hand corner, are Giovanna Sintia and Bertha. They met when they all had small children through a parenting class at a family resource center in San Francisco. As they grew together as parents and friends, they talked a lot about how hard it was to make money when your kids are little. Child care is expensive, more than they'd earn at a job. Their husbands worked, but they wanted to contribute financially too. They had to plan. They started a cleaning business. They plastered neighborhoods with flyers and handed business cards out to their family and friends and soon had clients calling. Two of them would clean the office or house while one of them would watch the kids. They rotated, who cleaned and who watched the kids. It's awesome, right? And they split the money three ways. It was not a full-time gig. No one can watch little ones all day, but it made a difference for their families. Extra money to pay bills when a husband's work hours were cut. Money to buy kids' clothes as they grew. A little extra money in their pockets to feel some independence.

Up in the top right corner is Teresa and her daughter, Brianna. Brianna is one of those kids with this sparkly, infectious, outgoing personality. For example, when Rosie, a little girl who spoke only Spanish, moved in next door, Brianna, who spoke only English, borrowed her mother's tablet and found a translation app so they could communicate. Rosie's family credits Brianna for helping Rosie learn English. A few years ago, Brianna began to struggle academically. She grew frustrated, withdrawn, and acted out in class. Her mother was heartbroken. Then they found out Brianna had to repeat second grade, and she was devastated. Her mother felt hopeless and overwhelmed, not knowing how to help her.

One afternoon, Teresa was catching up with friends and burst into tears when asked how she was. After sharing her story, one friend said, she went through the exact same thing with her son a year ago. Teresa realized much of her struggle came from not having anyone to talk to. So she created a support group for parents like her. The first meeting had three people, but word spread, and soon 20-30 people attended monthly. She went from feeling helpless to realizing she could support her daughter with the help of others facing similar struggles. Brianna is now doing great academically and socially.

In the middle is my man, Vickiir, standing in front of Blackstar Books and Cafe, which he runs out of part of his house. As you walk in, Vickiir greets you warmly. Inside, you can order some algears jerk chicken, a vegan walnut burger, or a jive turkey sandwich. You must finish with a buttermilk drop, a treat several steps above a donut hole, made from a secret family recipe. Blackstar is more than a cafe. For local kids, it's a place to get homework help. For adults, it’s where they catch up with neighbors. It's a performance venue, a home for poets, musicians, and artists. Vickiir and his partner, Nicole, with their baby strapped to her back, are in the mix, serving coffee, teaching kids, or painting signs for community events.

I have worked with and learned from people like them for more than 20 years. I have organized against the prison system affecting poor folks, especially Black, Indigenous, and Latino folks. I have worked with young people who manifest hope despite racist discipline practices and police violence. I have learned from families who unleash ingenuity and tenacity to create solutions addressing education, housing, health, and community. Everywhere I go, I see people who are broke but not broken, struggling to realize good ideas for better lives for themselves, families, and communities.

Giovanna, Cynthia, Bertha, Teresa, and Bikir are the rule, not the exception. I am the exception. I was raised by a quietly fierce single mother in Rochester, New York. At eight, I was a latch-key kid. We were poor when I was a child, but now I own a home in a gentrifying Oakland neighborhood, have a career, my husband is a business owner, and my daughter has privileges I didn’t. I am the exception due to luck and privilege, not hard work.

Marginalized communities are full of smart, talented people hustling, innovating, and using resilience to survive, stretch minimum wage paychecks, and support neighbors. Hard work is common, but success is often credited to privilege rather than effort.

We must recognize the real stories of marginalized people. Instead of imposing solutions, we should fuel their initiative, not just empower them. Silicon Valley invests massively in ideas; where are our incubators for Teresa and Bikir? Giovanna, Cynthia, and Bertha are not different from the Mark Zuckerbergs of the world. Manifesting their talents deserves support, yet few systems exist.

Let us listen to true stories, complex and inspiring, of marginalized communities. We cannot wait for others; we must leverage collective power collective to invent new ways of being. As Desmond Tutu describes Ubuntu, 'my humanity is bound up in yours.' To achieve liberty and justice, we must elevate unheard voices like Giovanna, Cynthia, Bertha, Teresa, and Bikir, and leverage their solutions.