Cultures of Welfare

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Contents 1 Cultures of Welfare 1.1 Faith based conceptions of welfare 1.2 Welfare in Hip Hop 1.3 Controlling Images 2 Introduction 3 The Crack Baby 4 The Welfare Queen 4.1 Some of the common myths of women on welfare are: 5 The Teenage Mother 6 What is the Criminal? 7 Resources

[edit] Cultures of Welfare

[edit] Faith based conceptions of welfare

Faith based conceptions of Welfare: Comparing the Jewish and Catholic traditions

Introduction:'

The Catholic and Jewish traditions have extremely similar concepts when it comes to poverty, and helping the needy but they differ in opinions in regards to welfare. Both religions contain and believe in a doctrine that asks its followers to share with their needy neighbors and when they do, they too will receive a blessing from a higher power. However, both religions adhere to doctrine that may be considered to be anti-welfare. These contradictions lead people to wonder whether or not the leaders and members of these respective traditions are truly seeking to help the less fortunate as they seem to be.

Sources:''''

1. Green M, Ronald. “Centesimus Annus: A Critical Jewish Perspective,” http://www.springerlink.com/content/u084125g85375016/.

2. Pava L. Moses. “Business Ethics: A Jewish Perspective,” KTAV publishing house, Inc, 1997.

3. Mittleman L. Alan. “The Politics of Torah: The Jewish Political Tradition and the Founding of Agudat Israel”, Suny Press, 1996.

4. Bartkowski P. John. Regis A. Helen. “Charitable Choices: Religion, race, and poverty in the post-welfare era,” NYU Press, 2003.

5. Forrester B. Duncan. “Christianity and the Future of Welfare,” Epworth Press, 1985.

6. Carlson-Theis W. Stanely. Skillen W. James. “Welfare in America: Christian Perspectives on a Policy in Crisis,” Wm. B. Eardsmans Publishing. 1996.

7. Jacobs, Louis. “A Jewish Theology.” Behrman House, inc. 1973.

1. Christian Views • In general, Christianity seeks to provide humanitarian assistance to those in need without regard to nationality or creed. • The Christian Prosperity Gospel is anti-welfare because this doctrine states that if one is a true believer, one will prosper in material goods such as financial and personal success. • The Catholic Liberation Theology is pro-welfare because it seeks political justice for the poor.

2. Jewish Views • The teaching of “kol Yisrael arevim zeh lazeh,” meaning “all of Israel, the Jewish people are responsible for one another.” This idea supports welfare because it clearly states how the most important concept in Judaism is community. • The laws of leket, shichechah and peah refers to the idea of a farmer who leaves his crops so that the poor can freely take them. This is much like the Jewish tradition of Mitz-vah, giving to the poor. • “If you pay attention to these laws and are careful to follow them, then the Lord your God will keep his covenant of love with you, as he swore to your forefathers. He will love you and bless you and increase your numbers. He will bless the fruit of your womb, the crops of your land, your grain, new wine and oil,the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks in the land that he swore to your forefathers to give you. “-Deuteronomy 7:12-13, this doctrine is much like the Christian prosperity gospel.

3. Religion interfering with economic status • Several Hasidic Jews are welfare recipients because of the large families they have. Religion plays a huge role in their economics status because their religion calls for them to be fruitful and multiply. In addition, observing the Sabbath limits their job prospects and the hours they can work. (NY Times article) • Christians resort to praying more frequently when they are in need or facing times of trouble. Rather than trying to better their situation, they claim that they count on Jesus to pull them through.

• Christians praying for current economic crisis (http://wonkette.com/403920/jesus-people-pray-that-false-idol-will-save-gods-economy)

4. Banding together in order to change the status of welfare'''' • In 1995, Christian and Jewish groups banded together to fight President Clinton’s bill to end welfare and Medicaid entitlements for children and substitute them for block grants to the states. (NY times article)

[edit] Welfare in Hip Hop

[edit] Controlling Images

[edit] Introduction

People create this group of others, and create the racialized other. “Othering is the process that dominant groups use to define the existence of secondary groups.” Othering tells citizens how to think about secondary groups. The rules are enforced by demeaning the status of the members of the secondary groups. It boosts one’s ego. “Oppressive Othering refers to adjectives we use to describe members of secondary groups.” Sometimes these words are blatant, even rude and vulgar, such as the crack mom, crack baby, welfare queen. The people placed in these groups are often ostracized by society. Othering is a way of defining and securing one’s own positive identity through the stigmatization of an "other." Whatever the markers of social differentiation that shapes the meaning of "us" and "them. So everyone believes “We” are hard working while “Them” over there are just abusing our tax money.

