Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth

As the title suggests, Smarsh uses this chapter to explore the American idea that poverty is shameful. Society usually views being poor as a personal failure, because the American Dream assumes that anyone can succeed through hard work. Failure to succeed—poverty—must therefore be the result of a personal failing. Smarsh also points out that being poor and white is seen as a worse kind of failure, since white people have certain racial advantages. As a result, wealthy whites tend to hate poor whites as if their failures reflect badly on the entire race. Thus, poor whites are more or less invisible in popular culture.

This invalidation presents as internalized shame such that poor whites often refuse to apply for welfare and hate the idea of “handouts” more than anyone. They feel more ashamed of accepting help than of needing it. In many ways, society has monetized this shame—imposing restrictions on welfare assistance that favor banks, for example. The justification for these costly restrictions is the perception that the poor make worse decisions than the wealthy. However, the reality is that “the poor just have less room for their errors, which will be laid bare in public for need of help” (130).