Reflection On Poverty

Privilege is power and power is a fundamental aspect of society. I am an American, therefore I have privilege. I am a white American in India, therefore I have privilege. India is a place, which has a hierarchical culture predominately of caste divisions. The divisions that separate people are to illustrate a level of superiority some members of a higher caste possess onto others of lower castes. The ideology of creating a divide within civilizations, such as the caste system in India, can be seen in other contexts in many other cultures. I think it is important to expand on some of my experiences and many conversations I had during my time in South Africa dealing with societal power.
In particular, there is one experience I continue to think about, which questions the power structures of society, by asking who has previously had power and who continues to have power or

Instead, I feel the need to do something with my privilege and use it to benefit society, for others and myself. In India today, poverty is a chronic issue, which needs to be addressed. However, there are many ways to approach poverty and it is difficult to find one solution. During the class lecture and discussion on poverty, I got the impression from some of my classmates that we have now talked about the causes of poverty and what are the solutions. I felt the same way in South Africa, where after a while it was hard to listen to the struggle blacks had faced. For me, since I have some experience in discussing difficult topics like privilege I am over the immediate emotions of guilt or anger. The issues of poverty and conversations do not necessarily get easier, but I am excited to dig deeper into the issues. I had not previously broken down causes of poverty, in terms of the surface levels into the root causes, which I thought was helpful. Still, what poverty means varies from place to place and I admit to some partisan