Glenda Westerfield: So, CNN Really Thinks that the Face of Welfare is Black?

by Glenda Westerfield, JD

I was sitting on my bed with my daughter yesterday, participating in a familiar bonding ritual.  We were painting each other’s nails and watching CNN.  The broadcaster, polished and hair sprayed to a plastic sheen, announced that a “staggering 46 million Americans receive food stamps” and that Brian Todd would introduce us to a man on the program.  As I watched in anticipation, I said aloud to no one in particular “It better not be a Black man.”

Brian Todd meandered along a dirty Washington DC street.  As the camera followed, Brian announced that 1 in 7 Americans received food stamps this year; and that Frederick Mack, an out of work cook living in transitional housing symbolized  the staggering rise of  Americans on the foods tamp program.  Frederick Mack is indeed Black, and I was absolutely livid when I saw him.

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