Oct. 18, 2016
Rachel Black and Aleta Sprague spoke on NHPR's Word of Mouth about the myth of the 'Welfare Queen':
In 1976 presidential candidate Ronald Reagan used "welfare queen" when describing a serial criminal who bilked the government for tens of thousands of dollars in aid—what was true then and still true today: the typical welfare recipient is rural and white. But it stuck as code for urban, black, and working the system. Today, how the myth of the "welfare queen" gets in the way of helping real families.