Dismantling the Master's Tools: Looking Out for Sistas' Welfare

Iresha Picot and Natasha Butler created a propaganda project “Dismantling the Master’s Tools: Looking Out for Sistas’ Welfare” under our overarching "The Assata’s Daughters Project". Many people believe that mobilizing themselves off of welfare is easy but in reality, the system makes welfare a false "need" and creates difficult hurdles for women and men to be independent off the system. It is very crucial that the Black community becomes self-sufficient and not rely on this system because it will not let us reach our full potential for self-determination. There is nothing wrong with being on welfare but it is important to not rely solely upon and instead, “ work the system” and take their resources to form group survival strategies and mobilize oneself off of this system.

Our goal for this project is to (1) ignite a discussion with Sistas around the welfare system (2) to get them to start thinking about moving away from this system with self-sufficient co-operative programs.

What we have been doing is putting these STICKERS (below) up on poles, bus stops, and places around low-income and subsidized housing. Then we flier our self-sufficient leaflets (that have resources for upward mobility) in the doors of these same apartments. If you would like to partake in the project, please run with it. Also if you would like to implement some of the “solutions” at the bottom, please hit me up and we can get busy!

In Solidarity,

Iresha & Tasha

(the stickers--please click on them to read!)






Ways in which we can form group reliance and give this system back its “resources”:Start a childcare collective with other women who are transitioning from welfare to work. Gather a group of friends and have each other baby-sit the other one’s children while you or another Sista goes off to work.

Start a clothing and food swap once a week, organize yourself and a couple of other Sistas together to trade staple foods (rice, can goods, bread, etc) and swap clothes that your children have outgrown to other women who may have clothes that fit your children.

Try saving money by growing some of your vegetables in your backyard or windows. Tomatoes, basil, carrots, spinach, and lettuce are easily grown in small places.