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White Americans' fear of losing their socioeconomic standing in the face of demographic change may be driving opposition to welfare programs, even though whites are major beneficiaries of government poverty assistance, according to new research from the University of California, Berkeley, and Stanford University.
While social scientists have long posited that racial resentment fuels opposition to such anti-poverty programs as food stamps, Medicaid and Temporary Aid to Needy Families, this is the first study to show the correlation experimentally, demonstrating a causal relationship between attitudes to welfare and threatened racial status.
"With policymakers proposing cuts to the social safety net, it's important to understand the dynamics that drive the welfare backlash," said study lead author Rachel Wetts, a Ph.D. student in sociology at UC Berkeley. "This research suggests that when whites fear their status is on the decline, they increase opposition to programs intended to benefit poorer members of all racial groups."
The findings, to be published May 30 in the journal Social Forces, highlight a welfare backlash that swelled around the 2008 Great Recession and election of Barack Obama.
Notably, the study found anti-welfare sentiment to be selective insofar as threats to whites' standing led whites to oppose government assistance programs they believed largely benefit minorities, while not affecting their views of programs they thought were more likely to advantage whites.
"Our findings suggest that these threats lead whites to oppose programs they perceive as primarily benefiting racial minorities," said study senior author Robb Willer, a professor of sociology and social psychology at Stanford University.
[...] "Overall, these results suggest whites' perceptions of rising minority power and influence lead them to oppose welfare programs," Wetts said.
(Score: 3, Troll) by requerdanos on Saturday June 02 2018, @02:24PM (6 children)
Okay, first. "White Americans' fear of losing their socioeconomic standing". Bzzt.
I could see "Americans of high socioeconomic standing" (even if they demographically are mostly white) losing it, but "white" people have no such fear. That's not a quality of whiteness. This can be disproven by counterexample: There exist "whites" esteemed to have standing who don't fear losing it, and there are "whites" without any special socioeconomic standing to begin with, thus nothing to fear. Thus, such a fear is not a quality of "whiteness" and you can't make a meaningful sentence assuming that it is.
"Whites are major beneficiaries of government poverty assistance." Bzzt.
Being a poverty assistance beneficiary isn't a quality of being "white". Again, disproven by counterexample: Many "whities" do not receive government poverty assistance. Thus, this is not a characteristic of "whiteness" and you can't make a meaningful sentence assuming that it is.
Research predicated on two faulty and false assumptions such as these isn't likely to bear any reality fruit, only fantasy fruit.
It might be more likely that there is a group of people afraid of losing their status, and that group has a bunch of white people in it, and a separate group with no status to lose that gets poverty assistance also having a different bunch of white people in it. But to speak of the two groups being the same group because both contain white people is just stupid.
Because of the "duh, you know what I mean" fallacy of intentionally conflating separate things and then answering objections with this one with "duh, you know what I mean" (hence the name), many people follow such nonsense like gospel. Doesn't make it valid.
(Score: 2) by Whoever on Saturday June 02 2018, @04:36PM (2 children)
Ah, typical SoyentNews spewage.
Take a study, challenge it the facts in it on the basis of some assertions that have no supporting facts and then claim the study is flawed.
SoylentNews poster thinks his ignorance trumps actual facts.
(Score: 1, Redundant) by requerdanos on Saturday June 02 2018, @04:45PM
See?
(Score: 2) by Bot on Sunday June 03 2018, @06:18AM
This is funny because it's basically the same discussion, with sides reversed, going on on other racially themed studies, which link specific races to increased propensity to commit crimes. But for those numbers your side digs deeper, while here numbers speaks for themselves (there are no numbers BTW), hypocrites much?
What are the facts here?
Whites fear declining status? Oh, but that is a good idea, because they are losing it to a generation of people brainwashed with the racist idea of white privilege. And the decline is real (is welfare working? in the clinton era, yep, but now?).
But what gave them their status? Their hard work? the hard work of the people "they" submitted? why letting them free? why work at all if you are privileged? The study do not care, of course. Because the implicit assumption is "evil white holds onto its unfair privilege". Ever noticed that propaganda is done with implicit assumptions, which go unchallenged as the debate will rage about the explicit ones?
Account abandoned.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by krishnoid on Saturday June 02 2018, @06:07PM (1 child)
I understand your confusion. It should read 'White Academic San Francisco Bay Areans', considering the broad diversity of sources producing this research. Seriously, they couldn't come up with something from any other 25-mile radius in the country?
(Score: 3, Funny) by realDonaldTrump on Sunday June 03 2018, @04:52AM
Many people call them Bay Aryans. Because they're very politically correct. They look like Aryans to me. And they look like Aryans to Aryans.
(Score: 1, Troll) by realDonaldTrump on Saturday June 02 2018, @06:58PM
A well-educated black has a tremendous advantage over a well-educated white in terms of the job market. I think sometimes a black may think they don’t have an advantage or this and that. I’ve said on one occasion, even about myself, if I were starting off today, I would love to be a well-educated black, because I believe they do have an actual advantage. I call it black privilege.