In the early 1980s the Reagan Administration engaged in an active campaign to demonize welfare and welfare recipients. Those who received public assistance were depicted as lazy free-loaders who burdened good, hard-working taxpayers. Race and gender played major parts in this framing of public assistance: the image of the “welfare queen” depicted those on welfare as lazy, promiscuous women who used their reproductive ability to have more children and thus get more welfare. This woman was implicitly African American, such as the woman in an anecdote Reagan told during his 1976 campaign (and repeated frequently) of a “welfare queen” on the South Side of Chicago who supposedly drove to the welfare office to get her check in an expensive Cadillac (whether he had actually encountered any such woman, as he claimed, was of course irrelevant).
The campaign was incredibly successful: once welfare recipients were depicted as lazy, promiscuous Black women sponging off of (White) taxpayers, public support for welfare programs declined. The negative attitude toward both welfare and its recipients lasted after Reagan left office; the debate about welfare reform in the mid-1990s echoed much of the discourse from the 1980s. Receiving public assistance was shameful; being a recipient was stigmatized.
Abby K. recently found an old Sesame Street segment called “I Am Somebody.” Jesse Jackson leads a group of children in an affirmation that they are “somebody,” and specifically includes the lines “I may be poor” and “I may be on welfare”:
(Originally found at the Sesame Street website.)
I realized just how effective the demonization of welfare has been when I was actually shocked to hear kids, in a show targeted at other kids, being led in a chant that said being poor or on welfare shouldn’t be shameful and did not reduce their worth as human beings. Can you imagine a TV show, even on PBS, putting something like this on the air today? Our public discourse at this point says that being on welfare is shameful, and that those receiving it in fact aren’t “somebody.” They are dependents, lazy loafers, and their kids are just additional burdens on the state; they don’t have the same rights to dignity and respect as other citizens, and they certainly shouldn’t expect to get it.
Of course, the totally confused looks on some of the kids’ faces are hysterical.
Comments 19
Phoebe — October 23, 2009
That was beautiful =) I think I may re-post it to facebook.
ben — October 23, 2009
I'm not sure why PBS wouldn't do something like this today. The Children's Workshop, which produces all the Sesame Streets, has been very pro-active in dealing with contemporary social issues.
For example, they produce an Israeli-Palestinian version of Sesame Street (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091022/tv_nm/us_sesamestreet), and their HIV-positive muppet for the South African version (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kami_%28Takalani_Sesame_character%29). In the American version, there was the very public change in Cookie Monster's eating habits.
Jillian — October 23, 2009
Aww, I love it!
I have mixed feelings about welfare. In my 99% white town growing up, most of the welfare recipients were white, and visiting friends "in the projects" was a rare occasion (the neighborhoods made my parents nervous). What I did note though, especially when my dad worked there later on, was that a lot of the people who lived there actually DID drive pretty nice, new cars (unlike my family, which drove old cars and was pretty poor). It was frustrating, and I grew up with a pretty negative view of welfare.
That said, what I encountered later on in life - more urban, mostly non-white people who genuinely needed assistance for whatever reason, as well as lots of new immigrants - really changed my opinion toward welfare and the people who receive it. It was never a racist opinion, but it was certainly a negative one.
Phoebe — October 23, 2009
Don't forget, leasing is a very popular and affordable way for people to drive a car that is one or two levels above what they could normally afford. My car payments for my first car (which I still own, 10 years later) was $255/month for 4 years. If I wanted to spend $255 a month on say, a 2 year lease, I could have gotten a much nicer car than I could afford by outright buying it. I know many people with incomes lower than me that did just this.
Rosa — October 23, 2009
Jillian, I think that conflation of wealth with "stuff" is a big part of the attack on poor people, and it hurts middle-class people who fall for it too.
Basic security factors - rent, health care, child care, retirement savings - are all way more expensive than a nice car, nice clothes, jewelry, a big TV. The idea that people don't have the former because they waste money on the latter is part of the campaign against social programs. The truth is, you could give up all those things and not come out with enough cash to provide a safety net for your family.
Theo — October 25, 2009
For academic completeness: the video is from 1971.
Mint — October 25, 2009
This makes me feel warm and fuzzy. I'm writing my thesis on the history of a welfare program where I live, and know first hand how welfare went from being "let's help the people who need help, because it's the right thing to do" to being "the people who need help only need help because they didn't do the right thing, so why should we help them?"
Marie — October 26, 2009
Having grown up on welfare, having lived in the projects - I never saw anyone of my social class driving anything near a new car. We often didn't have a car. We had a black-and-white TV. We had hand-me-down clothes and furniture. Now I have a good job and live in a nice suburb and I owe that all to welfare.
And it sickens me to death how often I'm told apocryphal stories about poor people. Even as a child I remember hearing so often about how we were "lazy" because we were poor. My dad worked himself to death. I got my first job when I was 12. How the hell is that lazy?
... sorry... kinda triggering for me.
Ang — October 27, 2009
Marie, I'm glad you spoke up. I was going to post something every similar, but you said it way more eloquently that I would have.
Sesame Street “I Am Somebody” Segment with Jesse Jackson | Racialicious - the intersection of race and pop culture — October 30, 2009
[...] By Guest Contributor gwen, originally published at Sociological Images [...]
Forestroad — November 3, 2009
I'm a little late to this party, but one thing I noticed about the current health care debate is the reference to "Cadillac" insurance plans from people that want to derail the public option. Is it just me, or is this a pretty transparent attempt to conjure up that Reagan quote and all the racism that goes along with it? Because that's what I think when I hear it. It's not like they've chosen to talk about spending taxpayer dollars on "Mercedes Benz" or "BMW" plans.
annee — November 9, 2009
This video makes me very happy. I wish it was updated so the quality could be improved, as I want to watch it over and over again with my kids... my government subsidized health care havin' kids.