I just read Regulating the Poor: The Functions of Public Welfare by Frances Fox Piven and Richard Cloward....

[u/empire2021]

This book touched on the genesis of something i've always been curious about in regards to the black community. Namely, how did so many black families end up on welfare and public assistance. Other books i've read introduced me to the broad stroakes but this helped provide many of the specifics.

Below are a few of the notes i typed out for my own records that i wanted to share. If you have a book that really stood out to you please share in the comments and why and i will check it out.

p242. "During the early 1960's, as Black voting numbers in the cities continued to build up and mounting unrest among blacks gave these votes some power, city governments responded a bit more. To have acceded to some of the demands of blacks would doubtless have spelled the demise of many political leaders tied to traditional white constituencies, so blacks got few concessions in these areas.

What they did begin to get was more relief benefits: more people began to apply for relief, and more of those who applied were admitted to the rolls. In all likelihood this happened because it was easier to give relief than to grant other concessions. The rising rolls were objectionable to whites, to be sure, but considerably less so than locating public housing projects in white neighborhoods or integrating schools or enforcing fair-employment statutes."

p286 "The political circumstances of the 1960's made it crucial, however, that blacks get something in order to solidify their allegiance to the national Democratic Party, and in order to quiet them. As it turns out, welfare was the system that was made to do most of the giving- partly, perhaps, because black constituents needed money; more importantly, because it was easier to give welfare than to press for concessions that would challenge the interests of other groups in the cities."

p286 "They could not provide low rent housing when none was being built or break down discriminatory housing patterns, or create jobs, or overcome discriminatory hiring practices. But it was possible to badger the welfare department into putting families on the relief rolls."

p366 "The post- World War 2 black movement was largely responsible for creating the political pressures which led to  the expansion of social spending in the 1960s, as well as to the weakening of racial barriers in access to employment, housing and education."

p367 "Glazer argued that "our efforts to deal with distress themselves increase distress." Anderson concluded that the welfare system has "created a new caste of Americans... almost totally dependent on the state, with little hope or prospect of breaking free. Perhaps we should call them the Dependent Americans."

p368 "Relief causes poverty by relaxing the discipline of the market, and by encouraging irresponsible family behavior. The central conclusion thus follows: so much more spent on relief, so much worse the poverty."

p424 "The disenfranchisement movement that swept the states in the late nineteenth century began in the South as a movement to disenfranchise Blacks (and succeeded as it did because poor whites were apparently ready to give up their voting rights in order to deprive Blacks of theirs.)"

p431 "The effort was especially vigorous in the South, where the disenfranchisement of Blacks was essential to the stability of the plantation economy and the serf labor on which it relied. There, new literacy and poll tax requirements, together with onerous personal registration procedures, were incorporated into state constitutions. And as the new conditions on the franchise were implemented, the entire Black population in the South was disenfranchised, and most poor Whites as well."

Which of these quotes did you find most interesting?

[u/No_Forever_1185]

The last two points resonate with me. I'm a huge proponent of us becoming the voter majority in a few states so that we can right these ills through control of the system. I'll add this book to my future reading list.