There is a day in American History that black women and her families will never live down as long as the Department of Social Services stands to be a major governmental entity in this country. In the year of our Lord, 1976, when Ronald Reagan spewed his very conservative campaign speech as his supporters rallied by his side, he referred to black women as “welfare queens.”
For years, this phrase has caught the attention of generations and it seems to be as hot a term now during the presidency of Obama as it was then when Reagan was on his campaign trial.
The welfare queen is depicted as an African-American woman (some will argue he did not mention race and so that is not true; however, let’s talk about what the phrase has been discussed as in the past) who has multiple children with multiple men in hopes of gaining welfare benefits, i.e., welfare check, food stamps, etc.
This depiction of the welfare queen combines the stereotypical caricatures of African-Americans discussed in historical literature for years and that is the jezebel and the mammy. It seems that even in 2012 old habits are hard to break. Since the inception of the mammy figure, the matriarchal black woman who cleans, keeps the house, takes care of the children, and the jezebel figure, the overly sexualized black woman whose thighs will spread for both master and the buck (slave man used for “breeding) black women have a hard time as being seen as equals in the eyes of her white female counterparts as well as white men.
And, with Obama beginning his campaign trail and so many US citizens against his re-election to office, this twentieth century caricature of the welfare queen has popped back in the news as a debilitating factor in the re-election of President Obama. Many conservatives report that Obama supports laziness and the sense of entitlement that black women and her men feel because of slavery and other racial injustices that has happened to African-Americans since.
Does our welfare program need to be revised? Maybe. Should there be stricter limitations on the amount of years or amount of money an individual can receive if he or she is not employed? Maybe. Should everyone be evaluated equally for these benefits? Maybe.
However, this is what happens when FOX NEWS and other media sources allow people to say that black women are and should be referred to as “welfare queens.”
First, you dehumanize black women for the sake of a political campaign and that is far more damaging than President Obama not being re-elected for presidency. Statistics show that black women make $.40 less to the dollar on average than her white male counterparts. These types of labeling of black women make it harder for them in the working world resulting in what? Unemployment, you answered? Great job! We are on a roll. And what happens when these women cannot find a job? What? Oh, yes, they apply for welfare benefits in order to ensure the health and wealth of her family.
Second, you support the idea that white people and people of other colors do not benefit from the system. In this country 38 percent of white Americans receive welfare benefits and 37.8 percent of African-Americans receive welfare benefits. Whereas more than 30 percent of African-Americans live below the poverty line, only eight percent of Whites live below the poverty line. And, we dare ask about “milking the system.”
If the system needs reform, the system needs reform. However, let’s decide how to reform the system while not making outlandish accusations about one particular race and them receiving the same types of benefits as all other races.
Every race and gender has its demeaning caricatures. From white trash redneck whores to black nigger bitches, we can all conceive stereotypes, but let’s look at the facts and work the system from there.
Obama is not promoting that anyone sits on his or her ass and collect food stamps and welfare checks. He is thinking about the mother who made a mistake and had a baby who is struggling trying to earn a degree while still supporting her family. Is it not smart to use tax dollars to support this young mother who will later have more than half her check taken because of taxes? And, no everyone who is on welfare isn’t looking for the next educational or employment opportunity, but we will continue to hurt ourselves as a country if we do not support those people who are using the benefits for what it is, a benefit – a building block to get off the system by means of education and or employment.
And, every bad apple does NOT spoil the bunch. Of the people I’ve known to receive these benefits they were all either in school and working towards a degree of higher education or they were actively seeking a new position in life that will put them in a position where they no longer qualified for the benefits.
Ronald Reagan made the biggest mistake of his life on that fateful day in 1976, but it is the country’s responsibility to correct that mistake. And, always lobby against FOX NEWS!
J. Prince, Princepality 27
Princepality 