Intersectionality of welfare

The welfare system simply isn't working. Sure, it provides money to families that are struggling with one or more parent unemployed and makes a very feeble attempt at helping these people acquire jobs but what does the welfare system really do? More specifically what does welfare mean to Black women? According to Golden, racism and sexism are built into the very core of the governmental institution. If you are Black, a woman, unemployed, and single, the system is not built for you. There is a stereotype that has been endorsed since the establishment of the welfare system in 1935; if you receive welfare then you are uneducated and unmotivated...basically you are a "mooch" that will never go anywhere or do anything productive. Instead of taking the time to find out what people's work backgrounds are and what their career goals are, the welfare system focuses only on getting a job fast. Granted having some sort of job is better than no job at all, the buck shouldn't stop there. People that receive welfare are people too and if the program truly seeks to get people off of welfare then it needs to pay attention to and validate people's literacies. Assuming that there are no ambitions or goals is wrong and needs to change. If the focus of the system was more "individual-oriented" then people would be able to get jobs that were sustainable and reliable and get off of welfare, hopefully, for good. It only takes one positive experience to set someone up for success for the rest of their lives and that experience could be in a guidance session/job training/GED program that the self-sufficiency coaches orchestrate. If the training of those individuals (SSCs) changed to exclude the biases (especially towards Black, single, female parents) and focus on helping the individual achieve their highest level of success (or at least develop goals) the system would have no choice but to change. 

"Nature's Muted Majesty"

In this week's reading we learn that practically anything and everyone is capable of teaching you something new. Although writer, Lille Gayle Smith, does not like to look back in her past and into her childhood, because of the constant reminders of how and where she worked, in the cotton field, she writes, and expresses how those exact times have shaped and molded her, and about her new found appreciation for them, in "Unearthing Hidden Literacy: Seven Lessons I learned in a Cotton Field."  Smith tells us of the "memories of [the] repetitive, back-breaking work" that was her summer job, and how before she had taken a "Black Women's Literacy" class, she had only referred to it to inform others on how far she had come and what she overcame (Smith 38).  She tells us of how this class brings her to the realization that it was indeed that same "drudgery," she had despised, formed something unique in not only her, but in Black women as a whole.


                   "[D]ue to interrelationships of race, gender
                    and identity, Black women have not been
                   expected to adhere to the dominant culture's
                   stereotype of femininity, and... because slave
                  women were exploited, they [have] developed
                   greater independence and self-reliance than
                   their nonslave counterparts." (Smith 41).


As Smith continues to reflect on a past that she once condemned, she comes to realize that, that experience has "had a positive and profound impact" on her life, the lives of others, and they way she sees the world. 

~ A. Foster

What is Hidden

In reading Unearthing Hidden Literacy: Seven Lessons I Learned in a Cotton Field by Lillie Gayle Smith I noticed how working in the cotton field was tied into an everyday encounter. In the beginning it is very evident that Smith did not like talking about her experiences in the field. 



Smith then begins to talk about professors and the sexist attitude displayed. She gives the example that then a man would answer a question and it would be considered "gospel and complimented"for its "accuracy," while when a woman answered a question it was constantly rebutted and a male student would be asked to "confirm it." This caused some of the women  to drop the class which made Smith raise the question, "Why don't they resist this behavior?" Then it came to her that they did resist in their own way. Instead of sitting around and being told their answers weren't good enough they could go where their opinions would be respected. Smith then equates this to working in the fields. Picking cotton was something that both men and women could do and not raise an issue (Smith 39).


To me I view it as a women is able to work just as hard if not harder to but yet her opinion is not valuable. Of all the lessons that were taught to Smith during her time in the field this one struct me the most. How can you work along side someone and not even consider their opinion. This injustice is not acceptable.

-T Thomas

Lights, Camera, Action!

     If you really think about it, how many times do you see a financially stable, literate, and/or successful Black woman in movies? There probably aren’t many instances coming to mind. Dowdy makes a great point about the fact that Black woman are so often depicted as “the bottom of the heap” in every aspect of literacy in movies. In the feature film “Losing Isaiah”, Halle Berry’s character is illiterate, drug-addicted, single parent. Even in current movies, like Tyler Perry pictures, Black woman are portrayed through characters that are struggling and not particularly successful in life. These images of Black woman as seen in the media are the things that create and mold a stereotype. A large portion of popular culture involves visual imagery in the 21^st century with all the new advances and technologies, such as 3D viewing. Young Black girls are seeing these movies and subconsciously being fed the line that “this” (what the film depicts them as) is what, and all, you have to look forward to; nothing. Now, not all movies are “bad” or “stereotypical”. There’s Things We Lost In The Fire with Halle Berry as a widowed (but stable) woman, The Secret Life of Bees with Queen Latifah and Alicia Keys as sisters that have a variety of different literacies, and there’s many more. The point trying to be made in this section of reading is that there simply aren’t enough positive messages about Black women being represented in the film world and it’s important to change that for the sake of the future generations.
-Olivia LaFlamme