poet
Banned
http://thegrio.com/2013/06/07/why-white-america-thinks-too-much-welfare-is-a-black-thing/
Politicians have played the welfare card
During times of economic hardship African-Americans make easy scapegoats, because it’s easier for many whites to digest than economic truth. The U.S. economy in the 1970’s was trashed by the oil crisis, Vietnam and failing manufacturing. But Ronald Reagan chose to pin the blame on black ‘welfare queens’ in the inner city who refused to work. The Gipper didn’t come up with that imagery, he just picked up that football and ran with it, like so many others since.
Inside Bill Clinton’s campaign war room his advisor James Carville famously posted a sign “It’s the economy, stupid” but outside on the 1992 campaign trail he promised America that he would “end welfare as we know it” to fix the economy. Black welfare moms were certainly an easier target than the Savings & Loans bank lobby.
In the 2000’s it seemed like the racial/welfare narrative might change when the face of economic graft and criminality became Enron’s Ken Lay, Bernie Madoff, the housing crisis and the bank bailout. Even conservative white America began to wonder if these captains of industry that were really just pirates in disguise were a bigger problem than welfare cheats.
But it didn’t last; by the 2012 GOP primary we were back to Rick Santorum saying he didn’t want to give white money to black people and Newt Gingrich saying blacks should demand paychecks instead of food stamps. It doesn’t matter that food stamp rolls swelled with white people during the recession, blacks on welfare was a safer target. All of which brings us back to the WSJ/NBC poll.
We should not be surprised that many whites think welfare/ black laziness is the cause of poverty in the United States; politicians and elites have been selling that snake oil during every economic downturn for 100 years no matter what the facts are.
P.S. It's not. -poet
Politicians have played the welfare card
During times of economic hardship African-Americans make easy scapegoats, because it’s easier for many whites to digest than economic truth. The U.S. economy in the 1970’s was trashed by the oil crisis, Vietnam and failing manufacturing. But Ronald Reagan chose to pin the blame on black ‘welfare queens’ in the inner city who refused to work. The Gipper didn’t come up with that imagery, he just picked up that football and ran with it, like so many others since.
Inside Bill Clinton’s campaign war room his advisor James Carville famously posted a sign “It’s the economy, stupid” but outside on the 1992 campaign trail he promised America that he would “end welfare as we know it” to fix the economy. Black welfare moms were certainly an easier target than the Savings & Loans bank lobby.
In the 2000’s it seemed like the racial/welfare narrative might change when the face of economic graft and criminality became Enron’s Ken Lay, Bernie Madoff, the housing crisis and the bank bailout. Even conservative white America began to wonder if these captains of industry that were really just pirates in disguise were a bigger problem than welfare cheats.
But it didn’t last; by the 2012 GOP primary we were back to Rick Santorum saying he didn’t want to give white money to black people and Newt Gingrich saying blacks should demand paychecks instead of food stamps. It doesn’t matter that food stamp rolls swelled with white people during the recession, blacks on welfare was a safer target. All of which brings us back to the WSJ/NBC poll.
We should not be surprised that many whites think welfare/ black laziness is the cause of poverty in the United States; politicians and elites have been selling that snake oil during every economic downturn for 100 years no matter what the facts are.
P.S. It's not. -poet
