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PORTSIDE CULTURE

WE SHOULD LISTEN TO REV BARBER ON WHITE POVERTY AND MULTRACIAL
ORGANIZING  
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Lewis M. Steel
September 3, 2025
Common Dreams
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_ The latest book by the Poor People’s Campaign co-chair shows how
racial division keeps both Black and white communities poor—and lays
out a real vision to defeat it. _

,

 

_White Poverty__How Exposing Myths About Race and Class Can
Reconstruct American Democracy_Liveright William J. Barber II with
Jonathan Wilson-HartgroveISBN: 978-1-324-09675-7 

For progressives [[link removed]] to
win, we need a powerful multiracial coalition. That includes the
people of color who disproportionately suffer poverty
[[link removed]] and structural violence,
but it also includes the white people who make up the largest share of
poor people in this country.

As the Reverend Dr. William J. Barber
[[link removed]] II points out in his
new book, _White Poverty_ [[link removed]],
there are more poor white people than any other racial group, and more
effort should be put into pulling them into this coalition.

I’m a white man from a wealthy family—and a lawyer who took on
tough civil rights [[link removed]]
cases and fought them as if my life depended on it. My goal from the
beginning was to join those who are trying to make America a better
place—a country where racism
[[link removed]] and sexism would slowly fade
away and where the possibility of equal opportunity would shine
through.

I see that road forward in Rev. Barber’s new book, co-written with
Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove.

_White Poverty_‘s great value is to teach and motivate both Black
and white leaders to create a multiracial movement which demands
legislation that benefits _all _poor people.

Talking to white people in all walks of life—from taxi drivers to
restaurant workers as well as bankers and stockbrokers—has been very
revealing. When I say I’m a civil rights lawyer, their voices often
take on a certain unsympathetic tone—and many times they inject the
“Black crime rate” into the conversation. Sometimes the person
will shift the conversation to discuss Black children being raised by
single women who use food stamps to put food on the table or who
benefit from other welfare programs.

As Barber points out, there are “more than twice as many poor white
people as there are poor Black people in this nation.” But if I
mention that, the person sometimes appears not to hear me, or lets me
know in no uncertain terms that it’s Black people themselves who are
at fault for their poverty—and they should look to their own lives
rather than blame whites. The government taxes “us,” I’m often
told, to give “them” a free ride.

When I hear this, I know there’s something major missing.

De-racializing Poverty

I’ve been encouraged by the many articles, books, and memoirs that
have been written about racial justice
[[link removed]] since the protests
over George Floyd’s murder, but few suggest an effective way
forward.

For example, a new book by Kellie Carter Jackson, _We Refuse: A
Forceful History of Black Resistance_ (Seal Press, 2024), highlights
how Black women fought back against racism, some with weapons, some
without, but none took the path that Reverend Barber takes in _White
Poverty_. Reverend Barber, by contrast, argues that Blacks and whites
must join together to address their common needs.

Another prominent civil rights advocate, Heather McGhee, traveled
across America to write _The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and
How We Can Prosper Together_ (One World, 2021), which documents how
some progressives were beginning to engage in cross-racial solidarity
through collective action to achieve higher wages and benefits for
working people.

As Barber points out, the political establishment invariably markets
itself to the needs of “the middle class” and ignores the poor,
and whites especially look the other way.

In effect, Barber’s _White Poverty_ builds upon McGhee’s book.
It’s the work of a man of action to not only test cross-racial
solidarity, but to put that theory into action. Barber lays it on the
line in his very first sentence: “This is a book by a Black man
about white poverty in America.” That initial signal points to where
he is headed.

As a lifelong civil rights lawyer, I find that his signal resonates.
As Barber persuasively argues, the public and the country’s
legislatures—federal, state, and local—accept the myth that
poverty is only a Black issue, as do the people I talk to daily. They
view poverty through this lens to the detriment of Black and white
people alike, as well as people of all other colors and races.

As Barber points out, the political establishment invariably markets
itself to the needs of “the middle class” and ignores the poor,
and whites especially look the other way. The same is true even in our
country’s religious establishments. Barber notes that “a Pew
Research Center study of nearly 50,000 sermons found that neither the
words ‘poverty’ nor ‘poor’ register as commonly used in
American pulpits.”

A Multiracial Fusion Movement

Much of _White Poverty_ concerns the history of how American racism
came into being and how the myths evolved around it. Barber explains
how the manipulation of these myths has preserved the power of white
elites, who use their political and economic power to downgrade the
needs of poor white people as well as Black people, while benefiting
the wealthy.

To this reader then, _White Poverty_‘s great value is to teach and
motivate both Black and white leaders to create a multiracial movement
which demands legislation that benefits _all _poor people. As an
additional benefit, _White Poverty _gives examples of Black and white
movements fusing themselves together.

Not least, Barber has spent a huge amount of energy over the past
seven years in building a multiracial Poor People’s Campaign
[[link removed]]. Co-chaired
by Rev. Barber along with Rev. Liz Theoharis of the Kairos Center, the
Poor People’s Campaign has thousands in the field to help poor white
and poor Black communities understand each others’ community needs
and the advantages of working together to fight against “policy
violence” and to turn out the vote.

This beautifully written book offers a road map to the powerful
multiracial organizing that can turn this country around, lift up poor
people, and deepen our democracy.

In the last election for governor in Kentucky
[[link removed]], the campaign and its
allies worked with both white and Black rural communities to get out
the vote. The result was an upset in electing the state’s present
governor, Democrat Andy Beshear. In rural counties, an enlarged
electorate turned out to vote and that tipped the election.

The Poor People’s Campaign has built durable alliances with other
organizations to advance its multiracial vision. It’s currently
collaborating with the AFL-CIO on voter engagement. It pursues legal
challenges with Forward Justice. It coordinates actions with national
Christian and Jewish organizations. With the Institute for Policy
Studies, on whose board I serve, it has produced the data and the
analysis to back up its bold agenda.

Barber is a man of the cloth who takes his religion
[[link removed]] seriously. As a result,
the book is sprinkled with words from other religious figures who
offer moral reasons for organizing poor people to struggle for their
needs nonviolently but willing to cross police lines and stand up to
authority.

In short, this beautifully written book offers a road map to the
powerful multiracial organizing that can turn this country around,
lift up poor people, and deepen our democracy.

 

Lewis M. Steel is a former senior counsel at Outten & Golden LLP and
an Institute for Policy Studies board member. He's the author of The
Butler's Child: White Privilege, Race, and a Lawyer's Life in Civil
Rights

* poverty
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* white poverty
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* democracy
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* multiracial social movements
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