by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Your Black World
While campaigning in Sioux City, Iowa, Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum thought that he would use black people as one of his stage props. Speaking to a mostly-white audience, Santorum said that he doesn’t want to "make black people's lives better by giving them somebody else's money."
What was most interesting about Santorum’s remark is that the person didn’t even ask him about black people. The question was about foreign influence on the U.S. economy, which led Santorum to discuss entitlements.
"It just keeps expanding - I was in Indianola a few months ago and I was talking to someone who works in the department of public welfare here, and she told me that the state of Iowa is going to get fined if they don't sign up more people under the Medicaid program," Santorum said. "They're just pushing harder and harder to get more and more of you dependent upon them so they can get your vote. That's what the bottom line is."
He then said: "I don't want to make black people's lives better by giving them somebody else's money; I want to give them the opportunity to go out and earn the money."
Santorum’s point was that by creating jobs, he could help people to better provide for their families. Not a bad point to make. But why did he decide to bring black people into the room when almost none of us were present at the forum?
The original question asked of Santorum was "how do we get off this crazy train? We've got so much foreign influence in this country now," adding "where do we go from here?"
Santorum should realize that in the state of Iowa, 84 percent of the people on food stamps are white and only 9 percent are black. So, perhaps it might have made more sense for him to challenge the overwhelming dependence of white Iowans on the welfare system.
What is Rick Santorum? It’s very simple: He’s a self-righteous white male born and raised in West Virginia during the 1950s and 60s. Does that make him a racist? I’m not sure. But I do know that nearly every African American in Berkeley County, West Virginia during the 1960s was likely to be treated as a second-class citizen.
So, while Santorum may have been able to rise above the racist roots that defined his upbringing, the truth is that apples typically don’t fall free from the original tree. Santorum’s stereotypical remarks about African Americans reflect the thinking of a white male who was brought into the world believing that he is better than the rest of us. He believes that the best thing he can do for black people is to help us overcome all the things that make us inferior.
The thinking that leads Rick Santorum to make ridiculous remarks like the one above is not necessarily built on racial discrimination. Rather, it’s built on white supremacy, which can be very different. Santorum’s racial perceptions are no different from the scores of whites who’ve traveled to African countries to civilize “the savages.”
The best lesson for Rick Santorum? Before you can help us or work with us, you first have to learn to respect us. Respect doesn’t mean telling us to think like you. It might also mean admitting that some of your thinking is flawed and incorrect. The problem for Rick, however, is that white supremacist, self-righteousness thinking precludes his ability to admit that he’s wrong. In fact, it’s the reason that Rick will never take a look at this article. After all, I’m just a black man with an opinion and everyone told him that what I think doesn’t matter.
There’s not much else to say beyond that.
Dr. Boyce Watkins is a Professor at Syracuse University and founder of the Your Black World Coalition. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.
10 comments:
So..you want black people to be kept on welfare? Nothing wrong with what the man said!
Black people are not the only people on welfare. So he should want all people to live on their own money. That's what many black people want any way but racism has forced many to survive by any means available which is sad.
It is truly sad the amount of denial that Black people are NOT the only people on welfare. #WakeUpFolks!
It is truly sad the amount of denial that Black people are NOT the only people on welfare. #WakeUpFolks!
An additional point worth noting is the Eurocentric push in movies and media tha skews the view of any other culture and people other than white as being helpless in achieving equal rights and priviledges. Movies and programs like The Help, The Blindside, Amistaad, Glory, Rosewood, Capital Records, Mississippi Burning, and The Ghost and the Darkness are an example of a continual portayal of white culture acting as the saving grace against oppression, racism or hostility. While these examples in particular are based on actual historical events, much of the interaction and drama promotes a stark sense of the superiority mentioned in the article. Regardless of the "based on actual events" disclaimer, the fiction endorsed in between the actual events is exactly the dramatic fluff that reinforces the very same ideology that Santorum spoke from.
In direct contrast to the savior image, the reality tv surge that pushes the image of people of color as hood, uneducated, individualistic, unreliable, immature, and superfluous in spending and sex, delivers a dramatically tainted view of most any people other than white as needing social, financial and spiritual rescuing.
As noted in the article, the lack of population and representation of a culture other than white allows for this level of messaging to flourish unaided by cultural perspective. As with the "world is flat" mindset, this leads to a "center of the universe" way of thinking of other peoples as the "lost puppy" in need of a home. Historically, when the Eurocentric hand isn't a factor in change, it becomes "radical" and "aggressive" and is demonized, admonished and often forgotten, if not surpressed, into a passing remark in history.
All in all, a sad recipe for ignorant thinking...
I think what we need to understand about his statement in political terms is that we are collectively being used as the scapegoat for the recession and to ignite the ire of White Americans that Blacks and entitlements are the same, and in effect draining "their" resources. I've heard whites argue that the CRIA (Community Reinvestment Act) is responsible for the recession because banks were forced to extend loans to black people. Not that banks were predatorily lending to blacks and then profiting like gluttons at a housing feast. Even the use of the term "entitlements" is telling. Were GI's who got the GI bill or whites who got land grants benefitting from entitlements? They're going to use us big time in the next year as the race draws to a close and I bet no one, not even in the mainstream media, will check them on it. Race is the unspoken force driving much of the nuttism on the right but they'll tell you its only economics.
The world knows if BLACK PEOPLE were the largest percentage of recipients of welfare, welfare would have long been abolished.
We the so called Black People are feeding on higher grades of meat ( understandings ) these days. You can slander our race, but that still won't hinder us from rising.
It shows this idiot is a real idiot; he could not answer the question, so he used Black People and welfare concerning foreign policy. This is really scary that this man is running for office and the people who are bamboozled in his stupid mentality.
It does not surprise me that Sanitarium would make a remark that portray's black as the lazy, welfare dependent AMERICAN citizen's especially after we built this continent without getting PAID. I often wonder who thought up this scandal??,STOLEN LABOR. It gave America (someone else's land)a huge jump start for free or should I say on the backs of Kings & Queens who were stolen from their motherland with the help of those brothers who too were greedy theives trying to build their own wealth. Neanderthal behavior. Point Who started welfare the Rich and the Greedy It continues . Who got the Bailouts the Theives on Wallstreet Who does time the little man without a job who gets away with it the Rich.
Santorum denies he used the word "black" in this case. But I've listened to recordings several times and hear the word clearly. Even Bill O'Reilly said he hears the word. But this isn't the only time Santorum has made such statements. Remember when (on Fox) Santorum praised the Obama's for being role models for marriage, saying "Black people could learn a thing or two about marriage [from the Obamas]?"
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