Pimps, Whores, and Welfare Brats

The black race is unfortunately deteriating due to the negative affect of Pimps, whores, and welfare brats. These individuals have created an image of black people that said they were lazy, illerate, and dysfunctional. Originally black people lived of the guidance of God. The only book they knew was the bible and church was the one place they attended. Although once people of moral value, many black were brainwashed by politicaln parties that told them government assistance would take care of them as opposed to God and the bible. Black women believed that they could depend on government system and welfare and did not need God to take care of them. This truth is one reason why black individuals believe they can remain on welfare. They are being trapped by the government thinking that they will take care of them and all their children.
One women in Pimps, Whores, and Welfare Brats speaks about how she believed the Welfare system was great. She lived off of welfare checks and continued to have children. To her she seen nothing wrong in the system until one day her two daughters were on welfare with kids. She recgonized the cycle that continued through the system and how it ultimately did not help individuals out but in the long run set them back. This cycle is one that is in many African American families today. Many choose to take the easy way out of situations and instead of looking dfor work of pursuing an education believe living off of the government is fulfilling. Although
The government has done alot of unfortunate things that has left African Americans behind other races. They made schools miles away from their neighborhoods, essentially leaving the fact that schools in their own areas were not good enough. Although with the introduction of Affirmative Action this allowed blacks to receive education that would have otherwise not have been available to them. Affirmative action although took the smartest of black communites and left the less educated in the less performing schools av ailable to blacks. This is one reason blacks turn to pimps, whores and welfare to survive. Education and gthe government failed them and turning to other negative sources was the only means of survival.
These pimps and whores although setting a negative image for black people should not be judged for their actions. They arfe inhdividuals who were never given a chance and were left to fail. Many of their families abandoned them as soon as they turned 18. The article although notes the change that needs to b e made in order to make advancements in the black community. Families need to continue to help their children and should not give up on them even after they turn 18. Also individuals need to become responsible for themselves instead of depending on a corrupt government that preys off of struggling groups.

                                 

Black and on Welfare: What you Don't Know About Single-Parent Women

                                                        
        "It seemed the assumption was that welfare recipients were unmotivted, unskilled, uneducated or undereducated, and responsible for bringing fatherless children into the world". Although author Sandra Golden identifies the untold truth behind black women on welfare. The stereotypes automatically perceived when a black women walks into the Welfare officed is that she is incapable of holding a job and simply is there to use the government's money. Sandra Golden speaks of how corrupt and wrong the Welfare system is. The workers in the welfare system did not ask her of her educational background or that of her previous prefessional. They simply assumed the worst and immediately labelled them as dysfunctional and nonproductive citizens. Alot of this judgement are unfactual and lead back to stereotypes made during slavery.
Based off of the Welfare reform, criteria included that the welfare system was to provide for children in homes, end dependency of needy parents on government benefits, prevent and reduce out of wedlock pregnancies, and encourage two-parent families. These criteria's were established to end welfare and increase marriages in society. Sandra Golden conduted a study with twelve different women from the ages of 28-40 years old. These women had three or more children, little edution, and little work experience. These women reported that the system was rude and unfair to them. They treated them as if they were stupid and illterate. Although as Sandra Golden expressed black women have more literacies than that learned from the classroom. The system also did not efficiently prepare these women for the workforce and were automatically set up for failure.
The welfare system based many of their decesions off of a women's academic literacy as opposed to the literacies of the community, home, workplace. Unfortunately this causes many on welfare to loose benefits. Although Golden's study only tested twelve individuals on welfare, much of the treatment of black women are exhibited daily. Women are only looked to as case numbers and not recognized for what they have to offer. If the government gave more interest in the improvement of these individuals welfare would be at the level that it is at today. Single-parent women are not lazy and actually are interested in work and providing for their family. Many need to understand that they are simply at a hard time in their life and they need help getting back on their feet.

