Product Description

Dear Self is the penetrating journal of Richelene Mitchell, a young African American mother of seven struggling to raise her children while wrestling with the burden of poverty, callous public policy, and both overt and subtle manifestations of entrenched, institutionalized racism America. Mitchell was born in the rural south, the daughter of an African American sharecropper. She would venture to the northern ghetto of Philadelphia to enhance her educational opportunities. Hence, her early life was shaped by the twin forces defining African America life in the twentieth century: the rural south and the urban north. Mitchell's promising academic career was curtailed by an eventually failed marriage that rendered her a single mother of seven children living in a sprawling public housing project. Forced to deal with the humiliation of public assistance, she chronicled a year of her life, 1973, in this penetrating journal. Though written over twenty years ago, her intimate experience with and intricate insights into the informing and penetrating light on race reality faced by an expanding American underclass are as relevant today as they were then. She sheds light on poverty, mothering, gender relations and many other pertinent issues. This book is a valuable resource for all of those seeking to understand the reality faced by millions of Americans whose plight rarely finds an informed and articulate voice.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1025726 in Books
• Published on: 2007-05-23
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 448 pages

Review
Richelene Mitchell's Dear Self: A Year in the Life of a Welfare Mother is a unique and challenging portrayal of life as part of the African-American under-class in early 1970s America. Dear Self is a memoir formed of a series of letters written to Mitchell's only confidante; herself. This societal reject wrote at a time when African-Americans was regarded as the lowest of the races, Nixon's regime was slowly starving poor people to death and women were still victims of chauvinistic cultural norms. Dear Self is therefore a revelation and insight into the indignant dystopian existence many women like Mitchell faced as an absolute reality.

Mitchell's memoirs depicts the emotional rollercoaster of a Welfare life, most notably resulting in the bipolar representation of our matriarch as she responds to a life littered by the constant irony of double standards and a series of `no-win' situations. This irony constantly underlies Mitchell's discussions with herself and seeps into the narrative either through tone or situationally, providing a spectrum of pleasant dry wit on one end with an illustration of imprisonment in the Welfare world on the other end.

The irony is constant: take the genre itself - autobiographical memoirs. Modern celebrity culture positions the genre as the ultimate retrospective peep hole into the lives of those we aspire to be, it provides us with clues into the mindsets of our heroes or into how the villains of history carved themselves platforms from which they could perpetrate their `evil genius'. However Mitchell is not someone who achieved notoriety for breaking through or inflicting oppression, nor was Mitchell a celebrity of her time who defeated all the odds to achieve her fame... Mitchell was a woman, Mitchell was African-American in 1970s America, Mitchell lived on Welfare, Mitchell had no effect on social or political history, Mitchell's only legacy is the six children she left behind and this series of memoirs.

So why are her writings an essential insight into underprivileged America?

Mitchell is the "Eternal Black Mother".

Mitchell is all things: a philosopher, a psychologist, a theologian, an intellect, a civil rights activist, a writer, a feminist, a mother (and a father), a lover, wife, daughter and sister, a friend, sports woman, seamstress, a home-maker, a human and... a victim of society - society owes her the time and respect to listen to her story.

Mitchell plays the unlikely anti-hero - more irony - writing towards a non existent climax with no beginning, middle or end - merely a vicious circle that never stops spinning. However this anti-hero embodies everything that is contrary to expectation. Mitchell's articulate and sophisticated style and tone implies considered and objective thought even when presenting emotional episodes. This emphasises her disparate relationship with the community she holds complete pride for while being so aloof in thought and diction. Her writing unwittingly serves to engage a pluralistic audience and walks readers of all backgrounds through her story hand in hand. This is contrary to a "black sounding" writer, as Mitchell calls her brethren, whose narrative style would alienate many parts of society.

Mitchell wrote to enlighten society and challenge perceptions and assumptions about `Welfare Mothers' by walking us slowly through each day of her life in 1973. Mitchell addresses the catalogue of questions society thinks about but politely refrains from asking: why do welfare recipients have so many children? Why do welfare recipients not work? How do welfare recipients afford luxuries such as attending parties and funding hobbies? Why are a large proportion of welfare recipients African American? Why do African American's not value education? Why do African American people not try to integrate more?

