{"product_id":"the-color-of-welfare-how-racism-undermined-the-war-on-poverty-9780195079197","title":"The Color of Welfare: How Racism Undermined the War on Poverty","description":"\u003cp\u003eThirty years after Lyndon Johnson declared a War on Poverty  the United States still lags behind most Western democracies in national welfare systems  lacking such basic programs as national health insurance and child care support. Some critics have explained the failure of social programs by citing our tradition of individual freedom and libertarian values  while others point to weaknesses within the working class. In The Color of Welfare  Jill Quadagno takes exception to these claims  placing race at the center of the \"American Dilemma \" as Swedish economist Gunnar Myrdal did half a century ago. The \"American creed\" of liberty  justice  and equality clashed with a history of active racial discrimination  says Quadagno. It is racism that has undermined the War on Poverty  and America must come to terms with this history if there is to be any hope of addressing welfare reform today. From Reconstruction to Lyndon Johnson and beyond  Quadagno reveals how American social policy has continually foundered on issues of race. Drawing on extensive primary research  Quadagno shows  for instance  how Roosevelt  in need of support from southern congressmen  excluded African Americans from the core programs of the Social Security Act. Turning to Lyndon Johnsons \"unconditional war on poverty \" she contends that though anti-poverty programs for job training  community action  health care  housing  and education have accomplished much  they have not been fully realized because they became inextricably intertwined with the civil rights movement of the 1960s  which triggered a white backlash. Job training programs  for instance  became affirmative action programs  programs to improve housing became programs to integrate housing  programs that began as community action to upgrade the quality of life in the cities were taken over by local civil rights groups. This shift of emphasis eventually alienated white  working-class Americans  who had some of the same needs--for health care  subsidized housing  and job training opportunities--but who got very little from these programs. At the same time  affirmative action clashed openly with organized labor  and equal housing raised protests from the white suburban middle-class  who didnt want their neighborhoods integrated. Quadagno shows that Nixon  who initially supported many of Johnsons programs  eventually caught on that the white middle class was disenchanted. He realized that his grand plan for welfare reform  the Family Assistance Plan  threatened to undermine wages in the South and alienate the Republican partys new constituency--white  southern Democrats--and therefore dropped it. In the 1960s  the United States embarked on a journey to resolve the \"American dilemma.\" Yet instead of finally instituting full democratic rights for all its citizens  the policies enacted in that turbulent decade failed dismally. The Color of Welfare reveals the root cause of this failure--the inability to address racial inequality.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45651749240885,"sku":"ByrdShop_0195079191","price":33.69,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780195079197.jpg?v=1781839281","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-color-of-welfare-how-racism-undermined-the-war-on-poverty-9780195079197","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}