Photo credit: Oli Scarff/Getty Images
By Roy Douglas Malonson
“Welfare’s purpose should be to eliminate, as far as possible, the need for its own existence.”-President Ronald Reagan
America first developed its national welfare system in 1935, as a result of the effects of the Great Depression. On January 4, 1935, President Roosevelt announced in his State of the Union Address that, “the time has come for action by the national government, to provide security against the major hazards and vicissitudes of life.”
Thus, the welfare system was established out of the necessity of hardship on American citizens. Since that time, several generations of families have survived off of its assistance for survival. However, there have been many untruths about the actual individuals who rely on the system. So, it is time to set the record straight.
We MUST Understand, for too long members of the African-American community and other minority groups have suffered racist and discriminatory stereotypical labels that are just not factual. It never ceases to amaze me how people can judge an entire culture based off of a portion of the individuals who are a part of it.
Throughout the years, Black folks and other minorities have always been labeled as the largest population of those who receive welfare benefits. But according to statistics it is actually the other way around.
In an article printed in Newsweek entitled, Trump Thinks Only Black People are on Welfare, But Really, White Americans Receive Most Benefits, Ryan Sit provides statistics on the subject.
He states, “Whites are the biggest beneficiaries when it comes to government safety-net programs like Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, commonly referred to as welfare.”
He further explains, “White people without a college degree ages 18 to 64 are the largest class of adults lifted out of poverty by such programs.” According to the Think Tank’s 2017 report, “6.2 million working-age Whites were lifted above the poverty line in 2014, compared to 2.8 million Blacks and 2.4 million Hispanics.”
In 2015, the Department of Agriculture provided details regarding the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP or food stamps). It found that, “Just over 40 percent of SNAP recipients are White, another 25.7 percent are Black, 10.3 percent are Hispanic, 2.1 percent are Asian, and 1.2 percent are Native American.”
Now these are not little White lies, but in fact, the truth about Welfare.