According to Mitchell's presentation of life, the Welfare system in an entrapment and demoralisation of all poor people. The system does not adequately address all health and wellbeing issues. Mitchell lives in an apartment where ice forms in the bathtub where she cannot afford sufficient food for her family on her "food stamps". The procedure of waiting for the `check', joining the `check line' at the bank, buying her food stamps, and using the food stamps at the store is akin to perpetually being stalked by a loud speaker crying out "She's on Welfare". There is no thought and consideration of how the system effects psychological wellbeing of people like Mitchell and that indeed its degrading manner has an impact on the cohesion of that community into wider society. Mitchell clearly illustrates how Welfare recipients feel discouraged and face a complex myriad of hurdles and barriers if they actually achieve employment. Individual circumstances are not considered and rather the Welfare recipients are herded through a system like animals neatly penned into particular social `boxes'. One must ask: did the inept welfare and health systems contribute to the premature death of this candid an insightful mother?

The reader is therefore inclined to sympathise that necessary pennies are spent on Mitchell's obsessive hobbies such as reading and bowling. Mitchell is in desperate need for catharsis and an escapism that takes her away from her loneliness, illness and domestic problems. But of course the discouragement from society for her to partake in these activities is evident - are Welfare Mothers suppose to sit in a squalor of depression at home?

The discouragement continues. Mitchell's memoirs address a plethora of issues which she approaches with a public face of dignity and steadfastness even though privately she is dying both emotionally and physically. Mitchell's own eloquence and the level of philosophical debate, literary analysis, critique of psychological theory and an exquisite narrative structure that builds suspense and expectations based on the wonders of life's next turn as oppose to a composed climax, destroys any stereotype that African Americans and poor people are not interested in academia or intelligent society. Rather Mitchell emphasises the troubles African American students of the 1970s faced in school and the inconsistency in the quality of support provided by teachers to African American children compared to their White peers. This racism comes at a critical point in an individual's development both socially and intellectually. Mitchell's descriptions allude and describe blatantly how young African Americans were discouraged from achieving, resulting in a redundancy of their personal aspirations and a perpetuation of the cycle their parents so wished they would break from. Mitchell herself clearly demonstrates that had she been provided an opportunity to develop her skills and formally expand her knowledge she could have been highly successful and well respected.

Mitchell herself is no stranger to harbouring her own prejudices. Mitchell's constant subjection and observation of racism has made her very sceptical and cynical. Mitchell abhors her White neighbours and is in favour of segregation. This sad result of societal bullying ironically merely exacerbates the issues and contributes to irreconcilable communities. Similarly, Mitchell's resentment of her ex-husband has triggered a universal distrust and disdain for every African American man. Indeed the majority of men represented in the memoirs function to fuel the negative stereotypical image of African American men. Mitchell does however provide the men with the excuse of being victims of a racist society thereby retaining an element of loyalty. In fact it is only in young men she sees hope and good within as they are not bruised from the same level of racial hurt.

And the children... Mitchell's love and devotion towards her children is undeniable despite her `tough love' attitude that occasionally overlaps with an overwhelming feeling of being burdened. The children represent everything that is worth living for and simultaneously represent an oppressive and abusive man who used babies to keep Mitchell locked in chains. Another irony defining Mitchell's life.

These duplicities further add to Mitchell's use of ironic humour, providing the occasional boost and softening the blow of a Welfare life and lining it with hope. Indeed Mitchell drives her optimism through much of the narrative. The reader walks through theologian debate as Mitchell searches to find reasoning for her suffering. Although her gospel soul is strong and definite Mitchell is fascinated by alternative ideas grappling to fill her life with meaning. Admirably Mitchell remains thankful to God for the gifts of life she receives despite her despondency.

The final irony is of course that Mitchell's ultimate wishes were realised posthumously. She left a legacy of high achieving, caring children who proudly present their mother's pain and beauty through the publication of these letters. The memoirs cover a full spectrum of life's themes and humbly provide a detailed, raw and candid insight into the being a poor African American mom. The read will further your ambition to take responsibility to, as Mitchell puts it, "owe each other, our freedom and humanity". -- Sarah Chowdhury, August 23, 2009

"In December 1972, prolific letter writer Mitchell, a divorced African American mother of seven living in poverty in Connecticut, made a New Year's resolution to keep a journal. Here is that diary, her perspective from over 30 years ago. She discusses workaday concerns, including the price of groceries, her children's education, and her anxiety about her daughter's early motherhood. But she doesn't avoid more complex, intellectual matters, e.g., her frustrations with everyday racism, the question of "liberated" womanhood, and her analysis of books she is reading. A good addition to libraries with a focus on African American social history..." --Library Journal Book Reviews

"New Insight on Poverty and the Human Spirit" 5 stars.

