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Evicted: Poverty And Profit In The American City

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If only this classic tune from the beloved Broadway musical Dreamgirls rang true for the many residents in Milwaukee, Wisconsin featured in Matthew Desmond’s Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City. In this award-winning book, Harvard sociologist, Matthew Desmond exposes the ruthless cycle of poverty low-income families face in America by sharing the heart-breaking struggle of eight families whose fate lied in the hands of two landlords, Sherrena Tarver and Tobin Charney. Desmond illustrates the bittersweet interactions between both landlords and their tenants as they fought to survive in Milwaukee’s declining economy. Unfortunately, these two landlords were able to survive and thrive at the expense of their tenants as these poor families used most of their income just to pay rent leaving them with …show more content…
Desmond’s research allowed him to follow each of these unique families and recounts their plight as they attempted to make a dollar out of fifteen cents for rent. Whether it happened to be shabby shelters, deteriorating apartment complexes, or rusty trailers, Desmond vividly describes how these families created a home for themselves in spite of the poverty, violence, and constant fear of eviction that loomed over them daily. “Eviction reveals people’s vulnerability and desperation, as well as their ingenuity and guts” (5). Just like The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, Desmond combines the elements of investigative journalism, narrative, and storytelling to create awareness of a raging issue in America. This publication unveils a broader question for the reader- is poverty actually profitable in America?
Matthew Desmond maps out his journey in Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by

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