KRISTOF: “Poverty’s Poster Child” (New York Times, US)

Nicholas Kristof’s new article about the extreme poverty and desolation on American Indian reservations is a clear and quite depressing look at how a particular group of society has been completely left out of the American Dream.

Kristof can always be counted on to write about the issues that plague America (or the world) but receive little to no attention by the mainstream media.  Some argue that he is usually yelling into the wind, with little chance of actually changing the national narrative, yet still visible enough in the Times opinion section to at least mobilise interested parties.

His argument pulls on the right heartstrings, generally appealing to the American “guilt” complex for the treatment of Native Americans in today’s economic world.  He isn’t necessarily wrong to do so (many more academic scholars readily agree that Native Americans are by far the most marginalised and least well-off group in the country).

(Article here)