The ugliness of race-based welfare
White families have been excluded from a new income-support scheme in Oakland, California.
Want to read spiked ad-free? Become a spiked supporter.
Oakland, California is launching a new income-support scheme – but payments will only be made to non-white families.
The new programme will provide 600 ethnic-minority families with monthly payments of $500 for at least 18 months. To qualify, families must earn an amount equal to or less than the local average (around $59,000 for a three-person family). And they will have to self-identify as black, indigenous or people of colour.
The scheme is intended to help build ‘momentum for strategies to eliminate racial disparities in economic stability, mobility, and assets’, according to the city government’s website.
This is regressive, divisive and cruel. Surely someone’s race should be irrelevant to whether or not they can get income support? Why should a non-white family earning $59,000 get help ahead of any white family earning less?
Depressingly, Oakland is not alone in enacting race-based welfare measures. The neighbouring county of Marin is expected to start a similar scheme this week, while San Francisco started paying pregnant black and Pacific Islander women $1,000 per month in September.
When planning his Covid recovery package, Joe Biden even flirted with the idea, saying ‘Our priority will be black, Latino, Asian and Native American-owned small businesses, women-owned businesses’.
Anyone who believes in cross-racial solidarity should reject this neo-racist identity politics. We should support the working class as a whole, not just favoured identity groups.
Picture by: Getty.
Help us hit our 1% target
spiked is funded by you. It’s your generosity that keeps us going and growing.
Only 0.1% of our regular readers currently donate to spiked. If you are one of the 99.9% who appreciates what we do, but hasn’t given just yet, please consider making a donation today.
If just 1% of our loyal readers donated regularly, it would be transformative for us, allowing us to vastly expand our team and coverage.
Plus, if you donate £5 a month or £50 a year, you can join and enjoy:
–Ad-free reading
–Exclusive bonus content
–Regular events
–Access to our comments section
The most impactful way to support spiked’s journalism is by registering as a supporter and making a monthly contribution. Thank you.
Comments
Want to join the conversation?
Only spiked supporters and patrons, who donate regularly to us, can comment on our articles.