"No, I don’t see that." Newt Gingrich when asked if he thinks it was offensive for him to say that black people demand food stamps
ThinkProgress notes:
The overwhelming majority of African-Americans are not on food stamps. Indeed, the majority of people who receive food stamps are white. Most recipients are also either children or seniors who are of retirement age. In 2010, working women represented only 28 percent of recipients, and working-age men represented only 17 percent.
And one of the prevailing reasons why a portion of the African American population remains impoverished, and why much of the African American population experiences racial discrimination, is due directly to white oppression and subjugation for the better part of the lifespan of this nation. For more than a century following a war over the issue of slavery, whites demonized blacks and suppressed their advancement through campaigns of fear that transcended all strata of our culture from entertainment to politics.
Yes, Mr. Gingrich, food stamps are a critical means of support. And yes, some people abuse the system -- just as corporations, the super-rich and, indeed, politicians abuse the system every damn day. But food stamps are necessary if only to allow less fortunate Americans, white and black, to buy food while they're pulling themselves out of the economic hole created by you, Mr. Gingrich, and your Reaganomics screw-pals, not to mention the white supremacist bastards who locked American society into a state of apartheid for more than two centuries.
The same strategy that was used in anti-black propaganda like Birth of a Nation and other forms of exploitation intended to stir up support for Jim Crow laws and to unite southern and northern whites through mutual fear, resentment and hatred during the post-Reconstruction years is being employed -- right now -- by Newt Gingrich and the Republican Party. It's called the Southern Strategy. For this, the press and most decent Americans should reject this monochromatic gaggle of bigots from our national stage and reject them from enjoying any kind of serious regard in the press and elsewhere.