Return to Welfare; History, Results and Reform
Bill Cosby and Welfare
<SNIP>
Bill Cosby has been getting a lot of (negative) press attention lately for some of his comments that seem to have struck a chord in the black community. The Washington Post reports (214):
"For me there is a time . . . when we have to turn the mirror around," he said. "Because for me it is almost analgesic to talk about what the white man is doing against us. And it keeps a person frozen in their seat, it keeps you frozen in your hole you're sitting in."
Cosby elaborated on his previous comments in a talk interrupted several times by applause. He castigated some blacks, saying that they cannot simply blame whites for problems such as teen pregnancy and high school dropout rates.
"Bill is saying let's fight the right fight, let's level the playing field," Jackson said. "Drunk people can't do that. Illiterate people can't do that." (214)
If we didn't know either of them, we might think that Bill Cosby is wrong and that Jesse Jackson is right. The playing field is not level. Even with Welfare Reform, too many African Americans are still relying, on one form or another, on government assistance. The scars of welfare run deep and 8 years is not enough time to wash them away.
In reality both are wrong. Jesse Jackson, in trying to 'clarify' what Cosby said, is really just trying to add his own spin on it. "Leveling the playing field", is not referring to getting rid of government programs and continuing Welfare Reform; it is implying more government assistance, or something like affirmative action, is needed to level the playing field. Conservative news outlets, which have been hailing the comments and many of the African Americans who applauded or heard and agreed with what Cosby said are wrong too. True, it can't hurt for African Americans to look in the mirror and take personal responsibility for some of their problems, but this is just generally helpful in any community. My main point is that African Americans should not "have to turn the mirror around", because the problems they are facing do not come from within. Their problems do come, in part, from the 'white man', although it (unfortunately) isn't considered racism. Their problems do come from the Federal government. More accurately, their problems stem directly from the policies and programs of Liberal Democrats. The hard truth is that for the last 60 years Liberal Democrats have taken the place of the Southern farmers and Northern industrialists in keeping the African American subjugated and impoverished, but instead of gaining cheap labor, they gain cheap votes. Even worse, most Liberal Democrats and African American leaders are completely oblivious to this analogy and desperately fight to keep the present system in place.
In final conclusion, I hope I have been able to lay out a clear picture of welfare. I admit, when I started this research I had meant to just focus on cash welfare, but it soon became apparent that other forms of welfare were just as injurious. Some may think that I made a questionable leap from welfare programs to any government program to the Conservative agenda. I did not mean to do this either, but it just evolved of itself. Although it was not my intent, I don't apologize for it. The evidence from these findings is just too damming to say, "well the Liberals may have been wrong in this respect, but on most everything else they're right". Subjugating poorer people, Blacks, Whites, Hispanics and Native American to destitution and family dissolution for over 40 years (or longer) is a colossal, almost criminal, act. Spending almost 6 trillion in taxpayer money to finance this horror, and cutting economic growth in the process is an error of such magnitude, one would think this party and their platform would be discarded and stomped on by the American electorate. Yet because of their willing accomplices and sycophants in the press, the emotional, idealistic and compassionate nature of their platform and the innate inaccessibility of the counterintuitive truths found in Conservative thought, the vast majority of the people of the United States are totally unaware of this hidden tragedy.
<SNIP>
Further recommended reading: Summary with Chart Groups
African American Politics and Welfare