Why Is California Penalizing Poor Women for Wanting to Be Parents?

[DebJ]

135. Not the most common cause where I live.

Our city is filled with multi-generational families in poverty; like 5-6 generations. Thousands and thousands, most of the city in fact. It is the system they know and understand.

When I taught the students for a few years, it became evident that they have no vision of any other options for themselves. It was really sad. I brought some people in to speak to them about life and career opportunities, and they loved it...but my stay at the school was brief, and the impression briefer still. Then normal life and perceptions go back to what they were. I grew up in a working class environment, with both parents working, in the 1950s 1960s where there was hope (at least for whites), and that was how I perceived life and my chances in it. These students live in another world, in a poverty bubble, and breaking that bubble will require a lot of time and effort and investment ... and some proof that they can indeed break out of it.

Minorities comprise more than 60% of the students in the schools, and the discrimination around here is hideous, ridiculous, and not very well hidden at all. Even the fast food chains are lily-white, except directly downtown in the city. Kind of creepy, really, since I came originally from Maryland where such discrimination isn't so appalling evident. Once I got a job here, I could see what was going on with job applicants and here stunning comments that came straight from the 1950s.

My honest assessment in our town, which has damn few job opportunities for anyone at all anyway, is that the best hope for these kids is to get out of this disgusting state and go somewhere where people are people, not colors. But until they can actually see a vision of a different life, that's not going to happen.

Yes, the recession hit here, too, and there are families that lost jobs. We did too. But it's not the most common thing here. This town was already so severely depressed there weren't that many more jobs to lose.