Good Mornting, my Beautiful People!!!!
This post may include affiliate links. For more information, read Disclaimer.
There’s a movie I wanted to pull from the archive’s. Not sure if you’ve seen it. If you haven’t, you need too.
Claudine
It’s a movie made back in 1974, about an African American woman who has six children. Who also happens to be on government assistance. Claudine, played by Diahann Carroll started dating Rupert “Roop” Marshall played by James Earl Jones. She wanted to keep the relationship going, but there was push back from her children and Government Assistance. Her children where giving her and Roop a hard time because they feared he would hurt her just like her ex-husband did. So they tried to shelter her from that. The government on the other hand wanted to either take away or lower the amount she got every month, if she was found to either be dating or had a job. If she ever got married, you could forget about it.
During those times, if you had children and you were black without any special skills or luck; you were literally living paycheck to paycheck. Not to mention all the other things you had to endure.
Roop on the other hand had his own problems. He was behind in his child support. So because of that, the government started garnishing his wages. As a result, he got depressed and threw himself a pity party. Almost severing the relationship he developed with Claudine and her children.
The Break Down
There were other things I could’ve pulled from the movie, but the situations stated spoke volumes. The one which spoke the loudest was when Claudine (mother of six) felt she had to lie about having a job and dating because she didn’t want to loose her financial benefits from the state. I know some may look at it as stealing. I see it as a woman trying to make sure her children were taken care of. The sad part is, this was a common occurrence in those times. People of color still get paid and got paid less then someone who was white and had the same job as them. So even though she had a job, her income was no where near the needed amount to take care of six children, herself and a household.
Roop’s situation was reversed, he was a black man who had children, but instead of taking care of them he had to provide child support. His situation was bad, because as we know and I stated earlier black people in those times did not generally get the same pay as someone who was of a lighter race.
The Disconnect
Those who saw people of color as less than, have had a hand in the way we see ourselves all through history. Think of it like this: You have two people working to take care of a family, house, children, and themselves. Not to mention these people haven’t been given the same opportunities as those that have been fortunate to go to college, get degrees and have generational wealth.
Later down the line, after being with each other for a while, realize being apart is better financially for everyone involved. The mother is able to get government assistance, child support, food stamps, and housing; all because she isn’t married.
The man on the other had has to be away from his family. This could either be seen as a negative or a positive. Positive because he’s free to keep living life as a free man without the stress of taking care of anyone but himself. Negative for the fact that he isn’t their experiencing every moment with his children. Also, child support has the tendency to make Mothers and Fathers turn against each other. Reason being, the Father feels like he’s getting taken advantage of by the “Mother” and the Government. So sometimes, even though some couples may have that arrangement, it eventually causes them to separate because the financial and psychological burden is sometimes to hard to bare.
What we don’t realize today is; the acts that took place back then and some even today are and have been geared toward dividing us. For the simple fact of “Control”. The masses have realized if we’re divided there’s no way we can be great because we’re to busy tearing down each other.
Info and Pictures Provided By: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claudine_(film), https://www.amazon.com/Claudine-Diahann-Carroll/dp/B00007AJG2, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0140792/bio, https://www.biography.com/actor/james-earl-jones, https://cellcode.us/quotes/diahann-carroll-claudine-movie.html,
Shads Short Stories 