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Controversial author!researcher gives her take on conquering poverty BY LAYLA GARMS THE CHRONICLE Dr. Ruby Payne, author of "Bridges out of Poverty," led a three-hour workshop last week, schooling a group of more than ISO social service and non-profit offi cials on ways that they can help their clients thrive. Payne is the founder of Highlands, Tex.-based aha! Process, Inc., which offers "prod ucts and straightforward training to help clients understand the impact of poverty on people's lives." The company's offerings are based on Payne's research. The group she addressed Feb. 13 at Goodwill Industries on University Parkway hailed from agencies across the state and includ ed some participants from Maryland, according to Alisa Quick, a spokesperson for the Housing Authority of Winston Salem, which hosted Payne's visit. Payne, whose subject was "Cultural Barriers and Hidden Rules of Poverty, said the American socioeconomic structure can be broken into three groups: the gener ational poverty group, the middle class and the wealthy. Each gibup, she said, has its own set of priorities that influence their hidden rules. People of low wealth value relation ships most, while the middle ?lass values achievements and the wealthy value connections, she said. 'To move from poverty to mid dle class, relationships must tem porarily be sacrificed for achieve ment," she said. "It's legendary in community colleges that women will get one or two courses from a degree and then they'll quit, and it has to do with relationships." To illustrate the universal nature of the rules, she threw out several open ended sentences based on middle class rules, which the audi ence answered in unison, without hesitation. "If you borrow money..." she prompted. "Pay pt back," the group responded. "And do you tell peo ple your salary?" she asked, to a resounding "No!" Similarly, each group has its own way of expressing their love for their children. In the middle class, the com mon practice is to engage the children in activities that promote development, such as sports or artistic pro grams, whereas the wealthy often enroll their children in board ing schools. "In generational poverty, if you want to show that you love your children, you buy them designer shoes and clothes because it's tangi ble - everybody can see that you love your child and you sacrifice for them," she explained. Understanding the rules that govern members of a given class - such as generational poverty - allows service providers to help their clients navigate the obstacles they face in elevating their status and joining the middle class, Payne said. "Social bridging capital is when you interact with people who are different than yourself. What will derail that fast is when you don't know the hid den rules," she remarked. '^They're huge in community interactions." Ignorance of hidden rules in a different class can lead to misunder standings and ineffective programming, because the unseen factors have not been addressed, Payne said. She used the example of a school principal who gave two children at her school 3>2(X) to purchase new clothes because their wardrobe was scarce. The children's mother spent the money on a new television and DVD player. The principal was angry because she didn't under stand one of the chief rules of poverty, Payne said. "Poverty is painful, and a prior ity for your money is entertain ment," she explained. "It takes away your pain." Payne has been roundly criti cized by some academics, who claim her research is based on stereotypes and accuse her of clas sism, but she said last week that nei ther is the case. Though certain pat terns can be associated with certain groups, Payne said this is a function of the environment they live in, not any contrived perception. "Patterning is something every body does as an efficient way of negotiating their environment," she said. Sylvia Oberle, executive direc tor of Habitat for Humanity of Forsyth County, said she read "Bridges out of Poverty" and found Payne's insight helpful. "It's absolutely essential," said Oberle, who brought Habitat's six senior staffers with her to the semi nar. "...I think the point of the book and the point that she's trying to make today is that institutions like ours, although well meaning, are operating out of that middle class framework, and we are trying to help people transition out of gener ational poverty. It's valuable for us to understand this." Goodwill CEO Art Gibel said he read Payne's book last summer and was so blown away by her phi losophy that he started distributing it to other nonprofit leaders around town. He is even using it as a model to enhance the way Goodwill deliv ers services. Quick said she believes Payne's seminar could have a positive effect on the broader community. "As a result of so many people coming together, we hope to get a better understanding of the popula tions we work with," Quick stated. "Understanding their point of view regarding life's challenges will bet ter equip our community partners to help them overcome any hurdles successfully." Photos by layla Oarnu Dr. Ruby Payne addresses attendees at Goodwill last week. Quick Oberle Another Highway 11 ?MHUI iKMAC ramp cioscs SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE The N.C. Department of Transportation has per manently closed the entrance ramp from Fifth Street onto U.S. 52 North in Winston-Salem. DOT says the closure, which occurred Monday, is part of an effort to streamline traffic flow on the