It was stupid and unthoughtful of me to suggest that the forthcoming UNC_CH CPWO book “Ending Poverty in America,” with essays on poverty from the Center’s poverty forum participants, should be a best-seller among the poor. This, even though they are the obvious audience for said book?just check out the title, they need this book. Sadly though, many of the people who might benefit most from it probably don’t read, or don’t read well, or don’t read English.
Solution? Audiobooks! Podcasts! BET, VH1, and MTV broadcasts! Video downloads! It’s so obvious, and a tangible product the Center can actually put into the hands of the poor (unlike “buttressing” and forums). Literate or not, who doesn’t have, or have access to an ipod, YouTube, myspace, Blackberry, BlackJack, WiFi, cable, satellite, and whatever else these days? Poverty seems to be no impediment here. For Pete’s sake, libraries, once thought of as sources for books, could even accommodate these needs.
Thus, if the UNC poverty center really wants to reach out to the poor, it should divert from purely academic forums, get connected, and electronically disseminate “Ending Poverty in America” ASAP, so that those who desperatley need to make use of its contents can get started immediately on the path to greater prosperity. (If the author could set the text to music, maybe add a few video clips, I’m sure it would be even sweeter.)