In Lessons From Down Under: Reflections on Meanings of Literacy and Knowledge From an African-American Female Growing Up in Rural Alabama

Bessie House-Soremekun approaches literacy in every angle in In Lessons From Down Under: Reflections on Meanings of Literacy and Knowledge From an African-American Female Growing Up in Rural Alabama. She introduces that one has to first be open-minded to different social circumstances to understand where different forms of literacy arises. She says this to get her audience more comfortable with the idea of knowing that literacy means more than the conventional reading and writing. Growing up in rural Alabama, House-Soremekun's literacy developed in several ways because of her surroundings. She writes about how there are written and unwritten rules that southerners abide by. For example, a written rule would be the "separate but equal" law. However there was an unwritten rule for the way white and black southerners interacted. House-Soremekum recalls events where her grandmother would address white people as Mr. and Mrs., but the whites never addressed her back with that same level of respect. This even occurred when her grandmother was much older than these white people. This was a normal part of literacy in the segregated south. The great oppression she witnessed of her people while growing up motivated her to reach the highest level of education she could. She was an excellent student all through school and eventually received her PhD in 1988. She is a true example of never giving up, especially when nothing seems to be in your favor. 

Voices of Our Foremothers

  In the essay entitled Voices of Our Foremothers: Celebrating the Legacy of African-American Women Educators, Sunny-Marie Birney speaks about her personal experience and interactions with black female educators. These literate black women in her life not only encouraged and inspired her but also educated her academically, spiritually, and emotionally. Although she did not have very many African American female figures in her life growing up, she notes that the few she did come into encounters with made a very positive impact on her life. The black female teachers that she had as a child were very caring to her which helped her want to excel in her school work. They used many different methods including songs, to help make the learning experience more enjoyable for their students. She also states that as an adult, her black female college professors showed the same characteristics while teaching their classes. She ties these caring educators to our 'foremothers' who paved the way impacting the lives of many Black children.

Transformative College Literacies

  The acquisition of literacy can be attained in various ways, and once that information is taken in one is capable of making a conclusion on that subject developing a personal opinion. Robin Wisniewski describes a literate black woman as being independent and not dependent on anyone else, and that knowledge is power and a sense of freedom. The transformative literacies allow an individual to have the freedom to think for oneself, and as a woman, develop into a free-thinking woman. To acknowledge the transformation between literacies one must first be aware of the expectations for change in their self. One must also acknowledge the addition of new knowledge to their thinking while also gaining a new understanding of their self. With these two outlooks on literacy one's knowledge will transform into the liberation of thought. This liberation of thought is very significant in being a literate black woman because it allows one to be free-thinking and to not conform to the societal barriers. It allows people to voice their own opinion while also being able of supporting their opinion with facts or other statistical backgrounds that they have learned through school literacies. The freedom of this transformative literacy allows one to step out of the limited view of self-change and be capable of interacting in a democratic setting.

Unearthing Hidden Literacy: Seven Lessons I Learned in a Cotton Field

Often times in life we go through things that we want to erase from our memory. The thought of a particular situation makes you cringe just to reflect on it. In this week's reading Unearthing Hidden Literacy: Seven Lessons I Learned in a Cotton Field by, Lillie Gayle Smith, we re-live her past life experiences that she wants to forget. In this process we also learn that anything no matter the circumstances, and everyone is capable of teaching you something new. Although the author, Lillie Gayle Smith, strongly dislikes looking back into her past because of the constant reminders of working in the cotton field, she confesses that those experiences have shaped and molded her. She can look past the hardships and appreciate what she went through because ultimately they taught her life lessons. Smith also connects her working in the cotton field to an everyday situation of encounter. For example, she describes how her graduate school professors valued male students' opinion over any of the female students' opinion. In retaliation, some of the women chose to drop the class which made Smith raise the question, "Why don't they resist this behavior?" Then she realized they did resist in their own way. Instead of staying in a space where their opinions were not appreciated, they went to a space where their voices could be heard. 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). 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. 

Going Against the Grain

     Although Jefferson owned personal slaves he still insisted that he did not agree with slavery. In the reading Going Against the Grain the author mentions that Jefferson's distaste for slavery was shared by others. That in which they were against the system of slavery but not necessarily in support of the quality of the Africans. At this time there was a lot of controversey about the issue of slavery but very few people were willing to take action for what they believed to be right and/or wrong. There were many statesmen against slavery and many that believed that they should be incorporated into the society. Thus, maintaining the skills to read and write. In the early 17th century few people reached out to educate some of the slaves, for at this time schooling opportunities were rising for both men and women. Three literacy activists during this time was Reverend Samuel Thomas, Rev. Dr. Thomas Bray, and Elias Neau. They set out to educate the captive slaves so that they may become literate and interact as civilized people.