Deprivation, chronic poverty, living from hand to mouth and not being able to meet the basic necessities are some of the drivers of certain careers, which are often characterised by people who fall into career opportunities that only enable them to attain basic needs. These careers can be defined as a career choices that often occurs due to one’s pressure of getting a job that is below their ideal occupations, in an effort to achieve or rather keep up with the standards of living. However, sometimes these jobs, turned careers are the results of children having been exposed to their parents’ career paths, as well as influenced by their family’s social status to subconsciously condition their minds to aim for anything. While some manage to break the cycle and change this narrative of ‘aim for the bread’ they have been associated with into motivation, many do associate themselves to these pigeon hole feeling that they as well are incompetent. These comes from growing up having low self-esteem and often doubt their abilities due to their family situations, thus opt for careers which require basic skills and in most cases inclined to lower wages.
Sadly, this ugly trend is gradually increasing in most black families who are living below the poverty line, with the end to this not yet known. Most young black youth are often faced with insurmountable pressure that emanates from the responsibilities that they often find themselves saddled with. This becomes a generational cycle within their households, where you find that parents were forced by circumstances to accept any employment opportunities that were available to them, eventually resulting in their children pursuing the same. However apart from life’s pressure, there are also other factors that drives this narrative, which includes: how these children were brought up, available opportunities within their communities and companies, absence of one parent(raised by a single parent), combined household income, social class of the family and living below the poverty line just to mention a few. These influences show a relationship to the ultimate career choice. Irrespective of societal differences, the issue with poverty is not only related to the short term effects, but the ripple effects resulting from the dead end that many children are often faced with when entering their adulthood. Every so often, these impasses have far reaching repercussions that can control or shape their entire lives and the lives of their children and their children’s children.
It is said that the first instinct of poverty is to go out and look for opportunities that will provide you with the means to afford the basics for survival. In most cases, these job opportunities turn into life time careers, not by choice, but due to circumstances. This will go from generation to generation, until there is that one person who is willing to bear the brunt, suffer and take an optimal career choice in efforts to break the generational poverty. These issues exist in communities we live in, it is up to us whether we want to change the world or not. If you happen to be more advance and knowledgeable, here is a gap that you can fill to make an impact in society and help break the cycle of poverty in someone’s life. People sometime are unable to break free from the poverty trap due to lack of knowledge and access to resources. However as members of society we, together can achieve greatly if we adopt one child, one school, one family at a time.