As the destructive waters of Hurricane Katrina slowly recede from the national news, issues of class and poverty remain at the forefront of America's consciousness. Author Mary Childers addressed these issues in a speech Monday in Carpenter Hall.
"We need to stop looking at poor people as if they are seaweed that gets washed up in the wake of a national disaster, only to be swept away again," she said.
Childers grew up in a world of poverty and desperation punctuated by drugs, pervasive sexuality, domestic violence and single parenting. Her mother, who gave birth to 11 children, illegally supplemented her welfare income with unreported earnings.
Recognizing that October is domestic violence awareness month, Childers began by asking two Dartmouth students to read a passage from her book, "Welfare Brat," that highlighted her sister's abuse at the hands of a violent boyfriend.
Childers' book is a collection of memories that shaped her childhood identity. The cover of the book features her as a small child flanked by her two sisters. One holds a purse and one holds a baby doll -- both were pregnant by age 15. Childers, a self-described "teenage daughter that all mothers regret having," defiantly clenches her hand into a fist, an early proclamation that she would one day break the cycle of poverty.
Throughout her book, Childers writes about issues ranging from "premature sexuality without authenticity" to her awareness of her own "white privilege." But this honesty was a risk in itself; lawyers reviewed the book and she conferred with characters in her story regarding how much she could disclose.
Childers cautioned readers to avoid stereotypical interpretations of poverty.
"I'm portraying some stereotypical things, but they're true," she said. "I struggled with getting people to see this in more dimensions."
Childers taught at Dartmouth during the 1980s and was the director of the Women's Resource Center in the early 1990s. An academic by profession, she found it difficult at first to transition from academic inquiry to "just telling the stories."
These stories have landed her spots on national talk shows and even as a featured guest on National Public Radio's Front Porch series, but despite her success, Childers emphasized the need for reviewers and readers to look beyond her triumph and examine the wider issue of American class struggle.
"Book buyers, publishers and readers are so interested in this dichotomy of holding people responsible or exonerating them," Childers said. "They're either interested in complete degradation or success. I thought about this constantly as I was writing this book."
Childers also called for educating poor working families, improving government support for women she said are ignorantly referred to as "welfare queens" and reaching out to working-class teenagers.
"If we gave the privilege to come to Dartmouth, Princeton and Harvard to working-class kids who have the same SAT scores as the athletes that get in we would change the face of elite education," she said.
In her book, Childers recounts one sister's battles with drug abuse and her lesbian identity and another sister's struggle with throwing herself at the feet of men.
"When I was growing up there were very few activities for girls. Boys had sports; girls had attraction to boys," she said. "It's really about needing attention, needing something that gives you identity."
Childers' lecture was sponsored by the women and gender studies program.
