The Struggle

This aspect of poverty describes the motivation of some people facing adversity to strive to grow personally in order to overcome poverty and to experience some peace of mind:

"The struggle is to be determined not to give up on what you’re striving towards."

This aspect also recognizes the rage that some people feel when they confront the realities of poverty and the negative labels they are forced to endure. This struggle is a way of coping, of self-preservation.

There is a tension between relief at having accomplished something (surviving for another week, another month, and taking pride in that), frustration at not having the strength to confront the systems of poverty any longer, and fear of exposure (suffering in silence):

"We try to make sense of our struggle as a learning process and we can be proud of that, despite everything that we have been denied.”

Under the multiple attacks of subjugation, people in poverty are looking for inner balance in their lives.

Some people find inner balance on their own: "…people will try to bring you down, but you still have something inside, that spark." Others rely on their faith to get inner balance: "Spirituality/God is my source, my lifeline, my hope."

About the struggle, activist members of the national research team wrote:

Our coping mechanisms are how we go through what life throws at us; how we get through the rage caused by the poverty and inequity we endure. Complacency is what is expected from people living in poverty — that we are lazy, don’t want to work hard, and are content with the circumstances of our life. It has been said of us, ‘Some people think money only comes from a mailbox,’ meaning we are content to rely on government subsidies as opposed to working. These are the external factors (labeling, social humiliation, stigma, judgment) that are imposed on us, causing shame for some and frustration and anger for others.

We have hope and drive, but change in ourselves and in our lives takes time. The most you can hope for is middle class pride — being able to provide for yourself and your family. And we sacrifice for that: consistently going without and putting others’ needs before our own. We do all that for our children. We learn from our struggles, but there is also a struggle for internal balance and peace. We strive to be the best we can, for ourselves and our families. But we also question why it is the poor who are always expected to adapt and change, but not the system, structures, and regulations that support the continuation of poverty.

We have been told — indeed, we have been raised — to be grateful for what we have. We go through situations, ‘I don’t know what my next meal is going to be or where it’s going to come from …not sure how I’m going pay my rent this week’ and we are grateful for having gone through that, for having survived. We have learned to be grateful to be alive, but there is a rage in that because of our stories and histories. When we are told to be grateful for the poor quality of resources and the limited resources we are allowed to access, we become resentful because we are not allowed to go further. We are forced to accept what cannot change and to find peace in it. ‘People who say they are ‘grateful for life’ is something people say who don’t have anything else.’

We do not claim to be victims, but for some there is an undercurrent of rage at the injustices we face; a back-and-forth between positive and negative.

Society likes to describe as resilient those people in poverty who have gone through repeated struggles and managed to survive, as opposed to succumbing. Resiliency is a label that is thrown at us to describe that. We don’t want to use the word resilience. That is not our vocabulary.

We embrace the identities we give ourselves: mother, father, provider, friend, activist, educator, and others. We develop strength from defining ourselves and from resisting our life conditions and the labels imposed on us.