high way, which will help improve motorist safety and reduce congestion. NCDOT already has permanently closed the other entrance and exit ramps at Third, Fourth and Fifth streets and U.S. 52 South, as well as the exit ramp from U.S. 52 North onto Third Street. According to offi cials, the closures are allowing crews to con struct an additional lane on U.S. 52 in each direc tion from U.S. 421/Business 40 to Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. Eliminating the ramps and adding a new acceleration lane will help alleviate traffic delays and reduce crashes on the highway, which carries 80,000-90,000 vehicles a day. The closures are part of the U.S. 52 Improvement Project, which includes streamlin ing and repaving one-half mile of U.S. 52 from U.S. 421/Business 40 to Akron Drive and improving part of Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in Winston-Salem. The $13.1 million project is scheduled to be com plete in early summer. Photot by Todd Luck NC NAACP Field Director Rob Stephens speaks as Bob Zellner looks on. The Chronicle (USPS 067-910) was established by Ernest H. Pitt and Ndubisi Egemonye in 1974 and is published every Thursday by Winston-Salem Chronicle Publishing Co. Inc., 617 N. Liberty Street, Winston-Salem, N.C. 27101. Periodicals postage paid at Winston-Salem, N.C. Annual subscription price is $30.72. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: The Chronicle, P.O. Box 1636 Winston-Salem, NC 27102-1636 Zellner from gage A1 lis Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at a local church. He was there to preach at a civil rights organizing workshop. The threat of arrest became real for the students when police arrived and surrounded the church - a practice meant to intimidate that was often employed by Southern law enforcement officials. Zellner said that King allowed the white students to exit the church unde tected. He told them he would exit through the church's main door to create a distraction that would allow them to leave inrougn a rear door. Zellner said as the stu dents waited for King to exit the church. Rosa Parks, whom Zellner described as a "silent, quiet woman of granite," reached over and touched him on the elbow. "Mrs. Rosa Parks said, 'Bob, when you see some thing wrong, you're going to have to do something about it. You cannot study it forever; you have to take action.'" Zellner recalled. "And sure enough, that was the commission to me, a lit tle white boy born in L.A., Lower Alabama, to partici pate in this movement, to not live a life that I would be judged not to have lived, but to participate in the issues of my time." - Zellner and the other students did not escape the episode without conse quences. School adminis trators asked them to resign for disgracing the school. The state attorney general told them they had fallen under Communist influ ence. The Klan burned crosses outside their dorm. Zellner said all of this is when his true race relations education began. Despite objections from some school officials, Zellner graduated in 1961 with the highest honors and went to work for the Student Nonviolent v-uuiuiuaiiug Committee, where he became a field secretary. Initially, Zellner said, some black members of the organization were suspicious of him because of his race. o ? ? suspicions evap orated on his first organizing job in Macon, Miss., when he said he was attacked by Klansmen who tried to kill him. The terrifying experi ence didn't deter him. His long career as an activist included 18 arrests in seven states and organizing an anti-racism project for the Southern Conference Educational Fund. Zellner is still fighting for what he sees as right and just. During his lecture, he railed against Republicans for relying on a "Southern strategy" of using racism to win Southern votes. Zellner said though racism persists, there is now a resurgence in activism that he calls the "Third Reconstruction." He said he's working with the N.C. NAACP and a coali tion of other organizations to establish a school in Wilson that will train organizers. "There's something new happening and the rea son it's happening is that it has to be done," said Zellner "...We don't know what the next historical moment is going to be but I'm convinced you're going to be a part of it." The crowd also heard from Rob Stephens, a Winston-Salem native who is the held director for the NC NAACP. Stephens, who, like Zellner, is white and began working as an activist when he was in high school, talked about some current NAACP ini tiatives. Zellner's story was both inspiring and enlightening to Wake senior Bentrice Jusu, who received the school's 2012 Martin Luther King Building the Dream Award for starting a non-profit (Both Hands) in her native Trenton, N.J. that uses the arts to engage inner city youth. The art major said that she'd never heard a white person talk as openly about race as Zellner did. "The issue of race is never brought up candidly," she said. "It's always swept under the rug and to hear him speak of it, it inspired me to continue my auda cious attempt to confront this issue of racism, to talk about it regardless of who's around because we're all affected by it." Zellner's lecture, spon sored by the WFU Office of Multicultural Affairs, is part of the school's "Faces of Courage," a series of events and initiatives designed to celebrate the 50th anniversary of racial integration at Wake Forest. Jusu North Carolina's Electric Cooperatives Year ToMctanne Emu?* Coopcnrivn i0i
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