Week 10 Blog Post:
Barbara
story differs from other African American women because it’s not the
stereotypical live in the projects, don’t care about your kids, on drugs or
dealing drugs, go to a scary crime-filled school, can’t walk down the street
for fear of being killed, works at a minimum wage job, no teeth, gets pregnant
on purpose to get more welfare and has no idea who the “baby daddy” is. She’s
being abused and is controlled and can’t leave because she has no way to
support herself and her children. Parts of this run into her story but she does
debunk a lot of myths surrounding the typical African American single woman.
First
of all she has a decent job that pays well and she has some education.
Although, her neighborhood is a little rough, she lives in a pretty decent
place and can provide more than the basics for her children. She works hard
too, which debunks that myth because it shows that she’s not another “welfare”
mother living off the system and too lazy to get a job. Barbara very much cares
for her children and supervises them and wants them to get a good education. In
fact, she regularly checks with the teachers and school counselors and she
drives miles out of her to get her son to a school that has a good reputation.
The
biggest thing that stands out to me is that she has a support system that many
women that are single are not that lucky to have. She has family around and
also a group of friends that regularly do things together and have known each
other for years. She also is very cautious in her relationship with Marvin, she doesn't want him to use her or to treat her badly. Although, she has some
challenges in her life, like her son getting his girlfriend pregnant, it goes
to show that we can’t always judge a book by its cover and most myths can be
debunked flat on their faces.
*Another view: Bill O'Reilly's at it again!
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