The latest painful wrinkle in the Trayvon Martin case offers a chance to talk about one of the most dismaying myths shaping the political dialogue on the right:\u00a0 The notion that poor and unemployed Americans are lazy grifters.<\/p>\n
This week, a Florida fire captain tangled himself up in the scandal surrounding the slaying of the 17-year-old unarmed Martin, by posting an argument on his Facebook page disputing the notion that the teenager was killed because of “racist profiling.”<\/p>\n
Instead, this government employee argued that Martin’s parents were to blame.\u00a0 He claimed that urban kids have been let down by “their failed, sh%$tbag, ignorant, pathetic, welfare dependent excuses for parents.”<\/p>\n
The facts in this case are starkly at odds with that claim.<\/p>\n
Trayvon Martin’s mother — yes, she’s a single mom — also works as a government employee at the Miami-Dade Housing Authority and has been working there for more than two decades<\/a>.<\/p>\n Her son had some trouble in school, including suspensions, but had no criminal record, and was unarmed when he was killed.<\/p>\n The reason that this one reality-bending rant warrants attention is that it echoes a larger claim simmering among conservatives — including some who post regularly here on the In Box.<\/p>\n The argument goes that poor people, unemployed people and people of color are lazy and that they are largely to blame for America’s economic malaise.\u00a0 If it weren’t for the malingerers and mooches, we’d be fine, or at least in far better shape.<\/p>\n The notion of a large, welfare-dependent underclass has been a theme on the right for decades, typified by the argument that “welfare queens” and illegal immigrants are illegally gaming the system.<\/p>\n Again, the problem with these arguments is that the facts — and these are facts, not opinions — simply don’t bear them out.<\/p>\n Consider again the claims of that Florida firefighter.\u00a0 By his construction, “urban” Americans who are “welfare dependent” are ignorant and pathetic.<\/p>\n But the number of unemployed blacks in the US nearly doubled during the recession, surging from roughly 8% to 16.7%.<\/p>\n Does that mean that the number of lazy black people doubled in a couple of years?\u00a0 Did the near collapse of the US economy coincide with a decision by millions of blacks to quit work and put their feet up and start drawing welfare checks?<\/p>\n Of course not.<\/p>\n What happened is that this recession sideswiped the black community, driving millions into poverty.\u00a0\u00a0 Desperate?\u00a0 Yes.\u00a0 Pathetic?\u00a0 No way.<\/p>\n Remember, these aren’t the people who tanked the banks or wrecked the housing market.\u00a0 These aren’t the people who handed out the pink slips.<\/p>\n And it should come as no surprise that as soon as some jobs became available again, blacks eagerly went back to work.\u00a0 (The unemployment rate for African Americans is now at 14.1%.)<\/p>\n But the conservative argument about America’s poor isn’t just limited to blacks.<\/p>\n Paul Ryan, chief architect of the Republican Party’s spending plan, has argued that the social safety net in the US is at risk of becoming “a hammock which lulls able-bodied people into lives of complacency and dependency.”<\/p>\n Get it?\u00a0 America’s poor are staying at Club Med, coasting in comfort on your tax dollars.<\/p>\n Through the recession, the GOP argued repeatedly that even basic unemployment benefits might be an incentive to workers to stay on the dole and not go back to work.<\/p>\n Reflecting that philosophy, Republicans rolled out a new plan this week to cut social programs sharply.\u00a0 This from Politico<\/a>:<\/p>\n From food stamps to child tax credits and Social Service block grants, House Republicans began rolling out a new wave of domestic budget cuts Monday but less for debt reduction \u2014 and more to sustain future Pentagon spending without relying on new taxes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n But the reality in modern America is that most of our poor are in families where the parents are, in fact, working — sometimes two or three jobs.<\/p>\n Indeed, many of our social welfare programs — from health care to food stamps — go to families that are working as hard as they can.\u00a0 They’re just not earning enough to make ends meet, or to pay for basics like regular doctor visits.<\/p>\n