Ray Flores’ work ethic comes from his father, who emigrated from Puerto Rico to the United States and worked in a local textile mill until the day he died. As a custodian at the University of Rhode Island, Ray is doing everything he can to turn his part-time work into a full-time job with medical benefits in order to support his family. Yet, more time at work means less time with his daughter and his wife, Kari Dickinson, who works 35 hours a week at a laundromat for slightly more than the minimum wage. Between the two of them, Ray and Kari bring home less than $2,000 per month. With help from their local food pantry and state health insurance, Ray and Kari are confident that they can keep the American Dream alive and give their daughter a better life.

For the Eastern Band of Cherokees a new casino and hotel have lifted hundreds of families out of poverty by providing them with sorely needed jobs and boosting economic development in Cherokee, North Carolina. One member of the tribe, Will Harris, is a recovering alcoholic who, for the first time, has a stable income with benefits. New research has shown that the current generation of Native Americans who have grown up in less abject poverty shows fewer signs of substance abuse, suggesting that poverty is more likely the cause rather than effect of drug and alcohol abuse. We also film a Cherokee language class at the new Cherokee Museum and witness firsthand how casino revenue is being used to preserve the tribe’s language and cultural heritage.

Upon graduating from medical school, Dr. Carleton Gorton, the director of the Gorton Rural Health Clinic in Belzoni, Mississippi, realized that his hometown in the heart of the Mississippi Delta needed a different kind of doctor. He opened a small clinic for his community, where more than half of the residents suffer from obesity-related illnesses. Dr. Gorton charges patients on a sliding scale and treats many free of charge. Providing much more than just medication, Dr. Gorton councils patients like Skylar Brown on how to change their eating habits, improve physical fitness, and better educate their children on staying healthy.

Paul LaCoste, an exercise guru in Jackson, Mississippi, is a former NFL football player whose career now centers around fighting obesity in the fattest state in the country. Combining the discipline of a drill sergeant with the humor of a stand-up comic, he trains everyone from state legislators to local doctors and their patients. We filmed Paul and about 60 of his trainees at one of his 5 AM sessions where we were able to see how his unusual training methods have helped dozens of people lose over 100 pounds each. One of Paul’s clients, Karen Robinson, talks about how it feels being a member of the 100-lb. club and an inspiration to people she meets. We also talk to Dr. Richard Guyner, an interventional cardiologist who trains with Paul, who recently treated two young patients who needed coronary stints, a procedure previously associated only with middle-aged and elderly patients.

Fast Facts about Efforts to Escape Poverty:

• As of 2014, nearly a third of Americans who did not finish high school were living in poverty, while only 5% of those with a college degree were in poverty.^[i]
• Educational attainment may also be linked to obesity. According to a report reviewed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the rate of childhood obesity among children whose adult head of household completed college was about half that of those whose head of household did not finish high school (9% versus 19% among girls; 11% versus 21% among boys) in 1999-2010.^[ii]
• Approximately 86% of full-time workers are overweight or have at least one chronic condition. Obesity and its comorbid chronic conditions like diabetes cost the U.S. economy $153 billion per year in missed work days due to poor health.^[iii]
• According to 2010 Census Bureau data, 5.2 million people (1.7% of the total U.S. population) identify as Native American or Alaska Native. Native Americans have higher poverty and unemployment rates than the national average.^[iv]
• Only 51% of Native Americans graduated from high school in the class of 2010.^[v] Forty percent of Native Americans living on reservations are in substandard housing. Approximately 33% of homes are overcrowded, and less than 16% have indoor plumbing.^[vi]
• Indian lands are still owned and managed by the federal government, meaning that residents in these communities cannot mortgage their assets for loans to start businesses or export their abundance of natural resources (e.g., coal) to generate revenue.^[vii]

 

Discussion Questions about Efforts to Escape Poverty:

1. What role does the economic status of one’s parents play in the ability to scale the social and economic ladder? What can be said of the state of the American Dream if the current generation is not doing better than their parents’ generation?
2. What role does systemic racism play in intergenerational poverty?
3. Although both of Ray Flores’ parents received a high school diploma, Ray dropped out of high school and believes his decision has limited his earning prospects, but he is determined to send his daughter to college so she can become “a strong, independent woman.” How can higher education help break the cycle of intergenerational poverty? What are some of the barriers that keep children from poor families from getting a good education and attending college?
4. Once he gained employment at the casino, Will Harris stopped drinking and turned his life around. What does his story tell us about whether poverty causes substance abuse or whether substance abuse causes poverty?
5. Alexis de Tocqueville wrote of the Trail of Tears that it is “impossible to conceive the suffering that attend these forced migrations.” How might the preservation of language and cultural heritage among native peoples in the U.S. promote prosperity and revitalize communities both on and off reservations?
6. Paul LaCoste is not only saving lives with his training programs, but saving the government millions of dollars in healthcare-related costs. What accounts for the huge rise in the rates of obesity? Will a financial argument be effective in reducing it?
7. “I’m not at all embarrassed to need help,” says Ray, “but I almost feel guilty, because no matter how hard her and I are struggling, there are people struggling ten times harder than we are, and I don’t take that for granted. I want to give back.” Studies show that high-income Americans may have less empathy for those on the lower economic rungs. What accounts for Ray’s sense of compassion and desire to “give back”?

^[i] DeNavas-Walt, Carmen and Bernadette D. Proctor, Income and Poverty in the United States: 2014, U.S. Census Bureau. Current Population Reports P60-252, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 2015

^[ii] http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/childhood.html

^[iii] http://www.gallup.com/poll/150026/unhealthy-workers-absenteeism-costs-153-billion.aspx

^[iv] http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/06/13/1-in-4-native-americans-and-alaska-natives-are-living-in-poverty/

^[v] http://www.usnews.com/education/high-schools/articles/2013/06/06/graduation-rates-dropping-among-native-american-students

^[vi] http://www.ncai.org/policy-issues/economic-development-commerce/housing-infrastructure

^[vii] http://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2014/03/13/5-ways-the-government-keeps-native-americans-in-poverty/ – 18207fd6cc62