The book demonstrates convincingly how the US state of social welfare was constructed towards a bias on the basis of disadvantaging the blacks while their white counterparts were on the benefiting end. The concept of race is well built in the story of welfare state of America and cannot not at any level be neglected since it has existed since ancient times and still reflects in the modern social policies. By taking note of the current debate on social policies, the author advances his argument that race is still a determining force in implementation and formulation of the United States’ social policy. Race as a constraint offers new challenging mechanism in understanding how the American policy on social welfare has evolved amid the influence of racial politics.
Evolution of the American state of social welfare from new deal, sailing through to the administration of Clinton shows the way in which social policy developments have enhanced the advantages attached to whites by a series of mechanisms. The nature of politics portrays how race is presently being used as a tool by political groups and candidates to hold back the state of social welfare in America (Williams, 2004).
Social welfare evolved from private and public that were residual in nature. In ancient times, residual services were mainly provided under discriminatory segregation in communities. For instance black slaves were excluded from care under clauses in the poor laws.
The rate at which the whites are leaving welfare rolls is higher than that of the blacks in the United States (Williams, 2004). For instance in New York ,whites getting welfare benefits declined in number by 57% during the period 1995-1998 while rate of decline of blacks welfare beneficiaries was 30%. This may be partly explained by the relatively higher average education levels among white’s beneficiaries, larger concentration regarding the color of recipients in inner cities that have poorer jobs. In addition racial discrimination in housing and employment further explains the disparities in social justice.
Black women are given jobs earning wages that can be best described as poverty-level wages (Blau & others, 2004). Such jobs make them worse off than they initially were while they were beneficiaries of welfare package. Lack of benefits; make such women struggle with complicated logistical issues of caring for their families. Some women are withdrawn from the welfare benefits and they never find any job in the labor force to sustain them.
In my opinion the concept of racism is a serious constraint to provision of social justice. The policies are constructed based on a set of personal and social values that reveal the preferences of decision makers. The choices in social welfare to a large extent are determined by the dominant values, customs, traditions, ideologies and the political elite that are constituent of powerful groups.
Social welfare policy has commonly been determined by values emphasizing work, existence of market and self-sufficiency. The policy makers wanted to assist the disadvantaged people to have greater independency and sadly this agenda was not largely advocated for and as a result government support on social programs was severely reduced.
In conclusion, a worthwhile social policy should not make anyone worse off in an attempt to at least make another better off. Policy should be viewed as a zero sum game, in which some people are advantaged at the expense of others.
References
Day, P. J. (1989). A new history of social welfare. Englewood Cliffs, N.J: Prentice Hall.
Williams, M. E. (2004). Racism. San Diego: Greenhaven Press.
Blau, J., & Abramovitz, M. (2004). The dynamics of social welfare policy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