[edit] The Crack Baby

The Crack Baby Myth

People say that “Once you start using Crack, you can't stop” Crack is an especially dangerous drug because it can cause intense dependency and addiction after only a relatively short period of use. Crack is smoked continuously until money or drug supplies are gone, or the user experiences physical collapse. The need for Crack supersedes every other need, leading to crime and violence to acquire it.

Crack has made cocaine affordable to virtually anyone. Black and white Americans use cocaine at similar rates, but a higher percentage of African Americans use it in crack form. In spite of that, in the 80s the media focused mostly on crack use by Blacks, leading people to believe that it is a Black drug.

Infants are being born addicted to Crack because their mothers used the drug while pregnant. It has become very popular for people to call these children "a biological underclass" and "a lost generation." Those are just two of the milder name tags attached to the children we have come to believe were permanently damaged by their mothers' use of crack.

A big reason why the "crack baby" phenomenon got so popular is because of articles with catchy names like, "Crack Babies: Genetic Inferiors" and "Crack in the Cradle."As we know especially with continuous clarifications in the book we are reading, the media plays a huge role in the opinions that we form. Crack-cocaine, as well as any other drug, is without a doubt hazardous to our health, whether we are pregnant or not.

The horrifying story of “crack babies” was used in the 1980s to fuel anti-drug sentiments. In addition there was a decidedly racial element to the stories as well, as urban black women, also of course depicted as women abusing the welfare system, were the focus of stories about babies born with no hope, addicted to crack cocaine and permanently robbed of their mental powers. The story of crack babies was a heavy element of the “Just Say No” campaign of the Reagan administration. To top it off, it was being said that “crack babies” would never be able to care for themselves and that they would be a significant “tax burden” on the American tax payer.

Indeed, the phrases "crack babies" and "crack kids" are shorthand for monster-children who are born addicted. These are the kids destined to grow up without the ability to pay attention or to learn or to love. But just when the name has stuck, it turns out that "crack baby" may be a creature of the imagination.

Crack is rarely taken by itself. Alcohol and tobacco may do as much harm to the fetus as cocaine. So may poor nutrition, sexually transmitted diseases, and the lack of medical care. Most important, it appears that the children born to cocaine-using mothers are not hopeless cases, permanently assigned to the monster track. Dr. Ira Chasnoff, who did some of the original work identifying the problem babies of mothers who took cocaine in combination with other drugs, has done a two-year follow-up study about to be published. It says, in his words, "Their average developmental functioning level is normal. They are no different from other children growing up. They are not the retarded imbeciles people talk about.

But, says Dr. Chasnoff, "As I study the problem more and more, I think the placenta does a better job of protecting the child than we do as a society." The need now is to widen the lens from nature to nurture, and from the environment of the unborn to that of the born. Another researcher who has taken a responsible second look at the "crack baby" syndrome is Claire Coles of Emory University. She believes these children, labeled by their drug of origin, are in fact "often victims of gross neglect, not brain damage." The worst damage that drugs may do is to the world a child inhabits after birth. Coles has a collection of horror stories about children growing up neglected, especially by cocaine addicts. One "crack kid" who couldn't concentrate in class was in fact hungry. Another poorly developed "crack baby" was being "raised" by a 5-year-old sister.

The myth of the "crack baby" became a media hit, Coles believes, because "crack is exotic and happening mostly in `marginal' populations among `bad people' who are not like `us.'" It is easier to think about crack than alcohol or tobacco. There is more than a touch of racism in the attention.

The children whose mothers used cocaine are neither universally nor permanently nor uniquely damaged. The so-called "crack kids" are just a portion of our growing population of children in deep trouble. They are only children, like so many others, growing up with a treacherous mix of nature's and nurture's woes.

[edit] The Welfare Queen

Most middle class kids don't think much about the issue of welfare. When young people do think about the issue, they often picture the stereotype fed to the public by right-wing politicians for over a decade: an urban-dwelling (usually black) single mother of six sitting in front of the television while collecting fat tax-funded checks. They imagine the mythical "Welfare Queen," an image Ronald Reagan first conjured up during a speech in the 1980s. In fact, when imagining welfare recipients, the last person most people would picture is a mother: a divorced, visually-impaired white mother of two, working and attending school -- who eventually became a successful lawyer.