Most of us have never ventured to the housing projects or spoken to the disheveled mother at the supermarket removing items from her shopping cart to make sure she can afford it all. Dear Self, provides rare and surprising insight on poverty in America. Sharp witted, faithfully honest and self-critical Richelene Mitchell shares her acute observations on the welfare system, healthcare, politics and the people around her. She presents life in all its loneliness, joy, humor, determination and intense sadness - in other words, its humanity. This book is all the more poignant and absorbing because it was written as a personal diary and found after the author passed away. -- Noreen Kassem, a physician from Vancouver, BC, 09/11/2007

"Richelene Whitaker Mitchell was born in rural Georgia and spent her teen years in South Philly before settling in New Britain, Connecticut. She was more than the sum of her statuses. She faced uncertainty with grace, dignity and a daily page of insight. Through adversity, she sent up flares so her Self could find the way back. A mother of seven and a critical thinker, capsized slowly, left a record. Dear Self is a worthy read." --Foreword Clairon Reviews

A Literary Legacy! 5 Stars.

Dear Self is a posthumous work of non-fiction in which the writer, Richalene Mitchell communicates to herself in a daily dialogue over a one year period. She is an intelligent, attractive, multi-talented, strong welfare mother, and single parent struggling with an all consuming web of economic deprivation, societal bias, crippling racism and pulverized dreams. She writes of the self-abnegating care that she struggles with to raise seven children in the projects of New Britain, Connecticut. Daily, she laments the loneliness, hopeliness and failures that have brought her to the point of despair. Antonymously, Richalene also celebrates life. The reader is allowed to participate in the happy and loving moments with her children and the joyous events that did not come often, but did exist. She documents her hopes and dreams for each of her children. Despite the modicum of achievements they witness in the projects, Richalene instills in them the zeal to succeed. The author is a prolific writer who is able to captivate her readers into a massive cocoon of emotions. This true story superlatively imparts depth, conviction and passion. The reader is so paralyzed by the events of each day and desires to read on without interruption. Dear Self magnetizes us all into Richalene Mitchell's world of meager, yet determined existence. -- Betty Wright, a High School Teacher, 09/27/2007 Betty Wright, a High School Teacher, 09/27/2007

An excellent true story of an African-American mother who endures her American life to rear a most unusually strong, and righteous son. It was hard to put this down even though I knew how it ends. It's a moral tale and a good read. -- Strong Mother; Stronger Son, July 31, 2007 - 5 Stars

This is a stand-alone book. It's a book I find myself returning to time and time again to learn from the insights of a woman who lived and wrote during the years when I was first learning how to sit up and crawl. Whether it's getting advice on how to raise your children, what a child needs from his mother, what a father needs to do to provide for his family, how spouses need to treat one another, how an orderly home should be run efficiently while on a budget, how the races need to understand one another, how the genders needs to work together, how one should maintain one's dignity even in times of near-despair, how a mother should pray for her children, how one should appreciate the "little blessings" in the beauty of nature all around us...it's all in there.

I often found myself putting down 'Dear Self' and staring off into space as I pondered some little nugget that Richelene Mitchell had penned in her diary three decades earlier. I wiped my own tears as I felt the sorrow and shame of a mother who felt she was never able to do enough. I tried not to let my constricted throat stop me as I read certain heartbreaking passages out to my own sons and husband. I kissed my children as they slept at night, thanking God for giving us carpets under our feet, warm roofs over our heads, and food in our cabinets. I hugged my husband and thanked him for "being a man", for not shirking his duties and responsibilities to his wife and children. I looked out my windows and found a vision of beauty in the trees and grass that greeted my eyes, a new awareness that wasn't there before as I remembered Richelene's fervent prayer for a lawn outside her tenement home so that should could be rid of the mud, mud, mud (and concrete floors) that seemed to be forever her lot in life.

