Welfare

Over at Feministe's No racism here, no sir!, Jill Filipovic is continuing a discussion about race, welfare and class at Jane Galt's blog that was based on another of Jill's posts : A Conservative Trifecta: Fat-shaming, welfare-state-hating, and victim-blaming.

I haven't asked Jill, but it seems she is doing some really interesting work at NYU Law that has led her to write now some really interesting posts about race and class. The conservative trifecta post is brilliant because it really deconstructs all the conservative bull around discussions of welfare; in particular the "work for food" rhetorical scam around welfare.

Yet ... and yet. I am always disatisfied with discussion like these.

As Jill rightly points out, poverty is almost always falsely equated with race. Yet, I feel the next step is to ask why is it necessary to propagate the myth that social class is somehow only the product of biology? Why is it important to have an Polish-American kid from Far Rockaway believe that doors will open to him just because his skin is "white" and his hair is maybe two shades away from a dirty blonde?

Hence, the discussions offered by naysayers end up being about why they should not blamed with having been borh with white skin. For example, one of her commenters, Henry, wrote some of the following :

I have no problem with welfare per se (although I’d prefer it be done at the state level as opposed to the federal level). My issue is with the idea that it’s my responsibility to provide for the poor, as opposed to an act of voluntary virtue, and that somehow I’m a selfish prick because I feel that I should have as much control over the money I earn as possible. I’m all for private charity, and the more, the better. The idea that I owe anyone anything is ridiculous. I didn’t cause poverty, I haven’t exploited anyone, and no one gave me or my family anything. My father worked 10-12 hour days turning a wrench for everything we had, and I’ve worked my whole life. Yet somehow, those of you who support using the power of the state to steal from some people to give it to others are more virtuous than people who give money privately. Which is nice, as it allows everyone to feel morally superior without affecting their wallet directly.

Lovely isn't. That's compassionate conservatism for you. This guy represents the common apolgists for economic apartheid. To him, whiteness is part of a Darwinian natural selection that he has not control over. It would never occur to this guy to go back through history and see how whiteness has been constructed in his country as a socio-economic tool of opression.

Here's what I have to say about that: