Despite the substantial economic and political strides that
African-Americans have made in this century, welfare remains an
issue that sharply divides Americans by race. "Shifting the Color
Line" explores the historical and political roots of enduring
racial conflict in American welfare policy, beginning with the New
Deal.
Through Social Security and other social insurance programs,
white workers were successfully integrated into a strong national
welfare state. At the same time, African-Americans--then as now
disproportionately poor--were relegated to the margins of the
welfare state, through decentralized, often racist, public
assistance programs.
Over the next generation, these institutional differences had
fateful consequences for African-Americans and their integration
into American politics. Owing to its strong national structure,
Social Security quickly became the closest thing we have to a
universal, color-blind social program. On the other hand, public
assistance--especially Aid to Families with Dependent Children
(AFDC)--continued to treat African-Americans badly, while remaining
politically weak and institutionally decentralized.
Racial distinctions were thus built into the very structure of
the American welfare state. By keeping poor blacks at arm's length
while embracing white workers, national welfare policy helped to
construct the contemporary political divisions--middle-class versus
poor, suburb versus city, and white versus black--that define the
urban underclass.
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