Welfare and the Single Parent Woman

Black and on Welfare: What You Don't Know About Single-Parent Women by Sandra Golden


Sandra Golden was a member of the welfare system and pursued more than just a temporary check. Motivated by her family, Sandra advance in the welfare system to earn two masters degrees. Being a victim of the welfare system she was influenced to effectively evaluate the welfare system by examining single parent women on welfare. Although welfare is designed to help the people get to better places in life for their families by providing job training, there lies so many stereotypes within the system that strays it away from fulfilling it purpose. The women in Sandra study all had the same feelings about the welfare system, especially the case workers. Each woman felt disrespect because of the education level and never recognized for their other literacy’s. As Golden states in her piece more focus should be placed on the individual that is on welfare and be placed into jobs and programs that can give them progression in their life and sense of self worth. Many people stereotype the welfare system as those simply taking advantage and being lazy which causes discomfort for those who actually need the help and who are trying. Because of their lack of education, their social literacy’s are never recognized. Many of these women are leaders in their community and home. The ability to manage a household, budget and articulate well with others like their children’s teachers are other forms of literacy not recognized by the welfare system. If more time was put into the individuals, they could be more affectively placed into the proper programs applicable to them. Reform to the welfare system is needed. Most importantly the reform should come from within the people not concentrating on their weaknesses and not their strengths. An improvement on the individuals’ academic skills is mandatory. Targeting employers like hospitals, college and universities, banks, insurance companies, or programs that will help with furthering education and a career. If a system is corrupt and discouraging, those who are forced to be within the system will be discouraged. Especially for African American women, our self worth and self esteem in the work force should be re-evaluated.

-Courtney Sykes

Where are the Role Models?

In Unearthing Hidden Literacy, Smith told the roles and places of elders in our society during the cotton-picking days, “The elders helped everyone with tasks, shared stories, and encouraged others to deal with whatever problems life presented. The elders also took responsibility for teaching the youngsters, making sure we stayed safe, keeping us out of trouble, and sharing with us.” These elders could be looked at as friends, teachers, and positive role models, but where are these elders today? With an estimated 510,000 children in foster care and 44% of the illiterate population as black women, how are we going to get out of the current situation we are in? Who is going to give the leading hand we need or advice to keep us on track? In the cotton fields, we had people to keep us going with encouraging words but, we need to have someone now to tell us that we need to make a change. We need more people to volunteer in after school programs or mentor children with incarcerated parents. Our black children need help. It is our responsibility to make sure that by the time they become adults they have the skills needed to succeed in the world. If we want to change the startling number of children in foster care system, and make sure our woman are literate, we have to begin with or children.

-Courtney Stewart

Black women on Welfare = Undetermined and Undereducated??

Black and on Welfare was a very informative story about the true struggles of being on welfare and how unfair the system is. It was told from the perspective of Sandra GOlden, a woman who had 2 years of schooling and 2 years of experience but happened to get pregnant. Being on welfare is never part of the "plan" but in her case it was particularly unexpected. And her experience with the welfare system was not too bright. The SSC automatically assumed that she was undereducated, undetermined, and unskilled - when you have someone who is in charge of your money situation having little hope in you and your opportunities it doesnt exactly make the situation any better. From the experiecne she had she went on to do a case study with several Black single woman on welfare - and it was not only she that found the welfare system slightly inadequate in the support department. Yes they give you jobs and money BUT do they offer you any support? ANy glimmer of hope that you might make it out? Not really.

I empathisized for these woman. Being a single black woman trying to make better for your child is hard enough without having someone else trying to look down on you. I strongly agree with Golden's point of the need for assesment test for jobs and the backwards idea of trying to work first then get educated. I go to school for 13 years before ever getting any kind of substanstial job, so why on the welfare system would they do it backward. SHouldn't they give them some opportunity to get their GED or something to that extent so that they can better themseleves.

The welfare systme doesn't need to be so undermining, they are there to help- so really helping is what they should do. Not this " help" where they don't believe in you and give you jobs that you just might be over qualified for..

-Jheanelle Miller

Hustle and Bustle

Women should be tough, tender, laugh as much as possible, and live long lives.  The struggle for equality continues unabated, and the woman warrior who is armed with wit and courage will be among the first to celebrate victory.
                                                                                                                -Maya Angelou (1993)

Everyday, when we wake up, we never know what is going to happen.  As women, we are faced with many challenges.  With the responsibility of being a wife, comes along being a great mother.  However, just because a woman is a wife does not mean it makes it easier for her to be a mother.  We are expected to not only be the nurturing, secure, happy part of the family, we are told to be strong and understanding.

