“Black and on Welfare: What You Don’t Know About Single-Parent Women” by Sandra Golden

            

Welfare Stereotype

            “Black and on Welfare: What You Don’t Know About Single-Parent Women” by Sandra Golden exposes the truths behind the treatment of women on welfare. As a former welfare recipient herself Golden separates the truth from the myth in her research essay. After being confronted with a series of undesirable circumstances, Golden is forced to visit the County Department of Human Services. She continues to describe her experiences of being dehumanized and humiliated. The author’s history with the welfare system drove her to compile focus groups of women who have been processed through the system.

            Each woman who applied for assistance was deemed as irresponsible, unintelligent, lazy and shiftless and then given a standardized number to wait for a standardized solution. The social workers and system never consider the outlying factors. Though recipients may not be efficient literate in the traditional sense, they have adapted to their surroundings and become advanced in that field of literacy. Golden advocates for the numbered mothers, that all illiteracies should be recognized and each client should be given personal and unique assessments. In order to promote growth each case needs to be tailored to each client. It the welfare system treated each person based upon their history and skills rather than a number the client would feel empowered to break the system than embrace it.