Question

What is the reality of the "welfare queen" and how has this stereotype impacted public policy and consequentially families?

Answer 1

In 1935 the US federal government had started the cash welfare scheme Aid to families with dependent children (AFDC) primarily it was for the white mothers to support their children. The aid included a disproportionate number of black women also. Then it was given to the needy children who were deprived of parental support or care due to various reasons. It was the states to decide the needs of the families receiving the aid. It was the state who had to provide the aid and in return, they were getting 1/3 reimbursement from the federal government.

In the 1960s the African American women as a part of civil rights, a movement founded the National Welfare Rights Organization and stared defending the recipients of welfare scheme they filed numerous cases challenging the administration of AFDC for eliminating the most degrading eligibility provisions. From the rules and its eligibility, it turned out to be racial in nature because the state had the authority to delete the name form the receipts list on various ground one of the reasons were cohabiting of women with another man. Under the AFDC scheme, the women from color were verified and ridiculed.

That had resulted in debarring 16000 children from the colored family from the scheme. There were many changes done to this scheme. The recipients were supposed to get the amount as per the need determined by the states but the recipients were not receiving the established amount.

The black recipients were usually targeted and ridiculed. But there were many cases where the recipient had cheated on the government, and the Welfare Queen has come up in response to the fraud cases.

The word Welfare Queen was coined either by George Bliss of the Chicago Tribune or by Jet magazine in 1974 when a black lady Linda Taylor was arrested for doing multiple frauds in the welfare scheme. Ronald Reagan used this term in his presidential election and labeled that black women are lazy to work.

Linda Taylor's education and employment were limited due to racism. She was found to be involved in criminal activities, she was arrested but her male counterparts were never arrested. She did the fraud to get the government checks under the welfare scheme by showing her hardship in raising the children she did not have. She earned sympathies from the overworked bureaucrats and she used aliases to get those checks and even defrauded the insurance companies. She pretended as if she was mentally sick and many occasion she pretended as though she does not know her name.

The newspaper gave her the name Welfare Queen and ran the story that if there is one welfare queen there might be many who are free and enjoying the welfare scheme. After that, this term was derogatorily used for the black women who were getting cash payments from the welfare schemes.

She had become the reason for many black women to get targeted by the officials and by Reagan describing her lady who wears a fur coat and drives Cadillac while receiving government check was a black spot on white officials. Her appearance gave her the name welfare Queen.

The welfare scheme was subsequently abolished in 1996.

The Welfare Queen impacted on many public policies as it was still taken that the blacks do not want to work, they depend on the government funds, the American society is stereotype biased and it is always thought the blacks will cheat and take the advantage of the policies more than the whites. Public opinion was formed that African American women violate the rules and try to get the maximum benefits because they do not want to work. Various features appeared that although blacks constitute 23% of the total population they are 75% in receiving the funds from the welfare scheme. Thus black women were targeted and ridiculed while making the policies. To receive the funds from the welfare consequentially families comes into existence like Linda Taylor's family.