Kentucky Youth Adovocates also estimates that an hourly wage of $12.45 would be necessary to cover the full cost of living for a family of three. How many jobs that pay $12.45 an hour are available to poor people with no degree, little or no training, bad credit, and who can't even get a nice suit for a job interview?

A sample of 134 welfare mothers from a Midwestern rural community completed a survey. All respondents were expectant mothers, fifty-one percent were single mothers, and none of the mothers had received parenting education. The findings indicated that most of the mothers demonstrated a solid fundamental understanding of appropriate parenting beliefs, behaviors and the importance of family, contradicting the stereotype of welfare mothers.

While conservatives talk about welfare recipients being a burden on the public, many don't realize how little we spend on public assistance. The attack on social spending is based on myth. In 1996, all spending on "welfare" programs, including food stamps, free school lunches, unemployment checks, housing assistance, legal defense and the rest came to somewhere around $130 billion. Only counting direct assistance programs like AFDC, however, it was about $50 billion -- approximately 4% of the $1.23 trillion budget.

As mentioned before, it's hard enough for single mothers to raise their children. How can they be expected to work, too? Child care opportunities just aren't available for everyone. You can't just "go out and get a job" if it means leaving your kids home alone.

[edit] Some of the common myths of women on welfare are:

1. 1. Women on welfare are lazy and promiscuous
   2. They are stupid or uneducated
   3. They are self-indulgent alcoholics or addicts
   4. They mismanage our finances
   5. They are dirty or have poor hygiene practices
   6. They are all thieves and welfare cheats
   7. They are disorganized
   8. Women on welfare could get a job but don't want to
   9. They are all losers or failures and therefore are not good parents
   10. Women deserve to be on welfare and just want a free handout
   11. Poverty is generational and must originate from laziness
   12. You get all your needs met on the system
   13. Girls have babies just to get welfare

[edit] The Teenage Mother

Being a young mother is very hard and it can strongly affect their education. In 1996, the pregnancy rate was twice as high among non-Hispanic black and Hispanic teens as among non-Hispanic white teens. By 2003, the under-18 Hispanic and non-Hispanic black population will be greater than 50 percent of the adolescent population. A lot of these teenage mothers have less of a chance of receiving child support which increases their chances

1. It is said that:
   1. Black teens have the highest teen pregnancy rate. For young women age 15-19, black teens are most likely to become pregnant (134 per 1,000 women). Slightly lower rates occur among Hispanics (131 per 1,000) followed by non-Hispanic whites (48 per 1,000).
   2. Teens who become pregnant are less likely to attend college. Although teenage mothers today are more likely to finish high school or earn their GEDs than in the past, pregnant teens are less likely to attend college than teens who do not become pregnant.
   3. US teen pregnancy rates are higher than those of other developed countries. US rates are twice as high as in England and Wales or Canada, and eight times as high as in the Netherlands or Japan

[edit] What is the Criminal?

There is a widespread belief that Afro-American people and particularly young Afro-American inner-city males, are far more prone to violence than white people. Substance abuse, the epidemic of teenage pregnancy, and the prevalence of households headed by women are almost always linked to black violence.

1. Some of the effects of a maturing generation of crack babies may include:
   1. Expanding prison populations;
   2. Increased numbers of young sociopathic adults;
   3. Many young adults who are apathetic, uneducated, and dependent, and who will overwhelm a society not prepared to assist them;
   4. A juvenile court process, already overloaded, forced to deal with abused and abandoned youth who have become involved in crime.

[edit] Resources

1. 1. Crack Babies Are Coming: What Impact Will 1980s Crack Babies Have on Police Services by the Year 2005?Preview By: Kosta, W.. Crack Babies Are Coming: What Impact Will 1980s Crack Babies Have on Police Services by the Year 2005?, 1996, 21p; (AN SM170566)
   2. http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/cocaine/crackbb2.htm
   3. http://pacificcoast.net/~swag/wowreport.htm
   4. Azuma, S., and I. Chasnoff. (1993). “Outcome of Children Prenatally Exposed to Cocaine and Other Drugs: A Path Analysis of Three- year Dat.” Pediatrics 92, 3: 396-402
   5. Stereotypes Preview By: Blankemeyer, Maureen; Richardson, Rhonda A; Taylor, Christine B. Welfare recipient mothers' reported parenting beliefs & behaviors: dispelling stereotypes, 2000; (AN SN151854)
   6. Mother. Preview By: Gubrium, Aline. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, Oct2008, Vol. 37 Issue 5, p511-527, 17p; (AN 34354298)