Money Hungry

Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

“Two Steps Forward, Three Steps Back: Money Hungry and the Cycle of Poverty”

Raspberry’s “money hungry” nature and her obsession with money are rooted in her traumatic experience of poverty. In this interactive activity, students will learn how the deck is stacked against certain individuals, thus making it harder to break the cycle of poverty and trauma.

When Money Hungry begins, it’s been quite some time since Raspberry and Momma have been unhoused. And yet, Raspberry’s obsession with money and feeling of financial insecurity persists.

Raspberry senses that, at any moment, she and Momma could be plunged back into poverty. That is partly due to Momma’s and her background, their experiences, and certain choices they’ve made—all of which have stacked the deck against them, meaning that they are prone to sliding back down the slippery slope of misfortune and finding themselves trapped within a cycle of poverty once again.

In this group exercise, you will create a visual representation that shows how Momma and Raspberry, as well as other characters in the novel (Mai, Zora, and Ja’nae), are either socially advantaged or socially disadvantaged.

• Your teacher will select 5 students to stand at the center of the class in a row; each student will be assigned to represent a main character (Raspberry, Momma, Mai, Zora, or Ja’nae).
• Your teacher will then call out certain social categories (Environment, Education, Nutrition, Parenting, College, Discrimination), all of which affect a person’s likelihood of entering into a cycle of poverty. For each category, discuss as a class whether that character should take a step forward (if this category puts them at a social advantage) or whether they should take a step back (if this category puts them at a disadvantage).

After all the categories have been named, note who is the most advantaged and who is the most disadvantaged. Spend 10 minutes writing a reflection on what you think the most disadvantaged character could do to break free from the cycle of poverty. Also reflect upon any other insights into the book and its characters this activity has given you.

Teaching Suggestion: This exercise is an adaptation and merging of (1) the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ activity entitled The Stack of the Deck: An Illustration of the Root Causes of Poverty and (2) As/Is’s video What Is Privilege? The purpose of the activity is to get students to see the Lasting Effects of Poverty, particularly when social inequalities keep certain people locked in toxic cycles and unable to get back on their feet again. You may want to have students read The Business Professor’s “Poverty Trap – Explained” as further background to this exercise. This activity should engender greater empathy in students for Raspberry and Momma, and for anyone experiencing hardship due to unfair social disadvantages.

Differentiation Suggestion: For English language learners and different learners, it may be helpful to pre-teach social justice concepts and vocabulary by reviewing helpful terminology in Lewis & Clark College’s “ABC’s of Social Justice: A Glossary of Working Language for Socially Conscious Conversation.”