[CamB]

Originally posted by HardDrive
Why is it insulting to black people?

...

Have you ever meet rich white kids who are a total waste? They value nothing, and spend their lives lusting after one material object after another. Strangely, you find the same true of poor people (yes, sometimes black) on welfare.

Yeah, I know plenty of rich white kids like that. At least after you insult them for them their own worst enemy they are still not disadvantaged. In particular I think it is insulting because people say things like...

They don't value money, don't understand money, and are satisfied with being treated like children as long as the money keeps flowing.

Which is, based on stuff I've read here in New Zealand, completely untrue. Many people on welfare tend to be extremely good at budgeting, precisely because they have no money and no credit. There is a small minority which piss away their welfare money and abuse the system, but it is no more than that - a small minority. Telling a group in poverty they are responsible for their own plight without (genuinely) offering the tools to assist them out of it is insulting. At best, I think what you say is partly true, and not very helpful.

Unfortunately, I know that you (and others) will read what I just read an violently disagree on a number of things. I don't know that there is much future in arguing it - it is clearly ideological differences (and I don't have the time to try and muster a well-researched defence).

Mybe I'll try another tack. The problem isn't so much the reference to poor people being their own worst enemy (which has some truth to it). It is the racial distinction within poor people which pisses me off. Are black people their own worst enemy? Or is it poor people? Or only poor black people?

Can you see my point?

I firmly believe that many government programs are some of the greatest tools of racist oppression the world have ever invented, and Democrats frequently support these policys.

Those policies are not designed as a tool of racist oppression (despite the BS spouted by some). It is definitely insulting to suggest it.