The entwining of race and welfare provisions has a long and troubled history in the U.S., said Schram, and while much is new in today’s welfare politics, the problem of the color line persists. Recent welfare reform measures, first passed by Congress in 1996 and now being considered in reauthorization bills, are still mired in race questions, he said. Some of these topics are included in chapters of a new book, Race and the Politics of Welfare Reform. Schram is one of the book’s editors, along with Joe Soss, an associate professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Richard C. Fording, an associate professor of political science at the University of Kentucky.

Schram participated in the June 6 press conference in Washington to call attention to biases in welfare policies. U.S. Senator Russell Feingold (D-WI) has introduced S.770 to ensure racial fairness in welfare reform.

“Race is relevant to today’s welfare politics for many reasons,” said Schram. “ Race has played a key historical role in shaping the institutions of our contemporary welfare system and it shapes public perceptions of welfare recipients as well as public preferences for welfare policy.”

One example, said Schram, is research showing that the discussion of welfare policy today is encoded with racial connotations.

“The idea that nonwhites are less deserving of social assistance is often cloaked in euphemistic language about personal responsibility, dependency, urban problems or family values,” said Schram. “Policymakers have found subtle ways to invoke race and demonize the needy as irresponsible freeloaders who are individually responsible for their own poverty.”

The only way to take race out of welfare politics, said Schram, is to begin correcting the myths, stereotypes and falsehoods about welfare reform. One way to do that, he said, is to begin challenging the mass media, which have played a critical role in casting welfare as a “black” program, said Schram.

“But it is not enough to simply publicize accurate facts about welfare and poverty, we need to challenge more fundamental questions such as the underlying meanings of race in American society and the ways these meanings lead people to see poor African Americans as an undeserving group,” said Schram. “As the nonwhite proportion of welfare recipients continues to grow, it is important to talk about the racial issues that lead so many Americans to dismiss welfare as a program for undeserving people.”