Dear Sticky Wicket,
Why do politicians, particularly Republicans, continue to overtly, or covertly perpetuate the impression that more blacks are on welfare and receive food stamps than whites?
~Irate In Sonoma.
Dear Irate,
Racial stereotyping has replaced kissing babies in some Republican campaigns. Politicians like former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich often use racially charged rhetoric to endear themselves to the fears of voters.
When Santorum proclaims, “I don’t want to make black people’s lives better by giving them somebody else’s money," and Gingrich says blacks are “satisfied with food stamps,” it’s simply a coded way to stereotype all black people as lazy says Charles Gallagher, a La Salle University sociology professor.
“This coded racial rhetoric is a form of Willie Horton Lite, which allows these race-baiting politicians to tap white anxieties that blacks are undeserving of any government assistance because they would rather collect benefits than work,” he says.
It’s a Southern strategy that’s been in place since the 1960s he added. But Dr. Gallagher points out that in absolute numbers, there are actually more whites than blacks on welfare. He says there are 13 million whites receiving governmental assistance compared to about 9 million blacks. Of those enrolled in SNAP (supplemental nutrition assistance program) 34 percent are white and 22 percent are black.
Why don’t these right wing politicians chastise whites who remain unemployed or on food stamps? Gallagher asks rhetorically.
“The reason is that whites say other whites lost their job for structural reasons while blacks choose to be unemployed,” he answers. “This is of course racist nonsense – many whites are unwilling or unable to see the same structural reasons that keep blacks from finding jobs.”
Maryland University Political scientist Joshua J. Dyck, and Laura S. Hussey co-authored a paper in 2008 on political stereotyping called “The End of Welfare As We Know It.”
The authors say that even in the aftermath of welfare reform in the 1990s, attitudes of some white Americans towards welfare are still influenced by negative black stereotypes.
“As one consequence of this prejudice, it has long been recognized in political science, and conventional wisdom, that many white Americans tend to think of blacks when they think of welfare and that negative attitude towards blacks in turn shape the attitudes of those Americans towards welfare policies,” they wrote.