Hakim-Dyce, Rangel, and Placism

There are millions of women in America who are forced to live under the poverty line due to a variety of reasons. The Aisha Hakim-Dyce’s and the Maria Christina Rangel’s of the world are all too common to be deemed anomalies. These women are not only inherently disadvantaged because they are women, but also because they are members of minority groups. These are the women who possess the courage and depth of character necessary to take on the monumental, seemingly insurmountable financial burden that comes along with a college degree from a prestigious university. And how are these women rewarded for their ambition and hard work? Greedy creditors and loan officers punish them for decades. They are denied for welfare and other social programs, the assistance of which they desperately need to survive and, in Rangel’s case, provide for a family. As Jamie Foxx says in “Any Given Sunday,” “Maybe it’s not racism. Maybe it’s placism.” The people who work inside the oppressive social welfare system are often the very people who require its assistance. The system may not be inherently racist, but it certainly seems to be placist. Meaning, it does enough to keep these people alive, and in essence working for the system; all the while, it is effectively keeping them in the place Patriarchy has assigned them. These women work themselves nearly to death just so they can obtain a college degree and lift themselves out of the poverty that society has placed them in. But once they graduate, they are unable to begin the careers they deserve because they are stuck working dead-end jobs just to put food on the table and clothes on their back. It seems to me that the only people that welfare keeps “well” is those who don’t need it in the first place.