Richelene Mitchell's diary entries aren't just entries --- they're essays worth reading and studying and thinking about again and again. I found myself feeling melancholy after a few nights in a row of reading, and I felt the need to pick up lighter fare. But I was drawn back to this little diary after a week of being away and I couldn't bring myself to shelve it until every last page was digested and understood.

It was at a study circle one evening when one of the young ladies rhetorically asked, "How does one learn not to take one's blessings for granted?"

"Read 'Dear Self'," I suggested casually.

"YES!" two or three enthusiastic voices chorused around the room. "Exactly! That book will do it for you!"

What a gift to leave the world. If Richelene Mitchell hasn't done anything else other than make you grateful for all that has been granted to you in life, she has performed nothing less than a miracle... -- Hina Khan-Mukhtar, Thu, May 8, 2008 - 5 Stars

What a heart-wrenching, thought-provoking, eye-opening piece of literature! A book that unveils the pain and suffering, the heartache and desperation, the tears and struggle, and above all, the unyielding HOPE of the human heart when faced with seemingly hopeless circumstances.

Within the first thirty pages of Richelene's memoirs, I found myself drawn into her life as if she were my own relative. I cried, I laughed, I contemplated life. I felt my mood rise with the tide of her positivite thinking and fall into the valley of depression as she wept in the quiet confines of her lonely room. I even felt like her "acute letteritis" had become contagious! I found myself writing more and expressing my deepest thoughts and emotions-- questioning myself, questioning life. I felt hungry for knowledge, thirsty for understanding of God, religion, human suffering, fate. And I felt a deep sense of comfort knowing that some of the questions that often plauge my mind could be articulated so clearly through Richelene's words.

I experienced surreal moments while reading this book, where I began entertaining the possibility of reincarnation because this woman's spirit certainly lives on in my own mother! Her wisdom, her resilience, her perpetual hope in the face of one hardhsip after another--just like the woman who raised me! Indeed, the Eternal Black Mother, to whom I am eternally grateful.

As an avid reader, a lover of literature, a human being, I have to thank Richelene for offering herself, so openly and honestly, to the rest of the world. And of course, a thousands thanks to Melanie, Imam Zaid and everyone else who took part in publishing and spreading this work. It is a masterpiece! May this story of survival, perserverance, faith, and human excellence reach every corner of the globe. May it inspire the masses the way it so profoundly inspired me. -- Afrah Abdullah, Apr 30, 2008 - 5 Stars

When I originally sat down to read "Dear Self", I did so, thinking, "How nice; our beloved imam published the diary his mother kept." I went into this book assuming that it would be something only of interest to Muslims who respect and admire Imam Zaid and would like to get a glimpse into his early years, the ones before his discovery of Islam.

How wrong I was.

This is a stand-alone book. It's a book I find myself returning to time and time again to learn from the insights of a woman who lived and wrote during the years when I was first learning how to sit up and crawl. Whether it's getting advice on how to raise your children, what a child needs from his mother, what a father needs to do to provide for his family, how spouses need to treat one another, how an orderly home should be run efficiently while on a budget, how the races need to understand one another, how the genders needs to work together, how one should maintain one's dignity even in times of near-despair, how a mother should pray for her children, how one should appreciate the "little blessings" in the beauty of nature all around us...it's all in there.

I often found myself putting down 'Dear Self' and staring off into space as I pondered some little nugget that Richelene Mitchell had penned in her diary three decades earlier. I wiped my own tears as I felt the sorrow and shame of a mother who felt she was never able to do enough. I tried not to let my constricted throat stop me as I read certain heartbreaking passages out to my own sons and husband. I kissed my children as they slept at night, thanking God for giving us carpets under our feet, warm roofs over our heads, and food in our cabinets. I hugged my husband and thanked him for "being a man", for not shirking his duties and responsibilities to his wife and children. I looked out my windows and found a vision of beauty in the trees and grass that greeted my eyes, a new awareness that wasn't there before as I remembered Richelene's fervent prayer for a lawn outside her tenement home so that should could be rid of the mud, mud, mud (and concrete floors) that seemed to be forever her lot in life.

Richelene Mitchell's diary entries aren't just entries --- they're essays worth reading and studying and thinking about again and again. I found myself feeling melancholy after a few nights in a row of reading, and I felt the need to pick up lighter fare. But I was drawn back to this little diary after a week of being away and I couldn't bring myself to shelve it until every last page was digested and understood.

