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| Not another sob story. |
"With the electricity shut off, Nariah, 3, ate a fruit cup for dinner last week in Kansas City, Mo. Her mother, Nicole, 22, may soon have to pass a drug test to maintain state aid to her family."Now, I'm not against welfare, but the damning picture above does far more to damage race relations than it helps. As for the media meta-analysis of the picture supposedly it's purpose is to stoke liberal sympathy, usually the rich, white kind, for these poor, helpless black people. Liberal whites are encouraged to become indignant and oppose the drug testing law that supposedly gets in the way of the mother of this child getting her welfare check.
Why this narrative is wrong:
1) We should be giving drug tests to people on welfare because otherwise there is a chance people on welfare will use their welfare money to buy drugs. Now of course some people will find ways to cheat the drug test, but at least instituting a drug test will catch most of the offenders.
As for this child's mother and people in a similar position, I think the law is perfectly fair. If she hasn't been using drugs, she will get her money and will be able to provide for her daughter. But if she is using drugs that points to a greater problem - the mother is willfully keeping the family in poverty by feeding her drug problem and neglecting the needs of her child. In that case, the mother should check herself into a rehab program and start getting herself on track. Accepting welfare at this point would pose too great a temptation to spend taxpayers' money on drugs.
"Is this one of those movies where the rich, benevolent white family teaches the black kid stuff like how to use a fork?"
—Internet commenter about The Blind Side
2) I don't appreciate these pictures snapped for pity. Liberals use them to claim conservatives "have no heart" but really such pictures are just as racist as depictions of blacks as stupid or as savages. Such media perpetually links black people with poverty and welfare in not only white people's minds but also in black people's minds. Black people see such pictures and internalize the view that they are eternally helpless and can never pull themselves up by their bootstraps. White people see these pictures and subconsciously look down on black people even as they pity them. This creates a vicious cycle of self-fulfilled prophecies for both white and black people.
In the end, perhaps this mother will get her welfare, but if that's all this article hopes to do, it does more harm than good. This article does nothing to change stereotypes and perceptions about race or to improve race relations. The dominant dialectics are still in place. The former picture taken to shock is still demeaning and maybe even racist. I mean imagine if a more conservative media source plastered the same photo all over its front page?
The liberals are liberal but obviously not liberal enough. Liberals complain that conservatives aren't trying hard enough to deconstruct the "Master's House" but they don't seem to be in any rush to do so themselves. Perhaps, one could argue that liberals have done more to deconstruct the "Master House" than conservatives, but Lord knows liberals still benefit from the establishment and enjoy the privileges of the system as much the conservatives or anyone else. This is hypocrisy.
The self-righteousness liberals' display for supposedly having the moral high ground is flawed and faulty, and worse insincere. It's an attitude that betrays an empathy only skin deep. It's an attitude that forms the basis for white liberals displaying a false sense of kinship with minorities.
Liberals can summon aid and offer pity, as long as blacks are still at the bottom and always in need. There's no plan to bring blacks out of systematic poverty or else who would be left to pity (look down on) and rescue? This article and movies like "The Blind Side" and "The Help" only testify to a new, nice face on the modern White Man's Burden.
(This is not to say all (white) liberals are like this. There are obvious quite a few that are genuine and authentic in their indignation at the oppression of black people. However, I caution against believing all liberals are automatically anti-establishment or are hoping to drastically change the system i.e. how people think. I think many people come into the liberal movement thinking liberals are supposedly so much less bigoted than conservatives, when the "change" a some liberals are seeking merely topical and shallow).
I maintain that in the end, only black people can really help black people i.e. black people must help themselves by changing their own mindsets.. It only takes a change in attitude. They must rid stereotypes of their power.They must refuse the degrading pittance of others. They must work hard and fix their problems just like everyone else. They must no longer wallow in self-pity and believe they are handicapped. Black people must realize no one else is going to do this for them, not liberals, not whites, not anyone. It takes a change of mind, a change of heart. But this change must come from within, not without.
This is the American spirit of self-reliance and when blacks realize this they will finally be free - of the influence of such photos at least. Only then then will the dominant paradigm be broken. Only then will America begin to write a new narrative of race relations. Articles like this one do not help in the slightest.
- Ryu
Update: The D falls victim to the usual sympathizing, "it's everybody's problem" type of liberalism:
TheDartmouth.com: Batchelor: Hugs Not Drug(test)s
I mean, what? Hugs? I'm not going to even pretend a solution drug use among welfare recipients was addressed here.
A drug test is the best thing we've got. It's not so much about saving money as it is about integrity. Plus suggesting a drug test for a job or welfare money is simple procedure, not racist. Liberals like to assume everything is racist, until they are making the racist implications themselves.
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