Values as Social Indicators of Poverty and Race Relations in America

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to explore the usefulness of values as social indicators of underlying social problems. Using value choices of a national sample, an attempt was made to determine the extent and nature of cultural differences between groups differing in socioeconomic status and race. Since the publication of The Negro Family (the "Moynihan Report"), there has been lively debate and invective about the issue of whether or not cultural differences exist between the poor and the rich and between Negro and white. The issue of whether those living in poverty, particularly the Negro poor, are characterized by a distinctive "culture of poverty" has policy ramifications for programs of poverty-amelioration and community development. The findings reported here lend support to the idea that considerable value differences do distinguish the rich from the poor, but not Negroes from whites. For the most part, differences found between the latter disappear when socioeconomic position is controlled.