It was at a study circle one evening when one of the young ladies rhetorically asked, "How does one learn not to take one's blessings for granted?"

"Read 'Dear Self'," I suggested casually.

"YES!" two or three enthusiastic voices chorused around the room. "Exactly! That book will do it for you!"

What a gift to leave the world. If Richelene Mitchell hasn't done anything else other than make you grateful for all that has been granted to you in life, she has performed nothing less than a miracle... -- Hina Khan-Mukhtar, May 8, 2008 - 5 Stars

From the Publisher
This book is a valuable resource for all of those seeking to understand the reality faced by millions of Americans whose plight rarely finds an informed and articulate voice such as that possessed by Ms. Mitchell. Though written over thirty years ago, her intimate experience with and intricate insights into the reality faced by an expanding American underclass are as relevant today as they were then. She sheds an informing and penetrating light on race relations, poverty, mothering, gender relations and many other pertinent issues.

From the Author
Foreword Summary - by Imam Zaid Shakir.

Much has been written about the "underclass" of this country, from the pious yet irreverent pontification of pundits who decry the insolence, sloth, and general lack of initiative working to create that underclass, in theirview, to the well-meaning but generally misguided opinions of an array of voices ranging from white liberals to black nationalists and leftist revolutionaries. The re-markable nature of the pages you are about to read lies in the fact that they are written by a member of that under-class, articulated by a voice uniquely qualified to speakon the subject. This is noteworthy, for rarely do we read anything intelligible and deep about the poor by the poor.

"The fact that Richelene Mitchell, who penned these powerful letters, was a member of the underclass is not unique. Many share what would be viewed by some as that dubious distinction. However, her broad reading, keen intellect, and poetic sensitivity gave her the ability to write about the life of the urban poor in a way that reveals socio-logical, psychological, cultural, political, and religious in-sights rarely revealed by even the most informed outsideobservers. She is able to combine the deep insight of an in-sider with the intellectual acumen of a highly educated outsider. Herein lies the source of the power and depth of these pages.

Customer Reviews

Beautiful book
I happen to come across this book quite by accident at the library one day. I couldn't check it out at the time, but once I could, I went right back and got that book, and I tell you, this is no ordinary welfare mother, but then again, who is? or who isn't? Richeline was born in Georgia, finished high school in South Philadelphia, got married and ended up in New Britain, Connecticut with seven kids. She resolved for 1973 to write a journal of her life and concerns, and that she did. One of the entries while discussing her financial woes, she muses if she sold this journal what would it profit? sadly, she didn't live to see the results. She speaks of not being able to work for herself(although she does work parttime at a dry cleaners)and giving her body to science as a sort of payback, writing letters to the local newspaper editor and seeing them published as well. She yearns that her children would break the cycle and become better adults, and at the end of the book, there is a section on what happened to her children. She also talks about her health. She suffered from seizures, and she valiantly tried to keep it from her kids. Nevertheless, after reading this book, one would think twice about labeling someone a welfare queen or what have you. Richeline Mitchell may have been a welfare mother, but I believe she was far more than that. A great book and highly recommended for all.

If you liked "Nickled and Dimed in America"..
I got this book 3 weeks ago after hearing about it in a lecture. It's a unique first-person account written down in real-time in 1973. So no 'revisionism' by the author, and no filtering by writer who didn't directly experience what the book is recounting.
In some ways, it is better than the book "Nickeled and Dimed in America" because it's not a simulated, rootless probe into the conditions of the poorest Americans, but an insightful sincere diary!

Amazing
The book Dear Self is an excellent book that everyone should read. It really draws the reader into never wanting to put it down. It appeals to people of every upbringing, age, and culture. The reader will feel as though they have experienced what the very writer has gone through. The emotions of sadness, happiness, and times of struggle have an immense affect on any person who reads this book. Superbly put together, Dear Self proves that with struggle there is ease. Richelene Mitchell, who documents these stories in a diary, proves that, although everyone has struggles or difficulties in life, with determination, patience, and acceptance of those struggles, one will succeed. What I found amazing about the writer was the fact that she never expressed pain throughout her illness of epilepsy. She continued to provide for her seven children, with endless love and support. This is most definitely a book that everyone can learn at least one lesson from, especially through the writer's strength, patience, and courage.