Not Just Another Welfare Queen
I did not plan to become a parent at sixteen and it has not been easy, emotionally or financially, but I do not have any regrets. Being a mother is the greatest role in my life. People have no idea how difficult and all-consuming being a parent is, particularly, a single, poor one. The right wing and the media have been in cahoots for decades in their efforts to stigmatize African American single mothers as lazy, unstable and responsible for passing on a culture of poverty from one generation to the next and those stereotypes are not true. What is true is that African American mothers in this country have juggled work and children for decades before it became socially acceptable, sometime neglecting their own physical and mental health in order to keep their children clothed, housed and fed. Although I do not have material wealth to spend on my children, I love them fiercely and am doing my best to raise them to be strong, productive members of society. As a mother, that is the least I can do.
If I did not have children, there is no way I would have dealt with the welfare system as long as I did. But when you have children, a mother has to make sacrifices, sometimes swallowing her pride and going to the public aid office to apply for food stamps and cash assistance. By signing the Personal Responsibility contract in return for public assistance, a welfare recipient in essence signs her rights to being an adult away. Recipients must attend job training classes in which individuals must work for their cash. Obtaining an education is not a factor and I found this out the hard way.