Profiles Of The Stereotypical Welfare Mother example essay topic

"They are nothing but burdens to our society."They are lazy and undeserving."We need to get them jobs, not food or money."We work hard for our food, why should we use our money (taxes) to support them? It's their entire fault why our taxes are so high!" Those are the things that one often hears about people on welfare in America. Welfare recipients have always been the victim of stereotyping and scapegoating. Downey, a welfare mother, gave the readers a glimpse of her life through her essay. Through the glimpse of her life, counterexamples of the "profiles" of the stereotypical welfare mother can be drawn out un complicatedly. The truth is Downey belongs to the population who has not only been misrepresented by the society as a whole, but has been mistreated as well by the inadequate welfare system.

In order to fully understand the issue of stereotyping and the contemning of those who either in need of welfare or are on welfare, one must understand the people who ascribe the stereotypes and choose to adopt them for their own benefits. They are the unsympathetic and particularly weak people who are at least one of the three things: inconsiderate, selfish and / or ignorant. They are the forces behind "people that look disgusted in the grocery lines, the angry voices of Oprah panelists, and the unmitigated rage of the blue and white collar" (Downey 201). Their selfishness, inconsideration and perhaps ignorance are the very force behind all the attempts to set back policies on welfare.

They are the people who are unable to understand the life of the welfare recipients since they have been fortunate enough to always have had a comfortable house, a roof over their head and food on the table; and probably live a social environment far away from their "scapegoats" - the minorities, the poor, the homeless, etc... They are the people whose money already devalued their basic morals as a human being: compassion, empathy, grace, heart, humaneness, humanity and kindness. Unfortunately, many of today's most influential people fall under that category: many politicians, for example. Through her essay "Is There Life after Welfare", Downey showed us that she is a human being that is no different from anyone else and proved the stereotypical "profiling" of a welfare mother to be fallacious. She rises as early as 5: 00 AM to prepare take care of her children and works a full time job on minimum wage: "I slice meat for $5.50 an hour for nine hours five days a week". She received her education with two children - while her son "slung on her hip, breast-feeding".

She does not like receiving welfare and does not like relying on the help of others, yet it is impossible for her to supply her children and herself with the basic necessities of life is she does not receive welfare. "Without welfare, I would have nothing. On welfare I went from teen mom to woman with an education". She is a recipient of welfare; she is anything but lazy, irresponsible, shameless, and jobless. She is a recipient of welfare; she is also a good mother who strives to give her children the best she could. She is a recipient of welfare; she has a life of her own - "I love jazz.

I've always wanted to learn to ballroom dance. I am not a number. I have a story, I have a life, I have a face". (Downey 202) Through her essay, one can also see the problems with our welfare system.

While social welfare had been stereotypically viewed as the "drainer" of American taxes, it only receives about 1 percent of the federal budget. "I am the 12 million who are 1 percent of the federal budget". When undergoing welfare, one is not treated as a person, but as a "case". That is, in fact the problems of large bureaucracies that get insufficient amount of funds from the government.

Many people who need welfare in America have actually waited eighteen years on the "waiting list" while suffering from poverty. Instead of a set back on welfare policy, there should be an increased funding and a more sufficient way in going about "dealing" with the people on welfare. Instead of looking at it as a "hot political issue" as Dawning described, why can we not get in touch with our humanity and use our hearts to care for the others in the society? Why can we not zoom into the lives of those who are less fortunate and imaging ourselves to be in that picture? America needs to stop blinding ourselves with material wealth and continuing ly allow the stereotypes and assumptions override the truth.