Poverty and Pop Culture

In February, Baltimore writer Dwight Watkins published a piece in the online magazine Salon about the isolating effects of poverty in the East Baltimore neighborhoods where he grew up. We revisit Sheilah's interview with him from earlier this year where they talk about how some in East Baltimore are "too poor for pop culture."

Watkins' essay was inspired by the ‘selfie’ the Danish prime minister took of herself and Barack Obama on her cellphone at Nelson Mandela’s funeral last December.

Watkins says, "I walk in between these different worlds. I’m a college professor and I’m from the street. So, it’s like I live in two Baltimores. The one Baltimore fully understands what a “selfie” is. One of the neighborhoods where I come from, a lot of people don’t."

Read the full essay here: 

The rich are copping new boats and we still are using the oven to heat up our houses in the winter, while eating our cereal with forks to preserve milk. America still feels like America, a place where you have to pay to play, any and everywhere even here at our broke-ass card game.