Being a young mother is very difficult when one is without a job and a stable family.  It is even harder when you are African-American.  We are faced with too many stereotypes: black, female, pregnant, young, and illiterate.  ILLITERATE.  Does this really make us illiterate?  Just because I am in a certain situation, does not mean I put myself there.

My mother was a young mother.  She had me at twenty as well.  But, she was literate, and she never let anything discourage her from making it to the top.

Maya Angelou spoke of this woman, a woman full of life, able to do anything she wanted to.  She can be a mother and a worker at the same time.  She is intelligent and literate socially and intellectually.  She is in a situation, nonetheless, she can handle that situation.  Therefore, she is not "broke".  She is the ultimate hustler.  She can be mom and dad.  She takes responsibility for her actions and she takes care of business.

Remember this: Many women do it everyday, so you can too.  Welfare can be given by the government, Life is only given by God.  Celebrate his victory and yours.

-Keiwana Glover

What kind of image are we selling

In the book “The Readers Quilt”, chapter 12 refers to the movie “Clara’s Heart”. In this movie Whoopi Goldberg plays as a Jamaican woman who serves a white woman. Clara creates an attachment with the family making a strong bond with the white woman’s son. She teaches the boy songs and tells him stories that they use to tell in the island. Later in the movie, Clara has stacks of returned mail. That scene gives the audience the assumption image that she is illiterate.

There have been many times where I have been asked to play the ghetto role or the illiterate African American in a script. My mom always told me never to settle for those roles and I did. I settled for such a role when I played Tituba in a school play called the "Crucible". I belittled the whole thought of how black people are being used in the movie business. It wasn't until Hallie berry was awarded a Grammy for the movie monster ball, where she played a single African American mom, desperately looking for attention. In the movie she was on drugs, stayed in the projects and didn't want to get her life together because she was still waiting on her husband or boyfriend to get out of jail. In this film you can tell that the movie producer is being very stereotypical. The movie production only puts the negative things that black people do in movies. What they are not seeing is the successful black people that own their own businesses, who work in a corporate office, who are doctors, lawyers, engineers. Why can’t African Americans play one of those roles?

Why do African Americans continue to play a negative role in movies when they are aware of the negativity it portrays on our black race? Is it for the money? It seems like nobody cares what role they take, just as long as they have the spot light or just be seen in a movie. I don’t think that African American actors understand that they are selling an image of negativity. It’s like the black mentality is all about getting money and being rich. When you join the movie business it’s all about what the producers wants.

I am glad some of the women today have realized what the movie production is doing. Some African American women have came to a point that they will no longer play a role that degrades black women or the black race in general. The world makes it hard enough on women as it is, but who will be the real women? Who will take a stand against the negative image the movie production has put on our race? Who is the real woman?

- J’Nae Smith

It's About More Than Money By Sequoia Boone

"Younger students could possibly say that they wanted to 'be' Halle Berry because she gets paid to "act illiterate" (i.e look like a drug addict, struggle to read a children's book, and "make nice" with the White social worker who has won her young child's heart)."

I am sure that Halle Berry isn't the only envied actress. She has played many roles, most of which she plays a stereotypical role of a woman. In Loosing Isaiah, she plays a drug addicted mother who fights for her child. Although some people who watch movies feel that these characters are fictional and they should be ignored because no one takes them serious. I would like to believe that every movie character stems from an experience and that somewhere a person who has never interacted with a black woman might take this movie to represent the majority of black women. By aspiring to play roles in a society that degrades women and limits their literacy, we are adding to the problem. Many argue that "if it makes me money, who cares?" Because young children look up to these stars, they believe that these roles are acceptable. by aspiring to play these roles in the future, they are falling into a cycle that perpetuates the black woman as someone who is incapable of being able to fulfill another role in films.
     Money isn't everything, however it can persuade people to sell their dignity to people who probably make twice their salaries. Young people in particular think that money is the answer to everything. It is money that will make the very people who produced the movie convey you in a light that is not true. Young people don't realize the effect of their actions and might be wiling to do almost anything for money. We know that it isn't only children who are easily persuaded with money. There are countless amounts of women who dance in videos or chase men on television in hopes of becoming the next big star. They represent the black women who cannot see in any color other than green. They wish to show society that although they do things for money that are degrading, it doesn't matter because of the pay they are receiving. We, the next generation, must step up and say that there are certain roles that we are not willing to portray for money. These young people probably also don't understand the history of these roles. In the early days of the Black Actress, these were the only available roles. Now there are many possibilities for women in the industry. They may not be as plentiful as other degrading roles, but actresses must stand and say that they aren't willing to play these roles because they degrade black women as a whole.