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eridani

(51,907 posts) Thu Jul 9, 2015, 01:31 AM Jul 2015

Bipartisan Poverty Shaming: The Moynihan Report at 50

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/07/08/bipartisan-poverty-shaming-moynihan-report-50

Although he later became famous as a liberal Democratic senator from New York, one of Moynihan’s most enduring contributions has been this vicious meme about the pathology of female headed households. It was an image that he explicitly racialized and connected to welfare “dependency,” along with crime and disorder. His 1965 report instantly became the favorite authority for conservative explanations of urban problems, and poverty in general.

Its influence endures today. Recent disturbances in Baltimore brought forth a slew of commentators offering similar reasoning; nearly all cited Moynihan. In the past few months, there have been numerous panels, commentaries, and speeches praising Moynihan and extolling the prescience of his report. I offer a dissenting view, based on research for a book I just published.

When first released, the Moynihan Report was highly controversial and thoroughly scrutinized. Political objections to the message were conflated with objective criticism of the quality of his work, leading to a lasting myth that poor Pat was the victim of a smear campaign.

But the critics were able to show that Moynihan’s research and scholarship were seriously wanting. Neither his skills as an analyst nor the data he relied on were sufficient to carry the argument he tried to make. Far from being prophetic, subsequent trends have shown that decisions to marry are mainly driven by employment opportunities and income level, regardless of ethnicity. Moynihan’s emphasis on the “Negro” family, without due attention to class differences, distracted from the core problem of employer discrimination and larger systemic factors that have caused and reinforced poverty, especially among African Americans.

In spite of its many flaws, the report has had far-reaching influence on popular narratives about race and poverty, and on the policies and programs put forth to solve related problems. We must ask ourselves: Why did that happen and why is it important?

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Bipartisan Poverty Shaming: The Moynihan Report at 50 (Original Post) eridani Jul 2015 OP

The unspoken pressure to marry daredtowork Jul 2015 #1

daredtowork

(3,732 posts)

1. The unspoken pressure to marry

Reply to eridani (Original post)

Thu Jul 9, 2015, 02:15 AM

Jul 2015

The unspoken pressure for single women to get married that underlies the poverty system makes me so angry.

This is the chief reason that there is no safety net for single individuals - which hurts single men just as much as single women. And it hurts white men and women as much as men and women of color, despite all the politician dog whistles. The idea is if there was cash welfare and/or a realistic housing subsidy, then people would become "dependent" on the State. More importantly, women wouldn't have to become "dependent" on men! When single (white) men discover there is no welfare, they go bat-nuts crazy resenting A) women because they have the option to get married or become concubines, and B) all black people since they are convinced black people have access to some "secret welfare" they don't know about. After all, politicians are always screeching about "welfare" - somebody must be living high off the hog off of it!

Not only is the "cash" portion of welfare unliveable and purposely rendered irregular (In Oakland it's 3 months out of a year if you're not disabled - try stabilizing your life in that kind of situation!), but if you try to do casual labor to earn some supplemental cash, the consequences and rules will screw you up (click my sig for an example). The situation presented by welfare will automatically drive people into homelessness, so if you aren't homeless, you must be up to something. For women, that something is presumed to be a sugar-daddy. Of course a social worker would never come out and directly say that to you, but what else is there? The State is not letting you "depend" on it. You cannot get a job in a timely manner to pay the rent. You need to avoid homelessness. You are supposed to do everything you can do to avoid taking welfare and/or panhandling and/or resulting to crime. There is only one thing left: a woman must sell her body to whatever man will take her.

I hate the implied patriarchy of this system.

I would much rather "depend" on the State, thank you very much!

I would much rather have an opportunity for education, support for universal employment, and a strong safety net where employment is not possible. I would much rather have guarantees of a woman's autonomy and right to choose to say no to EVERY man if she prefers her individual lifestyle.

Because of the persistent economic sabotage of black families, at least black women had built up strong multi-generational ties. White women, on statistical average, don't have nearly their strength of character or "personal responsibility" when faced with male irresponsibility.

To hell with Moynihan. Time to reverse "Welfare Reform as We Know It" and allow for some "dependency on the State" in the name of freedom from dependency on particular men who may be total assholes.

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