Does the new legislation seek to reduce poverty or to merely move recipients from the various programs? The Republicans' policies mirror the latter rather than the former.Most problematic were the methods by which politicians and others brought the issue to the forefront. The welfare agenda was propelled by instigating welfare myths and by preying upon the public's receptiveness to racial stereotypes.
Republicans, like most politicians, know the easiest way to generate opposition to a program is to show the masses that a high percentage of minorities benefit from it.
How many times during his presidential campaign did Bob Dole say that teenage mothers are running this country into the ground? And how many times did the three major network news programs accompany Dole's statements with a backdrop of African-American teenage mothers?
Dole implied that this group of mothers make up the bulk of welfare recipients. The facts show that teen mothers make up less than 2 percent of the recipients of Aid for Dependent Children.
Politicians, time after time, attempt, and do succeed, at persuading the American public that the welfare majority's face is black rather than white.
Therefore, African-American teen mothers are frequently placed before the public via the media. The 1993 U.S. Bureau of Census shows in reality two-thirds of the teenagers lining up for welfare were white.
Though black teens are more likely to carry their pregnancies full term, white teenage mothers far outnumber any other ethnicity.
Minorities have a higher percentage relative to their size of the population because of various societal causes; however, in sheer numbers, whites far outweigh other segments of the American public.
If all recipients were to stand together, minorities would be far and few among the vast number of whites. In fact, whites have the greatest number represented in every category, from crime, to welfare, to high school dropouts, to college graduates, simply because they are the majority.
For some reason, the term "poor whites" rarely appears in print. And rarer still, do we hear it from the mouths of news anchors. Why are the white middle and upper classes afraid to admit that poor whites exist?
Would this counter the illusion that the majority of the poor have African-American characteristics rather than Euro-American looks?
Poverty-stricken whites, according to the census bureau, represent more than 50 percent of the ranks of the nation's 36 million poor people, while blacks register at less than one-third of the total.
To further clarify the distinctions between black and white welfare recipients, the 1993 Greenbook, printed by the federal government, details what benefits are received per state and what percentage of the 1992 poverty threshold amount AFDS and Food Stamps covered. The threshold amount is based on the level of need, therefore taking the cost of living into account.
The five states with the largest percentage of blacks have a couple of things in common. Mississippi has the largest amount of blacks with 35.4 percent; next is Louisiana, at 30.6 percent; followed by South Carolina, at 29.7 percent; Georgia, at 26.8 percent; and Alabama with 25.2 percent.
Welfare benefits in the above states, as a percentage of the 1992 Poverty Threshold, are not only the lowest in the continental United States but less than the threshold percentages received in Guam and the Virgin Islands.
Nine of the 50 states have populations that are less than 1 percent black. Welfare recipients in eight of those nine receive the nation's highest benefits by percent for the states with the largest black populations.
These numbers present a stark contrast to the distortions and outright lies about the face of welfare that politicians rave about.
The problem lies in the fact that most Americans readily believe any stereotype when applied to minorities, especially African-Americans.
Regardless of views held by the less informed average citizen, what implication does the easy acceptance of misinformation about minorities by the college-educated populace say about the state of the nation.
What the Republicans actually did was to use African-Americans and other minorities as scapegoats to take advantage of racist beliefs, which inadvertently will hurt a greater number of whites than minorities.
The situation would be quite laughable if not for the seriousness of the deed. It looks as if the many problems of poverty will follow the world's richest country into the year 2000, making the United States a continuing example of Simpson's Paradox.
Guest Columnist John Lindsay is a social work graduate student; his views do not necessarily represent that of the Kentucky Kernel.