The Segregated Origins of Social Security
eBook - ePub

The Segregated Origins of Social Security

African Americans and the Welfare State

  1. 272 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

The Segregated Origins of Social Security

African Americans and the Welfare State

About this book

The relationship between welfare and racial inequality has long been understood as a fight between liberal and conservative forces. In The Segregated Origins of Social Security, Mary Poole challenges that basic assumption. Meticulously reconstructing the behind-the-scenes politicking that gave birth to the 1935 Social Security Act, Poole demonstrates that segregation was built into the very foundation of the welfare state because white policy makers — both liberal and conservative — shared an interest in preserving white race privilege.

Although northern white liberals were theoretically sympathetic to the plight of African Americans, Poole says, their primary aim was to save the American economy by salvaging the pride of America’s “essential” white male industrial workers. The liberal framers of the Social Security Act elevated the status of Unemployment Insurance and Social Security — and the white workers they were designed to serve — by differentiating them from welfare programs, which served black workers.

Revising the standard story of the racialized politics of Roosevelt’s New Deal, Poole’s arguments also reshape our understanding of the role of public policy in race relations in the twentieth century, laying bare the assumptions that must be challenged if we hope to put an end to racial inequality in the twenty-first.

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Yes, you can access The Segregated Origins of Social Security by Mary Poole in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in History & North American History. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover Page
  2. The Segregated Origins of Social Security
  3. The Segregated Origins of Social Security African Americans and the Welfare State
  4. Copyright Page
  5. Dedication
  6. Contents
  7. Acknowledgments
  8. Introduction
  9. one So Now Mr. President, We Are Looking for Something
  10. two The Not-So-Solid South
  11. three Colorblind Public Policy
  12. four Shaky Ground
  13. five Gender and the White United Front
  14. conclusion
  15. Notes
  16. Bibliography
  17. Index