AF Chapter 10: Shifting the Center

1. What is the dilemma with feminist theory according to Collins, and how does she suggest we overcome it?
2. What is “motherwork” and how does it frame familial relationships within minority families? What role does “motherwork” play in terms of specifically survival, empowerment, and identity?
3. What plight do minority mothers face when attempting to foster identity in their children?

AF Chapter 22: Poverty in the Era of Welfare Reform

1. What is Sugrue’s argument against the various versions of welfare legislation and reform?
2. Read the short article: Labruzo sterilization idea at odds with welfare numbers
   Comment on Labruzzo’s suggestion of sterilization as a tool for welfare reform. Could it ever work? Could it ever become a reality?
3. Sugrue states the following on page 334: “Few scholars and fewer policy makers have any sense of the day-to-day struggles of poor families.” What does this mean in terms of making policy for reducing poverty and welfare reform? Is it likely that an administration of predominantly upper-class, white men can find a legislative solution for a problem they know little about? If not, what are possible solutions?
4. If “poverty is ultimately an economic problem, not a cultural problem” as Sugrue states on page 334, then what will happen to the “underclass” poor in a collapsing economy where middle-class whites are now losing their jobs?