Ending the Myth of the Welfare Queen
Session Type(s): Panel
Starts: Saturday, Aug. 12 3:00 PM (Eastern)
Ends: Saturday, Aug. 12 4:15 PM (Eastern)
Throughout the country, reproductive justice and anti-poverty movements are coming together to change the narrative about who gets welfare and why. They are doing so while building campaigns to repeal harmful policies established in the lead-up to and during the 1996 Federal Welfare Reform. State laws denying child care to children whose parents have a prior drug felony conviction or cash aid to families if they birth children while poor depend on the myth of the welfare queen. This racist, misogynistic and classist myth supposes that poor women have babies to make money and their poor parenting decisions result from laziness or selfishness. Learn how this new forged coalition is changing the narrative and changing the laws.
Moderator
Jessica Bartholow
Jessica Bartholow is a legislative advocate at the Western Center on Law and Poverty with over a decade of experience in anti-poverty organizing, advocacy and program development at the local, state and national level. She has led in coalition to pass a dozen pieces of legislation. Jessica holds a Master’s Degree in Political Science and is the 2012 recipient of the National Food Research and Action Center’s Wellstone – Wheeler Anti-hunger Advocate of the Year Award. Jessica is a native of Northern California.
Panelists
Myra Duran
Myra Durán is the Senior Policy Manager for California Latinas for Reproductive Justice. Myra graduated from UCLA with a B.A. in Women’s Studies with a concentration in Women of Color Feminism and a minor in Labor and Workplace Studies. She currently serves as the National Programme Coordinator for AF3IRM, a national grassroots, volunteer organization of women engaged in transnational feminist, anti-imperialist activism and dedicated to the fight against oppression in all its forms. Myra also served on the Young Women’s Leadership Council for the Pro-Choice Public Education Project (PEP) to ensure that the interests and voices of young women of color, transgender & gender non-conforming young people were included. She previously served as a board member for ACCESS Women’s Health Justice, an organization that removes barriers and builds the power of Californians to achieve reproductive justice. She is a strong advocate for passionate politics where love is at the center of the work and believes in the power people can co-cultivate in order to achieve full liberation from oppressive systems. In her spare time, she enjoys hanging with her familia back in her hood of Pomona, reading, and organizing in the community with her revolutionary sisters from AF3IRM.
Other sessions: Battling the Stigma: The Media's Role in the Fight for Repro Justice
Nourbese Flint
Nourbese Flint a pop culture chick who is a blapister syfy nerd and typography enthusiast. She loves politics, traveling and ratchet/trap music and all things bob’s burger and Marvel Comics. Her allegiance is to the Reproductive Justice Movement. Currently, she works at Black Women for Wellness, where she serves as the Policy Director and manager of reproductive justice programs at Black Women for Wellness (BWW). Here, she directs reproductive and environmental health policy, organizes community advocacy and manages reproductive and sexual health programming as well as civic engagement.