After reading a portion of Star Parker’s book, A Star is Born, I am left with a “bad taste in my mouth”. I feel that Parker is dangerously hypocritical and isn’t aware of how offensive she is. She attacks two welfare recipients, Linda and Dellamarie on the Oprah show because they felt that as single mothers they were entitled to welfare benefits. Though I also disagree with their entitlement I also disagree with Parker’s attack on them. They are young women who must learn life lessons through their very own mistakes just as Parker did. Parker was previously a welfare recipient who admitted to abusing the system in ways such as selling her Medi-Cal stickers. Though she does not deny her past she tends to act as if she is now somehow above the Welfare system. I believe that the welfare system played a major role in shaping Parker into the person that she is today, yet rather than allow other women to learn from their mistakes, and come of age on their own, she’d rather impose her hypocritical beliefs upon them. As a person with experience she should have approached the women in a more understanding manner, rather than being judgmental about their situations.
I also disagree with the portion of the chapter My Life as a Welfare Brat in which Parker speaks about fathers. She says that fathers abandon their children because they are aware that the welfare system will pick up the slack. She states that welfare gives fathers the incentive to walk away from their families because they know that welfare is there as a cushion. I believe that if a father is careless enough to abandon their children they are not concerned with welfare or any other system that will take care of their family. If a man were concerned with how his family would survive he would not even consider walking out on them. It is wrong to blame the welfare system for the carelessness on the part of the many men whom do not understand what fatherhood is.
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