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

In this novel “Black and on Welfare: What You Don’t Know About Single-Parent Women”, Sandra Golden starts her article off by first giving her own personal experience in the topic. She mentions the shocking experience that she encountered while seeking help from the County Department of Human Services. After her visit to the welfare office, she felt “dehumanized and humiliated.” due to the treatment of the caseworker, who automatically placed a stereotype on her as a black woman. “A black single-parent female utilizes special literacy skills to negotiate within a social context that marginalizes and disenfranchises groups based on gender, race, education and class. Many black females carry the assumption of being uneducated, unskilled, and unmotivated just because they receive public assistance. They make it seem as if they are lazy and do not have the desire to work on their own.

 Sandra Golden decided to gather a group of women in order to get their thoughts on the welfare system. It was clear to see that each woman had a negative comment to share. One participant stated “...SSC makes you feel stupid.” This is why literacy is so essential. Not everyone is able to obtain the common known literacy, but let’s not forget that other literacies exist. These literacies are not recognized by the welfare system. Most of the women that Sandra Golden talked with had other literacies that were ignored, such as literacies from home and community.

 

The welfare reform law of 1996 has some positive objectives; however, to meet those objectives and adequately serve clients, the welfare system must acknowledge and recognize the literacies of women who receive welfare benefits. Although caseworkers are overworked and have high case loads, they must be required to recognize and respect the people they serve. Furthermore, as job readiness and job placement programs are created to provide services for welfare-to-work clients, they need to implement a process that will enable them to learn about their clients’ needs, experiences, and skills and to implement programs that will meet individual client needs.