Welfare Woes

After conservatives have spread so many misconceptions to the American public, it is hard to know what facts really show. I credit conservatives with making the current public view on welfare so well....wrong. The inescapable, underlying conservative theme, regarding government entitlement programs, is that most of those that receive welfare benefits are lazy, refuse to work, and they are poor because of it. Therefore, they do not deserve the benefits they receive. As you all know me, I was unwilling to take this argument as a face-valued, fact. However, I was, at the time, unable to provide factual data to support a counter argument. So, I did some research for myself today consulting FedStats, which is an online compilation of survey, polling, and census data brought to you by Big Brother itself. I found the following data in a matter of minutes. All of these numbers are considering the 16 years and older population. Of those who were unemployed in just the year 2009, 88.6% sought jobs. I think that immediately raises a reasonable question of the integrity of the statement "those receiving unemployment benefits are lazy" Another mainstream misconception is that those lazy recipients are mostly African American. However, the data shows that 94% of unemployed Blacks sought work, while 86.9% of Whites sought jobs. I would say that successfully busts the welfare minority myth.
Additionally, I stumbled upon an article from Wiretap Magazine, in which Nathan Tobin states, "The most ridiculous idea is that welfare recipients simply refuse to work for a living: they are lazy bums taking us all for a ride. Mike Males says: "Of course [welfare] recipients don't 'work.' Two-thirds of its beneficiaries are children... Two-thirds of the parents... are disabled. Thus at most, one-fifth of AFDC beneficiaries are 'able-bodied' non-workers." If you have time to check out all of Nathan's piece, I would highly recommend you take a look at it. Just please keep all of this in mind with current debates about the budget, and whether entitlement programs are necessary.

The True Story of Real Talk

I only think it’s fair to give credit where credit is due. With this being my tenth official post on this blog, it is safe to say, it’s past time for a small tribute about the title. Just to make things clear, this blog was not a first time project. It was something that I knew I wanted to do, but it was also like trying to find a door in a pitch black room, I totally lacked direction. I didn’t even have an objective to accomplish by writing. Ten posts later, I am not sure that I have direction, but I was given my objective. When I first started writing, I went exactly where I always go for my advice, my girlfriend. I could not think of a title that was anywhere close to acceptable, and I had been struggling for weeks about it. Within maybe five minutes, she said, “why don’t you call it Real Talk, True Story?” After letting that absorb for a few minutes I soon realized that she had captured everything I wanted this blog to be in a four letter phrase. She devolved this commonly used phrase from a hip-hop artist by the name of Clifford Harris, more popularly known as the rapper T.I. At first I thought that this won’t work because T.I. isn’t political at all, why does this seem so prefect? That is because T.I. also referred to as Tip, has a life story that he masterfully turns into music, that so accurately portrays what I wanted this blog to identify. Tip, much like me, has seen both sides of the coin. Raised in poverty, on the fierce streets in Atlanta, T.I. was influenced by drugs and gang violence at an early age. While I was not as close to the problems of big city neighborhoods, growing up I saw my share of people literally living in poverty, and not knowing any different. Inspired by the words of this rapper uses when he feels he needs to be heard, I use these words in the same way, because when the true story is hard to face, real talk is necessary.