Kat Gale’s Reviews > The Injustice of Place: Uncovering the Legacy of Poverty in America > Status Update

FEMA deemed 46% of applicants with income below $15,000 ineligible for help, compared to 10% of those making more than $70,000. White, more affluent homeowners were much more likely to receive aid...the very government agencies responsible for helping Americans recover from disasters are exacerbating pre-existing inequalities, not reducing them.

Denials of aid deepened distrust. People were traumatized from these storms. Traumatized. And FEMA came in riding on these white horses like they're going to save the world and almost every other person that went to them were denied...the amount of aid FEMA will provide is directly pegged to the market value of a home, part of why higher income families claim the bulk of the resources

Reports of pain are sky high and Appalachia and several other rural regions, likely as a result of the history of physically demanding work in these locales...their disorders were often serious and debilitating.

Blaming government benefits for breaking the spirit of the poor is just the latest guise in a long history of elites blaming Appalachian highlanders for the region's problems. In fact, most of the low-income people we spoke with told us they were desperate to do more than rely on a disability check. Even those with severe disabilities hope to have a job one day so they could contribute to society.

The state of mind in rural America is one of "good rich people" and "bad poor people"...[poverty] is defined as a moral failing. The moral narrative shields the elite from having to grapple with the grinding poverty in this poorest white-majority place in the nation, with the long history of extraction & exploitation, and with the very real corruption that is crippling the community & perpetuating the class divides.

Local offials relied on vote buying&voter intimidation to retain power, discriminatory hiring&firing to control voters,& bribes of food, moonshine,&cash...Control of local offices enables public servants to facilitate illicit moneymaking schemes–some of which risk their constituents' lives...including the willingness of elites to make common cause with criminals, bringing drugs&illegal painkillers into the country.

The infusion of 1.5 million of federal aid threatened the power of local politicians, who mounted an intimidation campaign to ensure that the populace voted for the political machine's representatives to serve on the board of the US Office of Economic Opportunity's Community Action Program, which was later defunded due to their persistent corruption and self-dealing.

For generations, central Appalachia's penchant for rampant political corruption has been a millstone around its neck, stunting economic growth and thus miring the region in disadvantage so deep that it has persisted even in the face of substantial federal aid...the key to control of the region was the twin pursuit of both political and economic power.

On the embezzlement of millions of taxpayer $ [by those in charge] of a federal block grant that was meant to fund the state's TANF, investigative journalist Wolfe said, "It’s mind-boggling to me...that the folks who rail against these social safety net programs...are often the same people who are making their careers at the government trough, privatizing these programs and getting cushy jobs for their [friends]. "

A lack of opportunity for intergenerational mobility in a place will itself spark violence. But violence can then hinder mobility. Taken together, these dynamics can trap communities in a structural cycle of violence, with impacts that cascade through time.