Tuesday, October 20, 2009

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
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2 comments:

  1. Verge'NOctober 21, 2009 at 5:48 AM

    I like how you said, just because we finf ourselves in certain situtations, doesn't mean we are illiterate. That makes me think of students I use to observe in middle school. There were some kids that were very bad! but they were super smart in math and I wished they would've have been able to help me on my math hw. Yes most people are really smart. But they get judged as fools and idoits when they do something stupid stuff like fight, steal, even kill.

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  2. Verge'NOctober 21, 2009 at 6:42 AM

    Although many women may be pregnant and may be unemployed don’t mean that they are totally illiterate. Case workers and SSC people use their past experiences with welfare women and think that they are all uneducated and lazy. Some women are using the welfare system to get back on there and some are not. I don’t think case workers should misjudge every women that steps in to their office. Every woman should be treated with respect, and should be at least asked about any past work experiences and educational background.
    -J’Nae Smith

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