The Sad Reality of Life.

This week’s discussion has been very interesting since we still cover issues of minorities through the urban cities. On Thursday we watched a very interesting documentary called The Legacy: The Collins Family.  It is a movie that demonstrated what it is to live under poverty. This movie show’s the topics that we have been discussing. Some of those topics include welfare, diversity, and the limit of opportunity that exist in the housing projects.

            This documentary follow’s the Collin’s family on their life struggles of living in Chicago to be exact in the projects Henry Homer Homes. This movie was filmed in a five-year transition period. This movie perfectly describes the struggles of not having a sense of family structure. This documentary show’s how Wilson has been right, and how over generations there has been an increase as women as the head of the family. There was little to no evidence that showed support from a male figure that helped them be stable economically. This movie follows the family members and demonstrates their individual struggles. Dorothy is the mother of Wanda and Alaissa, and the grandmother of Terrell, Nickcole, and Jack. Her story is very interesting because she talks about the struggles that exist living under the housing projects. How the limit opportunity exist for any of them to overcome their struggles. The fact that there is no opportunity increases many of the kids to make bad choices. She executes the importance of parenting, mentoring and support. But that is hard to accomplish when you don’t have a steady household. After a period amount of time, she got an opportunity to do something she felt useful and loved. She was able to become a teacher’s assistant with help of her community and attention. The fact that she was working at a school she was able to offer an education to her grandchildren. Wanda’s story is a very sad story that truly deserves all my respect. She lived rough life and was able to overcome those issues because her renew connection with god. Wanda was on her own since the age of 12, carrying the responsibility of being a young mother. She felt under the possession of drugs and it controlled her life for a good amount of years. She was able to overcome those issues and graduate from a drug abuse program. But to me what becomes more of an accomplishment was her will to get back in track with her life and kids. The fact that her son dies and blames herself that she could have had been a better parent this would of not happen. She turns her life around for the better. The fact that she was a strong and hard workingwomen made her leave welfare, and securing a house to call her own.  Her sister Alaissa who had different struggle on her own, different from Wanda’s. Her problem was a more of a motivational issue. She illustrated lack of getting of from welfare. Her behavior was full of excuses and accepted her living situations. Her daughter Nickcole played a big important role of encouragement to find employment and leave welfare. An example in the movie was when she was giving an opportunity at nursing home; she was selected for the position. But she didn’t show up for orientation and got dropped from the course. Her excuse was not being able to find a baby sitter. She blamed it the problem on other structures, but in reality it was her willingness of being able to overcome poverty.   

The next story that was involved in this movie was Nickole and she was the inspiration of them all. She is the true example of overcoming obstacles and is committed to success. She obtained support systems and goals derived from her community. The death from her cousin and her family lifestyle motivates her to be better and show her family that anything is possible. These types of motivation make you proud and see how easy one has it.  I like the fact that they named it Legacy. It is an appropriate title because it shows the legacy of welfare and oppression that the Collin’s family has suffered. How Nickole is the symbol of opportunity and the legacy of welfare would end with her.

            This course has made me realize and has opened my eyes into a new perspective. I was blind and believed the media on how welfare made the people lazy and how many of the minorities would exploit it’s resources. But now I realize that I was beyond wrong. Exploitation does exist but the numbers truly do not correlate with those myths. These myths have had negative impact towards the lower class and the government spending. In couple of the states they enacted a drug policy in order to obtain public aid. The results withhold little evidence and show that people on welfare are not on drugs. It’s crazy how we easily criticize people because of some actions  of others.