This is not going to be pretty. It’s going to get a bunch of you pissed off- not that I care too terribly much. After all, we never should cater to bigots.
Here’s the big reveal. White America, generally, has found a politically acceptable method of expressing their racist attitudes. How? By opposing the social safety net that obtains in the US. Oh, yeah, that is despite the fact that more Whites than minorities are on the receiving end of that aid.
This first study, demonstrating this point, was conducted by Rachel Wetts (doctoral student, UC Berkeley) and Dr. Robb Willer (Stanford), and published under the title of Privilege on the Precipice: Perceived Racial Status Threats Lead White Americans to Oppose Welfare Programs.
All along, folks like me thought the desire to destroy welfare, SNAP (supplemental nutritional aid program, aka Food Stamps), AFDC (aid for dependent children) and the like was a Wrong Wing anthem. Instead, this reaction stems more directly from racism.
Before you claim foul, recognize that the authors examined three separate analyses of thought and response. One analysis dealt with a decade’s worth of surveys on race and welfare programs. During the first years of the Great Recession (2008-2012), opposition to welfare skyrocketed amongst all Americans- but was higher still among Whites. Who also began manifesting more racial resentment over time. But that data only demonstrated correlation- not causation.
So, two more tests were applied to determine causality. In the first, Wetts and Willer quizzed respondents on their attitudes towards welfare after being shown US demographic changes (in graphs). The second additional test asked the same questions after folks were shown charts demonstrating average income by race and the demographics of welfare beneficiaries (not necessarily factual).
When White folks were shown they would be a racial minority within 50 years, they wanted deeper cuts to welfare. And, if they were shown that people of color would benefit more, they also opposed welfare. Interestingly, not only does racial attitude affect our thoughts on welfare, but a slew of other disparate political themes. Our feelings on healthcare- and even how we feel about climate change, correlate with racial animus!
Which may explain why TheDonald and his minions are working furiously to impose work requirements on Medicaid recipients (even though almost everybody who can work is already doing so, as I showed you here), tripling the rents those receiving Section 8 assistance should pay, and eradicating some $ 9 billion (a 13% cut) from SNAP (food stamps). They’re trying to cater to this nascent (and growing) racism among their core voters.
And, that’s also the philosophy behind this concept of stripping SNAP from the Farm Bill, completely removing it from the Agricultural Department aegis. And, there’s the plan to move Medicaid, AFDC, and the rest of the social welfare programs to a brand new agency, pulling the jurisdiction from the agencies that have controlled these benefits for decades. The “plan” also merges the Departments of Labor and Education (and change the term “Labor” for “Workforce”, so that “labor” disappears from the public vernacular). Furthermore, the goal is to shove all the benefit programs into the Department of Health and Human Services which would be then be known as the Department of Health and Public Welfare. (And, with that deadly word, “welfare” in the title, use innate racism to further emasculate the individual programs.)
Why? Once these benefits are all coalesced into one agency- with the name “Welfare” on the door, it will be extremely easy to kill these programs. Because once these benefits stand alone and are not part of any larger bills needed by all segments of our population, there won’t be any tit-for-tat bargaining to keep the programs funded.
You say, “What?” If so, maybe you should consider that the Farm Bill passed the house in a squeaker- 213 to 211. Why? Because the bill contained the SNAP benefits- and the Wrong Wing was imposing draconian work requirements on the program, as well as cutting benefits. The goal was to eradicate some 1.2 million folks from the rolls.
But, the bill still passed because the farm states need crop insurance, farm credit, and assistance from the blowback against TheDonald’s tariff wars. (Which, despite various protestations for the executive office, are in full-blown mode.) The Senate passed its own version of the farm bill in an 86 to 11 vote- and that bill has no workfare nor any decreases in food stamp benefits.
Which means the reconciliation is going to be a real doozy- and may not happen by the end of September, which will place many agricultural programs in jeopardy.
Oh, by the way. I forgot to give you the link to the second study. In that study, in case you doubted it, the data demonstrates that TheDonald got his votes primarily from folks who are terrified by increasing globalization and rising racial diversity. (Yes, that is an active link to the research that determined these facts.)
This is so very disheartening. I can remember back in the early 1970s, I felt that the country was heading in the right direction. We still had a very long way to go, but we were moving along in the right direction. In addition, I believed that we would never go backwards. Just shows how wrong I can be.
I am not sure I have those same sentiments about the 1970s as you. After all, there was Nixon, Mike on Friedman (abrogation of the social contract between corporate America and both America and Labor).
My father is African American, my mother a white Swede. I always blessed the fact that I was born in Sweden as the occupancy with race in the USA is beyond sanity.
Free medical care and education is also a big deal, but that’s another issue considering the subject of the post.
Stella Scott recently posted..Are You Willing To Start The Journey Of Understanding Yourself?
We do have free education in the States,Stella, up through 12th grade. I fear that if we provide free higher education (with which I agree in principle, subject to my caveat below), it will involve tracking- community college for technical skills (programming, instrument and device repair, SEO marketing, etc.), with others freer to procurethe more traditional college majors. My caveat is that we need to incorporate a national service of 6 months to 2 years, based upon length of educational support, to pay back society for the benefit.
But, that still won’t eradicate institutional racism and biases.
It is so sad the reasoning of the minions as you call them. Fear mongering instead of educating themselves. Reading this year’s Go, l knew it would only get worse, but it went downhill fast. When will people wake up and how long will it take to reverse what us happening as we speak?
I fear the real problem, Kemkem, is that too many folks no longer read. I’ve seen statistics that some 20 to 40% of adults who finished high school (which, by necessity includes college graduates) have not read a book since their last educational stint. And, then there’s the multitudes who seek out media for which they already know they concur, regardless of their veracity, just to have their pre-ordained biases verified.
That’s a lot of reading between your blog and the link at the end. I need to read that one now.
Martha recently posted..SUPER BUSY JULY
I agree, Martha. I could have made my blog longer to include more of their findings,but chose for brevity to stick to the major points. Which is why I always provide the source documents for others who wish to learn more. And, publishing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences gives more credibility that one found in Modern Psychology.
Very well put together research. It is so interesting how racial bias is embedded in so many different areas of life. The 2008 depression was absolutely unavoidable if there were ethical practices going on. (FB: Addie Cotoure)
Thanks for your addition to the discourse. I also fear a repeat of the 2ppi debacle, given that crucial protections enacted (under Dodd Frank and others) are bring eradicated. And, that the current administration let several firms CHEAT on their stress tests. So those high passing marks turn out to be mediocre or poor results.
Bravo to you for writing this article—hopefully this will be an eye opener for those who have always pointed the finger in the wrong direction.
It was an eye opener for me! I really had a different impression of who was driving this scourge back into the mainstream, Martha.
So glad I recovered your comment from spam. (Talk about association bias…yahoo is almost always so relegated.)
Racism is certainly the scourge of our society. I agree that this whole “let’s cut welfare” chorus is caused, at least in part, by racist attitudes, as well as ignorance. The majority of medicaid recipients are actually old people in nursing homes. Of course, for a racist, there is no reason to let facts get in the way of a good old-fashioned “let’s blame people who don’t look like us” session.
I agree with your sentiments, but not your facts, Alice. There are less than 5 million seniors covered by Medicaid (mostly for additonal nursing home benefits), but there are some 60 million folks on Medicaid.
bravo to you for writting this article
Thank you so much for venturing your comment. Please come back often.