How the Race and Gender Shaped the Women’ Experience

Storming Caesars Palace Student’s Name Institutional Affiliation Storming Caesars Palace Introduction The African American women who belonged to the welfare group have always been in the public debate as the welfare dependents. Most people argued that the main aim of the African American women in the welfare was only to profit themselves from the welfare funds and system, but Orleck in the Storming Caesars Palace challenges this view. These women were casualties of oppression and poverty, where they were subjected to cultural, racial and gender barriers. However, these black women staged a resistance to demand for their rights which completely changed the story about the poor black women on welfare. Their mission was, against all the odds, even blocked by a white woman who held primitive views against the struggle. This work aims at giving the highlights of how the oppression and mistreatment of the African American women led to their support and activism for the rights of welfare. How the Race and Gender Shaped the Women’ Experience The African American women were tortured, oppressed and subjected to low payments when they worked in the cotton plantations which were owned by the white people. These cotton plantations are still the same places that their great parents worked for in the 1940s. The African American women could recall their lives in the early 1940s where their employers and landlords were called by their fancy names such as Mr. Johnny and their sons, little me, by the workers who worked on the farm (Orleck, 2005). There was no respect and dignity for the African American women who lived in abject poverty. In addition to this level of poverty, their lives were made worse by the way white Americans who mistreated them and violated their individual rights. The children of black women could even be ordered to perform some duties by Caucasian children (Orleck, 2005). Very little had changed even after these women had left the Delta region and Louisiana and they live in fear of attack from their employers. The scorn towards their well-being was extreme to the extent that a certain white woman working in a hotel was told to do prostitution instead of receiving the welfare (Orleck, 2005). The violence that the African American had experienced in the land before made it difficult for the black people to demand and fight for their rights as they were living in fear. The active role and participation of the African American women in the National Welfare Rights Organisation (NWRO) aired the challenges and the problems that they were facing. The women who worked in the farms wanted to be treated with respect and dignity and equally the same as the other members of the society. The African American people started moving from the Delta region westwards to Las Vegas in search for better opportunities and better economic conditions. In Las Vegas, they worked in hotels and casinos where the pay was a bit better than it was in the cotton plantations, but the racial discrimination was even worse than in their previous settlements. These women supported the welfare group and also endorsed the feminist principles which were seen to differ from the groups which were mainly dominated by the feminists of the middle class. To the African Ame...