Black And On Welfare by Sandra Bolden

              There are many people in our society today that need financial help.  However, when a single black mother comes into the building to be out on welfare, she is immediately stereotyped and looked down upon. “Unfortunately, our perception are that Black women on welfare have no interest in working and prefer staying at home rather than obtaining employment and providing for their families” (28).  The various women that have to go through the process to be on welfare have a difficult time.  They are belittled by those in charge and in some cases treated with little to no respect.   Even though some of the women that come through do not have much of an education, some do.  When they are not asked about previous schooling or important information that the authority should know, they feel disrespected because a lot of their background is only assumed and not known.  The women have to be placed in programs to enhance their skills to aid them in obtaining a job, yet many feel that most of these organizations are not very beneficial.  The opportunities that the programs prepare them for and are low-income jobs that barely provide for the participant and their family.            

Welfare has become another way of oppression for Black women. Society has its way of hindering its members, rather than pushing them to be more self-sufficient. Even in the times of funded training programs attempting to provide jobs, women were primarily given jobs that had no growth potential. Academic background has much to do with employment, and because of the assumption that the women lack such education; they were given the worse types of jobs. Golden encouraged individuals to go on and get the next education level to be accepted for better treatment. What society fails to realize it that these women have literacies of other things, such as family, home, and community literacy. Many of these women had special skills from taking care of their children and family members. Black women have also been influence to be literate in the community. Being in church and other social groups has helped Black women to gain leadership skills and a sense of belonging. These influence of the community, family, and home help women to improve academic skills. Therefore, caseworkers should not assume that there is a lack of skill or knowledge in that area. Gold feels that the act of assuming is a mere act of oppression and ignorance. Instead social workers and other parties involved should undergo a series of tests to determine the literacy of  the Black women. 

Golden, Sandra. "Black and on Welfare: What You Don't Know About Single-Parent Women." Readers of the        Quilt. ED. Joanne Kilgour Dowdy. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton P., Inc., 2005. Print.