Underclass Quotes

“In Scotland, the poverty industry is dominated by a left-leaning, liberal, middle class. Because this specialist class is so genuinely well-intentioned when it comes to the interests of people in deprived communities, they get a bit confused, upset and offended when those very people begin expressing anger towards them. It never occurs to them, because they see themselves as the good guys, that the people they purport to serve may, in fact, perceive them as chancers, careerists or charlatans. They regard themselves as champions of the under class and therefore, should any poor folk begin to get their own ideas or, god forbid, rebel against the poverty experts, the blame is laid at the door of the complainants for misunderstanding what is going on.”
― Darren McGarvey, Poverty Safari

“People like you and I would have long been crushed by this world. We are saved because we believed in something.”
― Mukta Singh-Zocchi, The Thugs & a Courtesan

“It my be helpful, in attempting to understand the basic nature of the new caste system, to think of the criminal justice system-the entire collection of institutions and practices that comprise it-not as an independent system but rather as a gateway into a much larger system of racial stigmatization and permanent marginalization. This larger system, referred to here as mass incarceration, is a system that locks people not only behind actual bars in actual prisons, but also behind virtual bars and virtual walls-walls that are invisible to the naked eye but function nearly as effectively as Jim Crow laws once did at locking people of color int a permanent second-class citizenship. The term mass incarceration refers not only to the criminal justice system but also to the web of laws, rules, policies, and customs that control those labeled criminals both in and outside of prison. Once released, former prisoners enter a hidden underworld of legalized discrimination and permanent social exclusion. They are members of America's new undercaste.”
― Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness