Why did Great Society social programs become so strongly associated with African Americans?

[yurbud]

When Pat Buchanan made his comments about blacks being lucky to live here, he reeled off a list of programs that are poverty not race specific, but he was tapping into a deeply entrenched stereotype of welfare being a program for blacks.

My family got food stamps when I was a kid, and I got Pell grants all through college.

And I am Whitey McWhiteman.

So how did this strong association come about?

If we are on the cusp of a new progressive era, we should figure out how to neutralize these stereotypes before they take root.

[SharonAnn]

1. In my southwest Ohio city, by far the majority of users were of white Appalachian heritage.

There was a sizable African American part of town and a sizable Appalachian American part of town. Both had the problems that are associated with poverty, unemployment, unwed mothers, alcoholism, drug abuse, and violence. Both had rates of AFDC support that exceeded that of the white suburbs. but the Appalachian American community had a higher percentage of people on welfare, higher teen pregnancy rate, more violence, etc.

Yet the metropolitan residents thought it was all concentrated in the African American community.

Facts don't matter to many people, propaganda does.

[Taverner]

2. Ronald Reagan and his "Welfare Queen" speech

He pretty much painted African Americans with that brush, even though whites use more Great deal monies than AfAms do

[yurbud]

3. Reagan was tapping into a pre-existing stereotype. I remember hearing it before he was president

though it was like Hitler tapping into pre-existing anti-Semitism. Reagan put stamp of respectability on what people might otherwise feel a twinge of guilt and embarrassment about saying.

[Taverner]

4. True that

But I would include Reagan in why this spread so much into the collective American consciousness

[yurbud]

13. I was 17 when Reagan was elected and one side of my family was openly racist

I would like to blame it on him, but he was actually late to the party.

[nomorenomore08]

16. Ah, but you see, the evil genius of Reagan was that he made it no longer necessary

to be "openly racist." His (enormous) influence on our national discourse made it possible to couch bigoted opinions in coded language that would mean one thing to the target audience (racist white conservatives), and something more innocuous to everyone else.

[yurbud]

20. that was Nixon. Reagan closed the gap and said more openly racist things, just in a jovial way

[ThomWV]

19. That was part of it but not its origin, that came from Nixon's Southern Strategy

The grandfather of bigotry in the Republican Party.

[jwirr]

5. It was deliberately portrayed as a way to assist inner city black

residents. However, that ignored that across the country more white people were using them than black persons. Also black persons were often congregated in specific areas of inner cities while white users lived in dispersed communities and were not so visible.

I think the one exception would be the non discrimination in hiring, etc. type laws but if the truth be known black persons did not receive as much help from them as thought. If it had been limited to persons of color they would have helped lift many out of poverty but the intent of the law has been subverted by including women. If an employer can get past the law by hiring a white woman as a minority group then he/she still does not have to hire a person of color at all. The powers that be used the two groups against each other to weaken the law. I think it is ironic that this year we see this played out in our primaries.

[defendandprotect]

6. I voted for the third choice, but undoubtedly, "stereotypes" were pushed b y GOP --

and worked --- !!!

Basically, we're saying right-wing propaganda worked --- and still does!!!


Pushing those emotional buttons --- creating anger where they can ---

but finally pulling computer steals when they run short of angry citizens and religous

fanatics --- !!!

[defendandprotect]

7. And, IMO, this is a very dangerous time when Obama can be seen as

someone more fit to be president that the idiot/moron in the White House ---

Makes it harder to keep the stereotypes going ---

Makes it dangerous when "whites" and "blacks" begin to realize they have common cause ---

[MADem]

8. "Unfortunate coincidence?" It wasn't a coincidence, and it wasn't unfortunate.

It was a happy marriage, designed to start America down the path towards healing centuries of wrongs.

Just because the GOP are a bunch of mendacious fucks who race-baited to win elections doesn't make what LBJ did unfortunate.

If you think that, you are BUYING what those assholes are SELLING.

[lumberjack_jeff]

9. Because Great Society social programs were developed to serve needs that AA's frequently had.

If government recognizes a need in a segment of society, and if they are conscientious about their duties, they'll craft a solution to ameliorate it.

Is it then wrong to then associate the solution with the segment of society that influenced its creation?

Granted this is an oversimplification, but; 'Why is the bureau of indian affairs (and the programs they administer) so strongly associated with native americans?'

What you are saying is a bit like objecting to the stereotype that food stamps, WIC, and support enforcement are programs for women.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

10. I'm old enough to remember when the War on Poverty was first promoted

Sure, there were pictures of poor African-Americans in Harlem and the Mississippi Delta, but there were also photos of poor whites in Appalachia and the back woods of northern states.

As the Republicans took charge, this changed: suddenly the face of poverty in the media was always black. It was in the Republicans' interest to portray aid for poor people as something that only African-Americans benefited from.

I don't have to tell you what the results were.

[yurbud]

14. I imagine even when it was just black photos in the mix, racists noticed those most

some people would rather starve than be fed and know a black person was too.

[nomorenomore08]

17. Indeed. Cutting off one's nose to spite one's face

has been a specialty of working-class white conservatives for decades.

[yurbud]

18. they might win the lottery and then where'd they be if they supported all them social programs?

[Warpy]

11. The programs had their greatest success in Appalachia

giving poor WHITE folks the first decent break they'd ever had.

The Reagan ad machine was the one that lied about the racial issue. Whites were helped in much greater numbers than blacks but a greater percentage of the black population than the white population needed and received help because that is where the need was.

Reagan's admen just lied with statistics, told half truths, and appealed to bigots.

[Gormy Cuss]

12. I voted for confluence with the Civil Rights Act and the racial tension of the time.

There was also no small measure of popular culture reinforcing it. In the 1950s and early '60s it's rare to see any black faces in televisions shows. Even the poor people and street thugs were white. Then shows picked up on the idea of inclusion and low and behold, most blacks were cast in those poor people & criminal roles. Why? Because casting them as white collar managers or suburban housewives just wouldn't be believable to much of their audience. Characters like "J.J." on "Good Times" didn't help either.

There was also a level of comfort among some whites when people who weren't white were the only models of poverty in America. It made it easier to pretend that race was the issue rather than poverty, and from that the implication was that the race was inferior.

Like you yurbud, my family benefited from various federal aid as did most of our neighbors and it was a 99% white neighborhood. The portrayal in media of all of this money going just to black people was foreign to me.

[Greyhound]

15. Quite purposely, and I might add cynically, to foment the divisions

within our culture. This serves the absolutely essential function of distraction that keep us from noticing our servitude to the ruling class.

Since their inception, these programs have been utilized by an overwhelming majority of white people, but the images portrayed are consistently those of minorities. Just like Raygun's mythical "welfare queen" is always black, we unquestioningly accept whatever garbage is fed to us through the media.

Is it fascism yet?

[entanglement]

21. It's the old American trick of racism in the service of classism

How do you get the majority (white) people to oppose social programs that actually benefit them? Inflame the prejudices of a section of white workers by insinuating that "those" people (immigrants / Black people / single mothers) are the beneficiaries, while the "honest, hard-working" white man gets shafted.
Sounds simple, but it's worked like a charm for the ruling classes to further their plan to abolish the welfare state completely. The corporate media is, needless to say, a willing participant in peddling such falsehoods.