April, 1997
No. 001 A Visit to the Ghetto: Sponsored by Atsiv.
Distributed as part of the Red Feather Institute Radical Pedagogy
Series. The Red Feather Institute, 8085 Essex, Weidman, Michigan, 48893.
ATSIV
In the 1970's the Federal Government set up a Program entitled VISTA...Volunteers in Service to America. Students were paid to live in a poor neighborhood and help with a variety of community projects...cleaning up vacant lots, repairing homes, tutoring children, visiting the aged and such. Nobel activities which, from the point of view of middle-class students just beginning to come into the fullness of their morality, sounded good. Sounded a good way to help President Johnson 'fight the War on Poverty.'
One of my students at Colorado State University, I've forgotten just who it was, came into my office to protest some of the recruiting for VISTA. He or she lived in a poor Denver neighborhood where three of the first VISTA VOLUNTEERS had been assigned. S/he began to list all the problems; all the degradations of the Program.
1. It was demeaning to the Citizens. It treated them as children who had to be guided by superior middle class youth.
2. While many VISTA Voluteers were delightful young people; eager to to learn and eager to please, some of the students assigned were arrogant in both asking and in telling her neighbors what they must do to:
a. get out of poverty.
b. take care of their children
c. prepare food
d. spend money.
e. solve problems between husband and wife.
3. VISTA volunteers may suggestions which ignored the marginal budgets of her/his neighbors. They suggested 'solutions' which cost a great deal in local terms...things taken for granted by middle class students. Clothing, food stuffs, recreation for children, toys for children, landscaping supplies and such.
4. The Program generally ignored the larger sources of Poverty and reduced its solution to cosmetic changes in poor neighborhoods. Solutions well designed to protect existing patterns of wealth status and power.
Racism, Class privilege, a differentiated labor market, stores which charged more for food than in middle class malls, slum lords who charged more per square foot than middle class home-owners paid, banks which 'red-lined' poor neighborhoods and refused to loan back the money deposited in local banks, as well as police who treated minority youth with dis-respect and local services denied: street cleaning, trash removal, sewage links and sometimes, refusal to extend water lines to poor neighborhoods while doing it free to local developers of middle class tract housing.
These structural problems and more were masked by sending a lot of very nice young people into slums to 'help' change opinions and practices of the poor.
So, between us, we created ATSIV. Activist Students Interferring with Voluntarism. While there were many positive benefits steming from VISTA, still a 'war on poverty' which placed all the responsibility for poverty on the poor was doomed to failure.
We set up a Program which would teach middle-class students the futility of such programs.
ATSIV prepared a series of 'Field Trips to the Ghetto' for unsuspect- students. We told 'Volunteers' they would visit a poor neighborhood and help the poor people build better lives for themselves.What we did was book a school bus from the Transportation Office, put it in the Parking Lot next to the Social Sciences building at CSU.Volutneers were told that they could earn 20 pts toward their final grade by Volunteering to help poor people in the neighborhood and by following the easy directions which we would hand out on the bus.Then, on the day of 'field assignment' we led Volunteers to the bus. There we told them that this was the 'poor neighborhood' of which we had spoken; that they were to be 'poor people' for the day and our ATSIV team would 'help them' be better people.A. We informed the Volunteers that they would earn 3 points for each hour they remained in the bus with a 'bonus' of 8 points for those who stuck it out to the end...the full four hours; 8-12.B. If any Volunteer wanted anything; water, food, use of the toilet, paper, pen or anything 'reasonable,' they could have it by applying to 'Their Social Worker.' There was, of course, a FORM to be filled out...asking for age, education, work history and a 'good' reason they wanted the thing in question.C. We pointed out two members of ATSIV who had arm bands on. We told the 'poor people' that these were police officers who would handle any trouble; and that we would define what constituted 'trouble.'D. Volunteers were told that TR would serve as Judge in the event there was a charge placed against any Volunteer or if any Volunteer wanted to appeal a judgment of any Social Worker.E. We had prepared Ice Cream and cake for lunch...and served it to all those 'Volunteers' who stuck it out.
